Jörg Stolz

Jörg Stolz serves as a Professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, where he maintains an active research profile through the LIVES (Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on Social Inequalities) research center. His institutional affiliation positions him within Switzerland's premier social sciences research ecosystem, with cross-institutional collaborations extending to the University of Geneva.

Stolz's research program critically examines the tension between secularization theory and contemporary religious phenomena. His work demonstrates exceptional focus on generational shifts in religious participation, particularly the widening church attendance gap between older and younger cohorts. He investigates religious revival cases that challenge conventional secularization narratives, employing sophisticated quantitative methods to analyze longitudinal survey data and spatial patterns of religious group dynamics. His methodological approach combines large-scale comparative analysis with deep contextual case studies, notably in post-Soviet Georgia.

Analysis of his recent publications reveals three dominant research trajectories: (1) generational decomposition of religious participation trends, (2) spatial-temporal modeling of religious diversity ecosystems, and (3) theoretical refinement of secularization theory through exceptional case studies. His work consistently bridges macro-sociological theory with micro-level behavioral patterns, demonstrating how local religious markets evolve through group formation, persistence, and disappearance processes.

As a core member of the LIVES research center, Stolz contributes to Switzerland's national research infrastructure for social inequality studies. His collaborative network spans European and Anglo-American scholars, with frequent co-authorship patterns indicating strong research partnerships with Oliver Lipps, David Voas, and Jean-Philippe Antonietti. The interdisciplinary nature of his work positions him at the intersection of sociology, religious studies, and demographic analysis.