Conversions à Singapour.

Singapore's destiny is closely tied to its strategic position linking up the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea. Since the independence of this rapidly growing country, its port has become fourth in the world. Its growth is the fruit of the government's efforts to make Singapore an intermediary metropolis between the international capital and the developing countries. The island is surrounded by 130 million Malaysians and Indonesians who are irritated by its economic role. In this context, every year around 1000 adults request baptism from the Catholic Church which is present through an important network of schools, parishes, and « novena » (Our Lady of Perpetual Help) services. The sociological research study presented here was carried out in 1966-67 and its goal was to examine the positions of and the steps taken by those who sought affiliation with Catholicism in Singapore. Who are the converts? Who do they convert ? How do they convert? The semantic field (conversion accounts) highlights the specificity of a change within a given society. Functioning models can be used to make comparisons among different societies. The function of conversions underscores the relationships between social and noetic structures. Therefore, an interpretation of the Singapore data in these three dimensions contributes to a sociology of socio-religious mutations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]