With the publication of the 2021 Census data, many urban centres in the UK can now be described as ‘superdiverse’: that is, Britain is becoming increasingly a country of minorities. Major urban centres like Birmingham are no longer majority white, and districts full of many different groups of immigrants can be found around the country.
The consequences for these demographic changes are as varied and diverse as the citizens themselves, but one area that remains essential for a peaceful, productive diverse society is the ability to talk about our differences in a way that regards them as a strength rather than a weakness. It is important too, to make space for everyone, particularly children and young people, to understand and appreciate what makes them unique and what they share in common with others.
For the past two years, I’ve been exploring how people talk about their faith in superdiverse contexts, as a part of an AHRC-funded project called ‘Language and Religion in the Superdiverse City’. My study was conducted in collaboration with Citizens UK Birmingham, a diverse civil society alliance bringing together education, community, trade union and faith-based organisations in the city committed to using community organising to generate collective power for social change.
