Overview

This book explores what becomes of faiths when seen as social capital. In the grip of the current debt crisis, where the social and capital seem increasingly unbalanced, this book examines whether faiths can help rebalance society through drawing communities together.

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9780230276987

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Not only is this book a wonderful introduction to what faith-based social action contributes to the UK today, it also puts forward a striking and significant argument. Dinham suggests that the notion of 'social capital', fashionable with policy-makers and faith groups alike, has been so hollowed out that it fails to make sense of faith's distinctive contributions to society - good and bad. Faith has many dimensions, not least reverence for what is good, true and Godly. To judge it in terms of the 'capital' it can generate is to subject it to a market logic which turns it into a mere instrument of social policy and economic progress'. - Linda Woodhead, Professor of the Sociology of Religion, Lancaster University and Director of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, UK 'a stimulating read' - Roger McCormick, LSE Review of Books

'Not only is this book a wonderful introduction to what faith-based social action contributes to the UK today, it also puts forward a striking and significant argument. Dinham suggests that the notion of 'social capital', fashionable with policy-makers and faith groups alike, has been so hollowed out that it fails to make sense of faith's distinctive contributions to society - good and bad. Faith has many dimensions, not least reverence for what is good, true and Godly. To judge it in terms of the 'capital' it can generate is to subject it to a market logic which turns it into a mere instrument of social policy and economic progress'. - Linda Woodhead, Professor of the Sociology of Religion, Lancaster University and Director of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, UK

Author Information

ADAM DINHAM Reader in Religion and Society at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He is also policy advisor to the Faith Based Regeneration Network and Director of the Faiths and Civil Society Network of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, UK. His previous publications include Faiths, Public Policy and Civil Society, Faith in the Public Realm (with R. Furbey and V. Lowndes) and Faith as Social Capital (with R. Furbey, R. Farnell and D. Finneron).

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