Knotless Ties

market, rationality and religious adhesion based on Mark Granovetter’s theory

Abstract

In recent decades, the sociology of religion has questioned one of its central foundations: the secularization paradigm. The persistence of religiously oriented social movements around the world, including in Europe, seemed to point to the obsolescence of research programs which were based on any version of the secularization theory. Thus, American researchers have rehearsed, since the beginning of the 1980s, a leap out not only of the secularization paradigm, but of sociological theory. The program of studies inaugurated by Stark and Bainbridge aimed precisely at overcoming what they called the “old paradigm”, replacing it with a “new paradigm” based on economic and rational choice theories. In this sense, this article proposes reflections on the limits of the conceptions of the rational choice of religion theory, recovering fundamental propositions from authors of economic sociology, especially Granovetter. It is discussed that the assumptions of economic sociology can consistently contribute to the issues surrounding choice and the religious market, without denying the sociological tradition,though.