WaVE History

WaVE builds on the research conducted in the Welfare and Religion in a European Perspective (WREP) project

The overall aim of WREP has been to analyse the function of majority churches as agents of social welfare in a comparative European perspective. Which roles do the historic churches in Europe play within different welfare systems? Which tasks have they taken on as providers of welfare? How do they influence welfare at a normative level, through their historical roles and through public debate? Which expectations do they meet? Like WaVE, WREP also built upon an earlier research project, 'From State Church to Free Folk Church', funded by the Swedish Research Council and carried out within the research programme on 'The state and the individual: Swedish society undergoing change'.

The WREP study was conducted in eight European countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Greece. The WaVE project also incorporates the cases of Croatia, Latvia, Romania and Poland and goes beyond WREP's focus on majority religions to study three dimensions in their relation to one another: religion, minorities and gender. In the WaVE project, welfare is used as the prism through which values related to religion, minorities and gender are examined. WaVE will study the interaction between majority and minority religious groups in the context of welfare provision; the values expressed by minority groups in their use of welfare services and in their search for alternatives; and the gender-related values underpinning conceptions of welfare and practices in welfare provision in minority communities as compared with majority communities.