Chronic urban trauma, postsecular spaces and living with difference in a city neighbourhood

Abstract

Abstract This article contributes to debates that articulate the complexity of living with difference. It brings together the literatures on chronic urban trauma and postsecularity to argue for the need to consider the impact on neighbourhoods where the withdrawal of the state is leading to more services being provided by faith-based volunteers. The empirical material applies these concepts to three neighbourhoods in Sheffield within the 10 per cent most socio-economically deprived in the UK where White residents now form around 79 per cent of the population, rather than 90 per cent 20 years previously. It focuses on the neglected micro-scale of neighbourhood activists. At the same time, as the neighbourhoods have been changing demographically, they have also been impacted by austerity and the struggles of daily existence, leaving many at survival level. The proliferation of foodbanks and other services designed to plug gaps in the safety net of the welfare state involve complicated judgements for those who, often on a voluntary basis, come forward to meet the need. As public buildings run by local councils continue to be closed in cost-saving measures, many services run by faith groups have stepped up to fill the gaps. However, with evidence that people do not apply their equality values equally, the article raises concerns about postsecular solutions to ongoing austerity. Where faith-based provision has become an important part of the landscape of the poor, absences of people from diverse faiths in a neighbourhood may be building divisions for the future.