list of all NORFACE projects on religion
The project investigates young people's engagement with religion and its relationship to the urban spaces within which they live and to their own developing identities. The research sites will be multi-ethnic areas of London, Hamburg and Oslo. The project will use an innovative visual sociological approach to the interviews it will conduct with Christian and Muslim young people and those of no religious affiliation. In each site 15 plus young people from each category will be interviewed using visual prompts showing religious architecture local to their areas and other local urban spatial features. Additional focus group discussion will follow up these interviews. Further data will be in the form of video and photographic representations of their relationship to religious practice in the areas they frequent. These will constitute a 'vox pop' report made by young people themselves. Interviews with clerics and other adult members of the mosques and churches attended will provide other important perspectives on the report of young people concerning their relationships with the places of worship. Because the research involves visual social scientific methods that are the particular strength of the London partner, training for staff in Bergen and in Hamburg will be provided by the London team both in London and in situ in Oslo and Hamburg during the fieldwork phases. Thus there will be a substantial capacity-building element to this project that will have subsequent benefits across the ERA. The specialisms of the other partners are in Educational Science (Hamburg) and Social Theory with regard to Youth (Bergen). The outputs of the project will include a book, academic journal articles, photographic exhibitions and a video. Several members of the team are in the early phases of their academic careers and there is a very good gender balance across the whole international team.
Principal Investigator:
Professor HEWITT, Roger, Goldsmiths College, University of London, Centre for Urban and Community Research