Faith as Social Capital and other social things

I was planning to write more last week, but life gets in the way of art. Is this art, I wonder? No matter.

This past week was dominated by a trip to London to the launch of the Rowntree Foundation Report Faith as Social Capital on Wednesday. I documented my personal response in an email to another delegate at the launch:

"...it's inevitable that as an academic and primarily as an educator, I welcome this kind of research for all sorts of mixed reasons. It's really pleasing to see this kind of cross-disciplinary social research into practical matters of faith, and as with all Rowntree projects, it's an exemplary piece of research in terms of methodology and presentation. For that alone, it feeds into my teaching, quite apart from its acute relevance to modules we teach on urban and community theology.

But I'm always slightly frustrated that there's no clear focus on the *reception* of the report: who is going to take in on board, how, for what purposes, and how successful will they be? It would be good to have a chronicle of the immediate, medium term and long term impact of this sort of project, and I'd like a piece of research to start now, seeking to identify some of those things. I suspect that it *does* have an impact, in some fields and areas, and at some levels. But I don't think we really know how far LSPs and the like actually *use* this kind of research. [...]

I'd also like to see series of formal responses from interested organisations etc, detailing what parts, if any, are useful, and what parts are up for discussion/ challenge. It's good that we can discuss it: how much more useful it would be if this topic were up for discussion in much more public, institutional ways. I'd like to see the Urban Bishops' Panel produce a written, published response: ditto other representative faith organisations, local, regional and central government and people like yourselves, Regional Commissions, regeneration bodies and so on.

There is also the question of how this relates to the CULF report, with which it is closely associated, not least because Rob Furbey was involved with both. I'll be keeping in touch with Rob in any case, and he may be able to respond to some of these concerns."

There were some quite lovely aspects of the day. The launch itself was very well done, with reponses from several people, most notably Lord Parekh who did a masterly critique of the agenda and the intellectual and social context of the report. Robert was there, and it turned out he knew well someone I know only from Christians on the Internet (COIN). There were at least two other internet acquaintances present, and a UTU MPhil student, and of course, Rob Furbey, the author of the report.

After the launch, Robert and I met Maddi for coffee. It's rare that my daughter allows me to treat her, so it was an unusual pleasure for me. Robert then went off carrying my packs from the launch (How nice it is to go to a good "do" and still go off to do things empty handed!) and Maddi and I decided to forego the delights of high culture (Tate Modern) for consumer lust (Hamleys, the Mac shop and Selfridges), before drinking immoderate amounts of chianti on the terrace of Carluccios in the sun (but with the benefit of a heater) until the end of the rush hour.

The evening with William and Laura (wine bar) was entirely pleasant too, and the next morning William and I breakfasted in a little Italian deli/cafe in Crouch End. As Uncle Martin commented when I told him all about it, "how very nice to be in the company of those who will lead you out to make an occasion of a simple meal."