Christianity, urban politics and pursuit of the common good through broad-based coaltions: the case of the Citizens Organizing Foundation

基督教、城市政治和通过基础广泛的联盟追求共同利益：公民组织基金会的案例

• 批准号: AH/F010451/1
• 负责人: Luke Bretherton
• 金额: $ 21.12万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FF010451%2F1
• 关键词: Christianity; urban; politics; pursuit; common

The research will evaluate the role and significance of religious groups in deliberations about public policy and their contribution to the formation of a shared civic life in the context of diverse urban communities. This will be done through a case study of the churches participation in the Citizens Organizing Foundation (COF), which is the only instantiation in the UK of broad-based community organizing (BBCO), a radical, democratic movement first developed in the US. Established in 1989, COF brings faith and secular organisations into broad-based alliances to work for the common good in a particular locality. Through training activities and engagement in political campaigns, COF aims to organize and empower politically and economically marginalized people to identify their political interests and pursue them democratically. COF now involves almost 150 different faith and secular organisations in London and Birmingham, including Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, trade union branches, schools and community centres. It is the British manifestation of a phenomenon that has been transforming US urban politics for the past fifty years. However, COF is more religiously diverse than its counterparts in the US, reflecting the different context in which it works. The proposed research is of practical relevance because COF represents a very significant example of inter-faith and broad-based political cooperation and a contribution to the formation of shared civic space in highly contested and often violent urban contexts. The proposed project is of academic importance because the work of COF provides a telling case through which to address a number of key problems in political philosophy to do with the relationship between religion and politics and the negotiation of difference and plurality in liberal democracies, and in political theology to do with the relationship between church and state in modernity. At present there is neither a systematic, theoretical evaluation of COF in particular nor BBCO in general within the frameworks of political theology and political philosophy.The project is designed to develop a history of the political and theological thought that originally shaped BBCO, to identify the ways in which current participants in COF frame and interpret what they do theologically and politically, and to locate its intellectual history and contemporary self-conceptions within wider debates in political theology and political philosophy. The research methods used to achieve this will consist of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and analysing relevant literature. The research will form the basis for the development of critical frameworks for analysing COF and identifying whether its practices challenges some of the dominant contemporary theological and philosophical conceptions of the proper relationship between religion and politics. Integrated within the research process are a series of eight seminars designed to initiate and facilitate inter-disciplinary exchange between scholars focused on BBCO in the US and Europe. These seminars will also forge an academic network that can form the basis for on-going exchange and enable comparison between the US and the European experiences of BBCO. A practical way in which the project's findings will be disseminated are first, through workshops for clergy in partnership with COF and the Centre for Contextual Theology (CTC) and the production of a pamphlet examining the theological basis of COF which will be distributed via the extensive networks of COF & CTC. Academic outputs will include a book, journal articles and conference papers.

这项研究将评价宗教团体在审议公共政策方面的作用和意义，以及它们在不同城市社区背景下对形成共同公民生活的贡献。这将通过教会参与公民组织基金会（COF）的案例研究来完成，这是英国唯一一个基于广泛基础的社区组织（BBCO）的实例，这是一个激进的民主运动，首先在美国发展起来。COF成立于1989年，将信仰和世俗组织纳入广泛的联盟，为特定地区的共同利益而努力。通过培训活动和参与政治运动，COF旨在组织在政治和经济上处于边缘地位的人，使他们能够确定自己的政治利益，并以民主的方式追求这些利益。COF目前在伦敦和伯明翰有近150个不同的信仰和世俗组织，包括基督徒、佛教徒、穆斯林、工会分支机构、学校和社区中心。这是过去50年来一直在改变美国城市政治的一种现象的英国表现。然而，与美国的同行相比，COF的宗教信仰更加多样化，这反映了它运作的不同背景。拟议的研究具有实际意义，因为COF代表了信仰间和基础广泛的政治合作的一个非常重要的例子，并有助于在高度竞争和经常暴力的城市环境中形成共享的公民空间。这个项目在学术上很重要，因为COF的工作提供了一个很好的案例，通过它可以解决政治哲学中的一些关键问题，这些问题涉及宗教与政治之间的关系以及自由民主国家中差异和多元化的谈判，以及政治神学中的一些关键问题，涉及现代教会与国家之间的关系。目前，在政治神学和政治哲学的框架内，既没有一个系统的、理论性的评价，也没有一个系统的、理论性的评价。该项目旨在发展最初塑造BBCO的政治和神学思想史，确定当前COF框架参与者的方式，并在神学和政治上解释他们所做的事情，并在政治神学和政治哲学的更广泛辩论中定位其思想史和当代自我概念。为实现这一目标所使用的研究方法将包括参与者观察、半结构化访谈和分析相关文献。这项研究将为发展分析COF的关键框架奠定基础，并确定其实践是否挑战了一些关于宗教与政治之间适当关系的主流当代神学和哲学概念。在研究过程中还包括一系列的八个研讨会，旨在发起和促进美国和欧洲关注BBCO的学者之间的跨学科交流。这些研讨会还将建立一个学术网络，为持续的交流奠定基础，并使BBCO的美国和欧洲经验得以比较。首先，该项目的研究成果将通过与COF和背景神学中心（CTC）合作举办的神职人员研讨会来传播，并制作一本小册子，检查COF的神学基础，该小册子将通过COF和CTC的广泛网络分发。学术产出将包括一本书、期刊文章和会议论文。