Buddhism as a Social Minority
Schemes and Strategies for the Identity Maintaining

Jitka Cirklová
The Charles University of Prague,
Faculty of Social Sciences, department of Sociology

The issue discussed will outline the problematic of the contemporary schemes and strategies used for maintaining of Buddhist identities and transferring Buddhist values within a society/community where the Buddhists are consisting a minority or form a new social group.

Topics touching problematic of establishing of Buddhist temples, educational institutions or introducing the passage rites among the groups of the Western converts to Buddhism or among the new Buddhist generation in migrants communities. In other words we invite scholars to explore more about the second and the following Buddhist generations growing up in conditions where Buddhism comprise a world view different from that of the ethnic heritage and of the mainstream culture of a particular society.

People who to a certain degree master Buddhist practices and are attached to this particular religious culture, accumulate a specific religious capital which develops when there are higher levels of religious participation, knowledge and experience, including social networks. The aim is to see how the accumulated religious capital affects choice regarding work career, living conditions or children’s education. How is this capital transmitted within the families and the groups of different Buddhist streams? What is the role of local Buddhist communities? Answers to the above questions could shed some light on the current trends in the denominational evolution.

The diversity in methodological approaches deriving from sociology, social anthropology, religious or medial studies and other disciplines is indispensable to shed more light on the above topic.