Developing Social Science and Religion for Liberation and Growth

This book integrates humanist approaches in enabling both spiritual growth and social science knowledge in advocating for the emancipation of exploited women, children and youth, based on critical realism. Through an autoethnographic account of the first author's journey from being a secular Jew, through Anglicanism, to Quakerism and then Islam, a pacifist-based social science methodology is developed. This approach describes attempts to understand and liberate sexually exploited youths in Bangladesh; exploited women and girls in Pakistan; and struggling women in Gaza, Palestine. The model attempts to integrate moral goals of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in seeking peaceful co-operation. Secular humanism is added, creating a research model which seeks the enhancement of human welfare through the universal ethic of the social contract, in which humans and their welfare are both interesting and exciting. A review of research on child sexual exploitation elaborates the model of child-centred humanism.