ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 explores various sociological approaches to the study of religious conversion and emphasises the point that a convert is not merely a passive bystander, but is one who is actively engaged in the process of religious conversion. Religious conversion is understood to be a continual, fluid process, rather than a static event, which challenges religious and ethnic identities in cross-cultural and inter-faith contexts. It also suggests that an economic approach to understanding religious conversion, in relation to religious, social and cultural capital, is a useful framework to explore how and why religious conversion has taken place in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.
