About the ARENA Project
We bring to your attention the ARENA project: Atlas of Religions and Nationalities of the Russian Federation.
SURVEYMETHOD
The atlas of religions and nationalities is based on data obtained during the all-Russia representative survey (questionnaire survey: Research organization Sreda; field work: the foundation “Public Opinion” MegaFOM 2012; 56,900 respondents; 98.8% coverage of the population of the Russian Federation).
General population: urban and rural population of Russia ages 18 years and older.
The sample is representative of urban and rural subjects of Russia ages 18 years and older.
Geography survey: the 79 regions of the Russian Federation.
Number of Respondents: 56,900 people. In every region, 500-800respondents were polled.
Method: a standardized survey of the population.
Technology: home interview respondents (face-to-face).
More details about the method forthe nationwide survey MegaFOM, visit the official website of the foundation “Public Opinion”.
About the Project
Purpose of the project: create a picture of faiths and nationalities with regard to number, geographic, and administrativedistribution, to follow religious practices, philosophical, and socio-demographic characteristics of Russians.
In our country, as well as throughout the world, the interest to measure the values of lifeis growing, including spiritual experience and religious affiliation. Over the past decades, questions about religion were not included in the census questionnaires for both the USSR and the Russian Federation. The ARENA project, tries to fillthis gap as best as possible, offering readers modern and reliable information on the representation of Russian religions. Questions of national identity often have a direct relation to the choice of religion.For this reason, the atlas focuses on both the religion, and ethnicity of Russians. (Note: despite the general representative sample, the portraits presented for some religions and nationalities, because of their small numbers in the Russia, include a number of estimates and hypotheses for further analysis.)
We hope that the work done is the first step in a coherent study of the religious and cultural environment of the country, taking into account the diversity and uniqueness of every religion, nationality, and region. ARENA project is not a one-time initiative. We look forward to the opportunity to repeat this study, so that after a while, we are able to get a picture of the dynamics, which allows us to analyze the changes in the country as a whole, and in each of the regions. In addition, it should be kept in mind that any attempt to analyze and value the spiritual dimensions of life in today’s scientific knowledge is an experiment. For this reason, despite the fact that in developing the project, wetook into account the experience of leading international research projects in the field of applied value-metrics, the research methodology and questionnaire used is open for discussion and comment by the expert community. At the same time, work is under way to fill the Atlas with new data, not only sociological, but also ethnographic, historical, and cultural. We welcome any feedback, and will be especially happy to work with you.
The online-visualization of ARENA uses online maps, including fast and intuitive navigation to all sections of the study. In addition to the results of the survey, ARENA involves the integration of databases that are publicly available, for the convenience of users. For example, the database incorporates a number of religious institutions (Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation), data from the 2010 census, and data from a number of open civil societyresearch projects. If you can offer data for integration into ARENA, please let us know. The project on the site is constantly updated. We try to make ARENA visual and interactive, allowing it tobe used not only for reference purposes, but also in the educational process through games and tests.
Service “Sreda” hopes the ARENA project will be useful and interesting for you.
