How Religion Divides “Us” – And Unites. Findings of a Representative Survey on the Social Role of Religious And Social Identities in Germany And Switzerland

To the surprise of many observers of modern societies, social identities became a contested issue in Western democracies in recent years. Perhaps the most prominent expression of the growing social significance of social identities is the new relevance of religious identities in public and politics. Scholars like S. Huntington, F. Fukuyama, P. Norris, or R. Inglehart stressed the role of religion in identity politics. Even in established liberal democracies, there is great unsteadiness about how to deal with religious diversity, religious belonging and with Muslim minorities in particular. Does religion separate democratic societies or does it promote social cohesion and democracy? Which factors make up for the effects of religious identities on civil society, politics and the polity? The new approach of the KONID project aims to research religious identities in the larger context of social identities. Therefore, it measures social identities in a differentiated way and more precisely than before. The research project "Configurations of Individual and Collective Religious Identities and their Potential for Civil Society (KONID)", funded by the DFG and the SNF, shows the significance of types of religious self-identification and religious categorisation. It analysis attributions to religious groups such as "Catholics", "Jews", "Muslims" etc. and their consequences on the individual (micro) and group level (meso) as well as in the larger society (macro). The goal is to analyse and explain the effects of religious identities on civil society, politics and social cohesion in Germany and Switzerland. For this purpose, various religious identities are compared with a wide range of other social identities, which are important to people and/or by which they are divided into groups. The paper is based on the data of the new KONID Survey 2019. The project's representative survey covers the importance of religion for social identities in a multi-thematic, country-comparative representative survey of the population in Germany and Switzerland aged 16 and older, paying particular attention to Muslim minorities. In both countries, more than 3,000 people reported their views and experiences on social identities. Data were collected from spring to summer 2019. The paper will present the research approach of the project, the KONID Survey 2019, and first results focussing on the dividing and uniting role of religion in Germany and Switzerland.