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Adam Dinham's work on religious literacy in secular contexts plays a substantial role in challenging and enabling policy makers, educators and publics to engage with religion and belief identity and plurality. He established the Religious Literacy Programme (RLP) to address the poor quality of conversation about religion and belief amongst policy-makers and professionals which his work has observed. It began with substantial funding from HEFCE to research and respond to approaches to religion and belief in universities in the context of extremism. This drew attention to religion and belief as significant but poorly understood and addressed identities. The programme then translated findings into practice-focused training which has been extensively delivered. RLP now also works with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Government Equalities Office (GEO) on religious literacy for employers, trades unions, and service providers, following the same intentional cycle of research translated in to training, and is part of a very senior initiative, led by EHRC, to review law and policy at a strategic level. The RLP entered in to partnership with Cambridge University in 2011 and the Coexist Foundation (based in London and Washington) in 2012 with the goal of founding a permanent public home in a purpose built centre in London. This is being taken forward in ways described below.
Sondra Hausner's AHRC-funded project, Vernacular Religion, grew out of her existing work with Nepalis around the world, and especially in the UK. Conducted in close collaboration with the Centre for Nepal Studies-UK, an organization run by Nepali social scientists for the benefit of Nepalis living in Britain, Hausner's research has taken up the multiple religious identities of the Nepali community in the UK. Based on voluntarily collected social data, her team's work led to a much clearer recognition of the specific cultural, social and religious profile of this migrant community. This information, of vital importance as British Nepalis define their identity and their roles in the wider society of Great Britain and transnationally, was fed back into the community through various channels including the non-academic publication Nepalis in the UK: An Overview (Adhikari, ed., CNS-UK 2012), participation in community integration programmes, and feedback sessions where findings of the team's research were discussed with community representatives, religious leaders, and policymakers.
In research on religion and society, Professor Woodhead has argued for an updated, expanded understanding of `religion' and `belief' in the UK today. In part by leading to Woodhead's direction of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, the research has led to major impacts throughout 2008-13. In particular it has influenced the Equality and Human Rights Commission's handling of new equalities legislation, and it has significantly enhanced public discussion about religion through the high-profile Westminster Faith Debates, co-organised by Woodhead and the Rt Hon Charles Clarke. The Debates have reached millions, increasing recognition of religion's ongoing presence in public life and generating further policy impacts. The many beneficiaries include policy-makers in equalities issues, politicians, journalists and the general public.
Professor Richard Norman's research has led to an improvement in the public awareness of humanist thought and value, both at national and international level. This impact was generated through articles written for a non-academic audience; public lectures and conference presentations; a report on humanist issues as the centrepiece of parliamentary debate in the House of Lords; and an appearance to discuss humanist perspectives on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze.
Eamon Duffy has made a major contribution to the rediscovery of the lived experience of traditional religion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, enabling a re-assessment of the role of Catholicism during the English Reformation. His work has impacted on:
(i) Public discourse. Duffy's research is debated in circles well beyond higher education institutions, as is evidenced by the wide variety of publications in which his books are reviewed, the BBC's frequent use of his expertise in debate, and the numerous and well attended public talks he has given;
(ii) Cultural life. Duffy's work has influenced TV documentaries, museum exhibitions, RSC productions and other aspects of cultural life;
(iii) Education. Duffy's work has influenced the teaching of history both within the UK and internationally.
Professor Benjamin Kaplan is a pioneer of what has been called `the new history of toleration', which is of great significance to the public's understanding of the possibilities for peaceful coexistence between people of different faiths in the post-9/11 world. More than any other work in this revisionist school of historical writing, Kaplan's book Divided by Faith has been read and discussed by journalists, human rights organisations, churches and other non-academic audiences in North America, Britain and The Netherlands; it has also widely been used in university teaching. Kaplan's research has thus profoundly influenced public discourse and academic education regarding the history and character of religious toleration.
LSE research has contributed to institutional capacity building and to the renewal of the study of religion in the former Soviet Union. More specifically, the LSE anthropologist Mathijs Pelkmans has contributed to the training of a new generation of local scholars in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia; he has helped introduce these scholars to contemporary research and to innovative methodologies, and has mentored them in critical social science. As stated in one of the testimonials: "the ultimate value of Mathijs' engagement has been to intensify dialogue between different research, educational, and broadly scholarly traditions, and thereby to facilitate our own efforts to develop a discipline which is relatively new in Central Asia".
The estimated annual cost of addiction to drugs and alcohol in the UK is £37 billion, of which £1.2 billion is spent on treatment. Twelve-Step Programmes (TSPs) and Fellowships (TSFs) are proven to be as effective in the short term and more effective in the long term than other interventions (Project Match, 1997). The Higher Power Project (HPP) maps the spiritual and transformational experiences of those in TSPs. As governmental emphasis shifts from `harm reduction' towards `recovery', HPP's findings offer policy-makers, professionals and service-users a greater understanding of the `spiritual dimension' of TSPs and Fellowships, thereby informing policy and influencing practice.
The Religious Symbolism and Discrimination project consists of a body of research in the philosophy of religion that has effected changes in practice and awareness among religious practitioners, legal practitioners, and policy makers both within the North-West of England and nationally. This case study describes changes in users' awareness of the issues involved in religious-discrimination legal cases; changes in their religious literacy; and changes in their practice (particularly with regard to professional equalities training). The project delivered impact on civil life and public discourse through (a) a philosophical analysis of the concepts of symbol and belief in religious-discrimination cases; (b) a participatory research methodology that involved users in the construction of research right from the beginning; and (c) community-engagement activities devised to ensure that the research findings influenced users.
Today, religion has great social and political influence. Religion `returned' to politics and international relations following the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s. The case study focuses on a key expression of religion's influence: `religious soft power'. Religious soft power is the ability to wield influence in politics and international relations, despite the fact that religion has few conventional or `hard' attributes of power and influence (such as, financial, diplomatic or military resources). The research sets out strategies to enhance public understanding of religious soft power, including broadcast and internet dissemination, publishing ventures, and research seminars and conferences open to the public.