Marketplace Inclusion Vs Freedom Of Religion: Conflict Between LGBTQ Consumers And Christian Service Providers (Essay)

Think about a title for your work – think about your research question.

What are you setting out to do? Why is this research important?

In your methodology, you need to reference this. So if you think you might be using Grounded Theory you need to reference those theorists. If you are using Discourse Theory you need to reference Foucault etc. Just a line or two to indicate you understand where your framework came from.

Describe the processes you are using to collect your data in your Methodology. Are you comparing statistics from comparable studies, looking at ABS or other statistical data as well as your interviews.

How are you going to code your interview data? Hand coding or manual coding is acceptable for a small sample like this. You need to reference this. Colour coding is also acceptable + reference.

You will be having a lecture on Analysis in Week 5 and then you can add this.

The United States of America continues to experience conflict between LGBTQ consumers and Christian service providers. For instance, the courts in several states are caught in dilemma as a result of various professional refusing to provide services for people considered to be Gay. Conflicts such as this has brought about debates and emotional appeals from both proponents and opponents on whether the Gay community should receive services from Christian believers (Cowart, Ramirez and Brady, 2014). The primary issues that surrounds the debate is centered in the concept of marketplace inclusion. Further, there are a number of ways that LGBTQ consumers can be excluded from receiving services from providers (Fottrell, 2015).

Among the common ways include lack of resources in regards to gender neutral facilities and seeking personal interest maximization from a service that is not in demands and would otherwise occupy large inventory space. Another alarming course is as a result of difference in values where members of both sectors refuse to associate themselves with each other as a result of values. In the recent past, there has been numerous court cases regarding the issue of market place inclusion and supporters of Gay communities argue that refusing to provide services to same sex couples amounts to marketplace discrimination (Minton, 2015). On the other hand, the proponents of religious service providers argue that being forced to participate in rendering service to same sex couples amounts to discrimination against freedom of religion.

For this reason, this research will focus on investigating various issues surrounding the conflict between marketplace inclusion for LGBTQ and freedom of religion for service providers. The goal of this research will aim at providing a conceptual framework with regards to such relationships in order to spark conversion among consumers, service providers, community groups and public policy makers (Minton and Kahle, 2014). Besides, this research aims to form the basis for future discussions regarding conflict between LGBTQ communities and those against same sex couples.

The research process will use both primary sources and secondary sources. The primary data will be collected from a questionnaire which will be sent to the respondents. The respondents will be drawn from LGBTQ community consumers and providers as well as religious consumers and providers. The purpose of the questionnaire is to answer the research questions which will revolve around whether the service providers have a moral duty to offer services to each and every one based in the circumstances as well as how it affects consumers. On the other hand, secondary data will be used in this research to provide insight on the question of freedom (Orcher, 2016).

Methodology

Also, the secondary data collection will be centered in existing policies with regards to marketplace inclusion and freedom of religion. Moreover, the secondary sources will focus on existing conflicts between marketplace inclusion and religious freedom. Further, information pertaining religious perspective on LGBTQ will also be made available through existing research. This research will depend on the nature of conflicting social identities, level of participation, salience of social identity as well as strategies that are put in pace to address conflict between religious freedom and marketplace inclusion.

The sampling method that will be used in this research will employ convenience sampling in order to reduce costs that would be incurred in looking for sampling population. The desired sampling that would have been preferred is one that has been directly involved in the conflict between marketplace inclusion and religious freedom. A total of ten respondents will be drawn from both sides in order to compare the responses for effective analysis (Patten, 2016). The answers received from the questionnaire will be analyzed based on their content. Further, the process of sequential analysis will be employed in order to choose the most important information that can be used to make conclusive remarks with regards to the research questions.

Discussions regarding the primary data and secondary data will be centered on symbolic interactionism theory which focuses on how the society develops and maintained through repeated interactions among individuals (Rock, 2016). This theory was developed in the mid-twentieth century from a variety of perspectives. Among the widely known perspective include the Scottish Moralist and American philosophers such as George Herbert. The theory originated as a response mainstream perspective that had huge influence on sociology. The primary role of this theory was to examine the society from a top down perspective in order to understand how the society influenced individuals. Later, the theory began to view the society from bottom up in order to understand how repeated actions in the society ended up becoming accepted norms that define how the society is governed.

From the bottom up perspective, the society was determined to be a constraining entity that had a huge influence on individuals. Individuals were then considered as independent entity with capabilities of changing and influencing the society around them. The main theme evident in symbolic interactionism is the fact that humans use language and important symbols in communicating with each other. As a result, symbolic interactionism majorly focused on how individual beings make sense of the society based on their own perspectives (Handberg et al., 2015). The basic principles of symbolic interactionism are pegged on the idea that individuals tend to act based on the meaning they perceive from other objects. The interaction is said to have occurred within a specific social and cultural context as well as circumstances based on an individual perceived meaning, the meanings arise as a result of interaction between individuals with their surrounding and the meaning is arrived at as a result of continuous recreation through interaction with other people.

Data Collection and Analysis

Therefore, this research will use symbolic interaction theory to examine past and present information regarding the marketplace conflict and religious freedom in order to draw meaning with regards to how individuals such as LGBTQ community came about as well as how they play a role in influencing the society. This research will analyze existing empirical research to determine how the society has been influenced over the years in order to draw conclusions on the way forward regarding the conflict between LGBTQ consumers and religious service providers. From the perspective drawn from past and present material regarding the conflict, this research will have sufficient information to draw conclusive remarks regarding the future of symbolic interactionism and how it influences individuals and generations to come (Tsarenko and Rooslani Tojib, 2011).

This research will have to determine that despite fragmentation and expansion throughout history, it suggest that the diversity of sociological work with regards to the theory is sufficient for drawing conclusion within the discipline of sociology. Consequently, the research will seek to determine whether LGBTQ and religious identities bring about these conflicts in order to influence consumer behavior as well as service provider interaction. Also, through symbolic interaction, the research will aim at determining whether the conflicts are heightened as a result of lack of alternatives. More so, the theory will focus on intervention for such social groups with respect to government policies (Moore, 2014).

The data analysis for this research will primarily focus on the data collected through primary and secondary sources. Secondary data from existing secondary sources will be interpreted by using analytical and logical reasoning for the purpose of determining patterns, relationships and trends that can be used to draw conclusive evidence based on the conflict between LGBTQ communities and religious freedom service providers (Walliman, 2017). The data drawn from the questionnaire will provide the research with primary data that will be used to determine arguments presented from both sides. This information will be classified based on relevance to the research project by considering the information that answers the research question (Oakenfull, 2013). A table will be used to compare both augments as presented in the questionnaires. Symbolic interaction theory will be used to present summary of the findings presented in the table for the purpose of backing the research findings with empirical evidence based on past research.

Moreover, secondary sources that will be used in the research will provide basis for determining the validity of the findings as presented in the questionnaires. Data analysis in this research will play a crucial role in drawing conclusions that are based in empirical research. For this purpose, the data analysis will help the research by structuring the findings from different sources used in the collection of research material (White and Dahl, 2007). The data analysis will also play a vital role in breaking down the research question for purpose of providing brief information that generalizes the findings of the research. Moreover, the data analysis that will be used in this research will act as a filter for the purpose of drawing the main points from the research materials. Critical decision regarding the research questions have to be made and depends highly on data analysis.

Discussion

Additionally, data analysis for this research is significant in removing the element of human bias in the conclusion of the findings that will be determined. Also, the data analysis will help in filtering the qualitative and quantitative data. The data analysis for this research aims at diagnosing the real problems that causes conflict between LGBTQ consumers and religious service providers. In order to make informed decisions regarding the intervention that should be adopted by various stakeholders such as courts in resolving future conflicts.  The primary limitation in this research is related to the small sample size and limited secondary resources which would have influenced the validity of the research project (Rios et al., 2015).

References

Cowart, O., Ramirez, K. and Brady, M. (2014). “Religious af?liation: buffering negative reactions to service failures”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 1-9.

Fottrell, Q. (2015). “It may soon be illegal to refuse service to same-sex couples”, Market Watch, 24 July.

Minton, E.A. (2015). “In advertising we trust: religiosity’s in?uence on marketplace and relational trust”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 44 No. 4, pp. 403-414.

Minton, E.A. and Kahle, L.R. (2014). Belief Systems, Religion, and Behavioral Economics: Marketing in Multicultural Environments, Business Expert Press, New York, NY.

Moore,C.W.(2014). The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Con?ict, John Wiley & Sons, San Fransisco, CA.

Oakenfull, G.W. (2013). “What matters: factors in?uencing gay consumers’ evaluations of “gay-friendly” corporate activities”, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 32, pp. 79-89.

Orcher, L. T. (2016). Conducting research: Social and behavioral science methods. Routledge.

Patten, M. L. (2016). Proposing empirical research: A guide to the fundamentals. Routledge.

Rios, K., Cheng, Z.H., Totton, R.R. and Shariff, A.F. (2015). “Negative stereotypes cause Christians to underperform in and disidentify with science”, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Vol. 6, pp. 959-967.

Tsarenko, Y. and Rooslani Tojib, D. (2011). “A transactional model of forgiveness in the service failure context: a customer-driven approach”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 381-392.

Walliman, N. (2017). Research methods: The basics. Routledge.

White, K. and Dahl, D.W. (2007). “Are all out-groups created equal? Consumer identity and dissociative in?uence”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 34 No. 4, pp. 525-536.

Rock, P. (2016). Making of symbolic interactionism. Springer.

Handberg, C., Thorne, S., Midtgaard, J., Nielsen, C. V., & Lomborg, K. (2015). Revisiting symbolic interactionism as a theoretical framework beyond the grounded theory tradition. Qualitative health research, 25(8), 1023-1032.