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David Voas
Simon Professor of Population Studies

Tel: 0161 275 4836
Fax: +44 (0) 161 275 4722
Email: voas@manchester.ac.uk

Address:

 
Institute for Social Change
Kantorovich Building
Humanities Bridgeford Street
University of Manchester
MANCHESTER
M13 9PL 

Academic qualifications

BSc(Econ), MSc, London School of Economics

PhD, Cambridge University

Professional biography

David Voas was elected to a Simon Research Fellowship at the University of Manchester in 2003 and appointed to a chair in the Institute for Social Change in 2007. He previously held a lectureship at the University of Sheffield and a research post at the University of Liverpool, having returned to academic life in 1998 after a long period in the private sector. He has spent extended periods overseas, notably in Africa, India, France, the USA and Bulgaria. He is the national programme director in Great Britain for the European Values Study and co-director of British Religion in Numbers (www.brin.ac.uk), an online centre for British data on religion.  He serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Sociology and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and on the council of the British Society for Population Studies.  He spent Trinity term 2009 at Nuffield College, Oxford.

Specific research interests

• Religious change in modern societies
• National and international studies using census and survey data
• Methods for measuring diversity
• The global fertility transition
• Computer simulation

Funded research projects

• 'Computer simulation and the study of religious change'; Arts and Humanities Research Board Innovation Award, February 2002 to May 2003
• 'The British Household Panel Study and key issues in religious change'; Economic and Social Research Council, April 2003 to November 2004
• 'New perspectives in the multidisciplinary study of religion'; Economic and Social Research Council research seminars, March 2004 to April 2006
• 'Religious diversity, community cohesion and the 2001 census'; Joseph Rowntree Foundation, April 2004 to September 2005 (co-applicant)
• 'The Church Life Profile: A study of religious participation and commitment'; Economic and Social Research Council, November 2004 to January 2006
• 'The English Church Census'; Economic and Social Research Council, February 2005 to January 2006
• 'Religion in the countryside'; Countryside Agency, March 2005
• 'The dynamics of religious change: An international comparative analysis'; Economic and Social Research Council, January 2006 to December 2010
• 'Local culture and the maintenance and transmission of religious practice'; Economic and Social Research Council, July 2006 to December 2007
• 'Extending and Enhancing the ISSP 2008 module on religion'; NORFACE, April 2007 to March 2010.
• 'Muslim integration in Britain '; Economic and Social Research Council, August 2007 to July 2008.
• 'An online centre for British data on religion'; Arts and Humanities Research Council / Economic and Social Research Council, January 2008 to June 2010.
• 'Transatlantic comparison of religion's role in society', John Templeton Foundation, February 2008 to December 2010 (PI: Robert Putnam)
• 'British participation in the European Values Study'; Economic and Social Research Council, July 2009 to June 2010

 

Selected Publications

• Voas, D. (2009) The rise and fall of fuzzy fidelity in Europe, European Sociological Review 25(2): 155-68
• Voas, D. (2009) The maintenance and transformation of ethnicity: Evidence on mixed partnerships in Britain, Journal of Ethnic Migration Studies 35(9): 1497-1513

• Voas, D. and A. Crockett (2005) Religion in Britain: Neither believing nor belonging, Sociology 39(1): 11-28.

• Voas, D. (2003) Competing preferences: A reason fertility tends to be too high or too low, Population and Development Review 29(4): 627-46.

• Voas, D. (2003) Intermarriage and the demography of secularisation, British Journal of Sociology 54(1): 83-108.

• Voas, D., D.V.A. Olson and A. Crockett (2002) Religious pluralism and participation: Why previous research is wrong, American Sociological Review 67(2): 212-30.

Complete list of publications

Teaching

David Voas supervises research related to his areas of expertise. He is responsible for 'Religious and ethnic change', a core module for the MSc in Social Change.

PhD Students

Sarah King-Hele
Ingrid Storm

Stefanie Döbler