Religious Affiliation and Social Stratificationin Taiwan (2000-2010) Analysis of Taiwan Social Change Survey

Abstract

Religion and social stratification has been an important sociological topic since Max Weber and Karl Marx. It continues to attract scholarly attention nowadays in the United States, giving rise to numerous empirical studies on their complex relationships. However,there is no or inadequate studies on the relations between religion and social stratification in societies that have very different cultural backgrounds compared to the U.S. This research note attempts to expand this sociological topic to non-Christian societies using Taiwan as a case study,where Christianity is not the dominant culture. It first offers a literature review of religion and social stratification in Taiwan,followed by a quantitative study based on a national survey,Taiwan Social Change Survey. Analysis is based on the data from the 2000, 2005, and 2010 dataset. This research note focuses on three important social stratification indicators,namely education level,occupation,and income,and their effects on religious affiliation. Changes in such relations over ten years are also studied. Our analysis has at least five significant findings:(1) respondents belonging to“Protestantism”and“No Religion”tend to be in the upper class. (2) Except for“Protestantism”and“No Religion,”religious affiliation is affected by different social stratification indicators and such effect is particular strong for“Buddhism,”“Taoism,”and“Folk religion.” While (3) “Catholics”have declining score in occupation and income level, (4) “Buddhists”are achieving higher status in occupation. (5)Education,occupation,and income level are increasing for“Yiguan Dao”practitioners. (Received on November 20,2014)