Rebecca Catto

What can we say about today's British religious young person? Findings from the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme

Abstract Since the late 20th century, research linking youth and religion has begun to grow. Such growth has been given a particular boost in the UK by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme. This article addresses what we can say about todays British religious young person through review of new research findings from the Programme. One certainly can no longer assume that a British religious young person is a practising Christian. He or she is likely to engage with a range of offline and online resources in order to learn more about their faith, and feel some tensions between their commitments and engagement with wider society. Social class and other factors will affect his or her capacity to engage with religion and civil society. Like their non-religious peers, todays British religious young person values relationships and authenticity. Tensions between structure and agency in our neoliberal age emerge through their stories.

Accurate Diagnosis? Exploring Convergence and Divergence in Non-Western Missionary and Sociological Master Narratives of Christian Decline in Western Europe

Non-Western Christian missionaries from a variety of backgrounds represent Europe as being in decline in terms of its religiosity and morals. Such evaluations are set against a backdrop of Christian demographic shift from the global North to the global South and secularization theory. The shift in demographics is, however, unfinished, as is the inversion of relations implied by the vocal, critical presence of Southern Christians in Europe. There is great religious variety within Europe, the West and the global South. Hence scholars are developing fresh theoretical lenses to take better account of contexts and connections in analyses, and further research into the relationship between rhetoric and reality is called for.

Sociology of Religion in Great Britain: Interdisciplinarity and Gradual Diversification

Great Britain comprises England, Scotland and Wales, with distinct yet interconnected systems of higher education. In this chapter the terms Great Britain and Britain are used interchangeably. There has been little previous published work documenting the history of the British sociology of religion. British introductions to the sociology of religion tend to move from Marx, Weber and Durkheim through the evolutionists to Bryan Wilson, implying that nothing much happened in terms of British sociology of religion until the late 1950s and early 1960s. This is true to an extent, but it is not the full story. Hence, this chapter presents a richer background, pieced together frommultiple sources. In general terms, the sociology of religion follows the history of the institutionalization of disciplines and development of public universities in Britain alongside national and international events. It is distinctive in terms of its perennial disciplinarymarginalization and connected overlap with anthropology, religious studies and theology. Hence, the chapter strives to focus on the study of religion within the discipline of sociology, but its inherent interdisciplinarity means that the story of British sociology of religion cannot be told without reference to these related fields. The sociology of religion continues to be sustainedwithin theology and religious studies departments asmainstream sociological interest waxes and wanes over time. There are also intersections with history, philosophy and psychology. A maximal approach toward definition has been adopted for the chapter: any academic describing himself or herself as a sociologist of religion or engaging in the sociology of religion and any academic work which is sociological and related to religion produced from within a British university is considered a potential part of British sociology of religion.

Book Review Symposium

In Beautiful Wasteland Rebecca Kinney offers a sweeping cultural analysis of the images and symbolic landscapes that have made and remade our imaginary of the city of Detroit. The iconic birthplace of America’s aspirational object, the automobile; the backdrop for the origin story of the American Dream; the embodiment of 20th century hopes and dreams about industry, modernization, and progress; a city like no other, Detroit. Throughout her book, Kinney digs in to this narrative of prosperity, ingenuity, and the American spirit by questioning the cultural imaginary of Detroit. She interrogates myriad representations of Detroit including an online housing forum, photographs, two documentary films, a 2011 Super Bowl commercial campaign, and more recent efforts to re-brand Detroit as a home for urban pioneers seeking refuge from rising rents in beloved cities elsewhere. Kinney examines these narratives and asks what realities are being created by photographers, ad executives, and billionaire boosters, all people who have something to gain by creating Detroit in their own image. Beautiful Wasteland traces the changing narrative of Detroit from a city of the American Dream to a city of decline, emptiness, and ruin, and then back again in contemporary narratives of downtown Detroit’s revitalization, renewal, and rebirth. Part of the success of Beautiful Wasteland is that it offers specific examples of the devaluing of land and homes held by black families, and the persistent exclusion, marginalization and erasure of people who do not appear to be white from Detroit’s story. In excavating the racialized logics and narratives that underpin the rise, decline, and rise again of Detroit, Kinney’s book makes an important step in suturing the whitewashed history of the city

Book Review Symposium: Bruno Latour (translated by Julie Rose), Rejoicing: Or the Torments of Religious Speech

In Beautiful Wasteland Rebecca Kinney offers a sweeping cultural analysis of the images and symbolic landscapes that have made and remade our imaginary of the city of Detroit. The iconic birthplace of America’s aspirational object, the automobile; the backdrop for the origin story of the American Dream; the embodiment of 20th century hopes and dreams about industry, modernization, and progress; a city like no other, Detroit. Throughout her book, Kinney digs in to this narrative of prosperity, ingenuity, and the American spirit by questioning the cultural imaginary of Detroit. She interrogates myriad representations of Detroit including an online housing forum, photographs, two documentary films, a 2011 Super Bowl commercial campaign, and more recent efforts to re-brand Detroit as a home for urban pioneers seeking refuge from rising rents in beloved cities elsewhere. Kinney examines these narratives and asks what realities are being created by photographers, ad executives, and billionaire boosters, all people who have something to gain by creating Detroit in their own image. Beautiful Wasteland traces the changing narrative of Detroit from a city of the American Dream to a city of decline, emptiness, and ruin, and then back again in contemporary narratives of downtown Detroit’s revitalization, renewal, and rebirth. Part of the success of Beautiful Wasteland is that it offers specific examples of the devaluing of land and homes held by black families, and the persistent exclusion, marginalization and erasure of people who do not appear to be white from Detroit’s story. In excavating the racialized logics and narratives that underpin the rise, decline, and rise again of Detroit, Kinney’s book makes an important step in suturing the whitewashed history of the city