Reimagining Religion and Belief: new policy frameworks and practice

Professor Adam Dinham and Professor Chris Baker have secured a grant to disseminate further learning and impact from a successful application for an AHRC Network Grant made in 2014 -2016 on the theme of Re-imagining Religion and Belief for Policy and Practice. The project will start in January 2019 and run for the rest of the year. It will deliver a series of impact outcomes with two charity partners, The William Temple Foundation and Faith in Society.

The project will work with leaders in national and local government, voluntary and community sector, and faith settings to co-produce concrete, practical tools to help policy-makers engage effectively with religion and belief in relation to welfare, cohesion and security.
While the earlier AHRC network project provided an analysis of new thinking about religion and belief across disciplines, this one will develop the unforeseen opportunity to work with policy-makers to turn that new thinking into concrete resources. Key objectives are:

1. Raised awareness, knowledge and understanding of cutting edge thinking about contemporary religion and belief as a basis for policy-making.
2. Established pathways for increased engagement by policy makers together with practitioners engaging with religion and belief issues in public spaces via four practical and sustainable contributions to this field: a new dedicated website, a new framework of local policy development, an annual conference and a new national network.
3. A safe and integrated series of alternative spaces for policy formation alongside discussion of the deeper issues and questions concerning the place and contribution of lived religion and belief in the public sphere that will both critique but also intentionally complement current policies in this area (i.e. Prevent and Protect).

This project follows on from an earlier project, Reimagining Religion and Belief for Public Policy & Practice.

Resources

For policymakers in the areas of Religion and Belief: 

• Religion and Belief in Health and Social Care Assessments with Service Users (PDF)
• Religion and Belief Literacy Framework (PDF)
• Some Real World Examples and Dilemmas (PDF)
• The Religions and Belief Landscape (PDF)
• What the Law Requires (PDF)
• Why Should We Pay Attention to Religion and Belief (PDF)