Chris Shannahan
Biographic Data
| ID | 1239938 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chris Shannahan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chris |
| FAMILY NAME | Shannahan |
| SIGNATURE | SHANNAHAN C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Birmingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7662-2004 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Subverting Poverty Stigma—Dub Theology and the Politics of Shame
Poverty stigma scapegoats people with direct experience of poverty, blaming and shaming them for being poor. The depiction of poverty as individual moral failure has enabled political leaders to sidestep its systemic causes. In breadline Britain the blaming and shaming of people in poverty as ‘undeserving’ ‘skivers’ has resembled a debilitating form of epistemic violence. Drawing on case studies and interview data from our Life on the Breadline p…
Politics, Poverty and the Church in an 'Age of Austerity
The 'Age of Austerity' has ruptured the social fabric of contemporary Britain. Arising from our three-year Life on the Breadline project, this article represents the first fieldwork-led analysis of the multidimensional nature of austerity-age poverty by academic theologians in the UK. The article analyses the impact that austerity has had on Christian responses to poverty and inequality in the UK. We draw on our six ethnographic case studies and …
Immanuel Kant Believed in Zombies
The Violence of Poverty
Faith groups are in the front line of the struggle to defeat poverty in breadline Britain. Given their roots in local communities Churches and Christian NGOs are well-placed to challenge economic policies that have resulted in the spiraling of food poverty, homelessness, personal debt and child poverty. By framing poverty as a political choice, a form of structural violence and systemic sin this paper brings peace studies and political theology i…
Zombie multiculturalism meets liberative difference
This paper grapples with an unresolved tension – twenty-first century Britain is indelibly multicultural and yet diversity is increasingly depicted as a threat to social cohesion. A society characterised by superdiverse cities where some suggest that ‘multiculturalism has failed’. On the basis of an analysis of three dominant theoretical and ideological discourses – community cohesion, multiculturalism and interculturalism – it will be argued tha…
Ways of Meeting and the Theology of Religions
No abstract available Review of David Cheetham, ‘Ways of Meeting and the Theology of Religions’
A Theology of Community Organizing
The rising importance of community organizing in the US and more recently in Britain has coincided with the developing significance of social movements and identity politics, debates about citizenship, social capital, civil society, and religion in the public sphere. At a time when participation in formal political process and membership of faith groups have both declined dramatically, community organizing has provided a new opportunity for small…
Neet’ believers? An analysis of ‘belief’ on an urban housing estate
This article explores the impact that the experience of deep-seated social exclusion amongst unemployed white young men on a large urban housing estate in Birmingham, UK has on the ways in which they talk about identity, meaning and ‘belief’. Arising from detailed ethnographic fieldwork, the article forwards an analysis of current debates about youth social exclusion and the deployment of the acronym ‘NEET’ with reference to these young men and o…
Civilisations in conflict? Islam, the West and Christian faith
Civilisations in conflict? Islam, the West and Christian faith, by J. Andrew Kirk, Oxford, Regnum Books, 2011, xii + 205 pp., £24.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-87034-587-3
Urban Ministry
Review of Ronald E Peters, 'Urban Ministry - An Introduction' in the International Journal of Public Theology
Negotiating faith on the Coventry Road
This article, which arises from three years of ethnographic fieldwork, explores the negotiation of faith, place and social identity amongst British-Muslim youth in one inner-city community in Birmingham, UK. Narratives drawn from fieldwork are brought into a critical dialogue with theoretical discourse about the nature of culture, the built urban environment, youth identities and contextualised religious discourse within the British-Muslim commun…
Islamic radicalism and multicultural politics
Islamic radicalism and multicultural politics: the British experience." Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 22(4), pp. 491–492
Theological Reflection
Review of Elaine Graham, Heather Walton, Frances Ward, ‘Theological Reflection: Sources’ in the International Journal of Public Theology
Babel or Pentecost? Faith, Difference and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century
This article emerges from many years work in diverse inner city communities. It suggests that urban Britain will be understood properly, and public theology engaged fully with contemporary society, by seriously exploring the normative and contested nature of difference. The article critiques the view that diversity poses a threat to communal life and exposes current examples of essentialist identity politics. It argues that identities premised on…
Ways of Meeting and the Theology of Religions
No abstract available Review of David Cheetham, ‘Ways of Meeting and the Theology of Religions’
Negotiating faith on the Coventry Road
This article, which arises from three years of ethnographic fieldwork, explores the negotiation of faith, place and social identity amongst British-Muslim youth in one inner-city community in Birmingham, UK. Narratives drawn from fieldwork are brought into a critical dialogue with theoretical discourse about the nature of culture, the built urban environment, youth identities and contextualised religious discourse within the British-Muslim commun…
The Violence of Poverty
Faith groups are in the front line of the struggle to defeat poverty in breadline Britain. Given their roots in local communities Churches and Christian NGOs are well-placed to challenge economic policies that have resulted in the spiraling of food poverty, homelessness, personal debt and child poverty. By framing poverty as a political choice, a form of structural violence and systemic sin this paper brings peace studies and political theology i…
Politics, Poverty and the Church in an 'Age of Austerity
The 'Age of Austerity' has ruptured the social fabric of contemporary Britain. Arising from our three-year Life on the Breadline project, this article represents the first fieldwork-led analysis of the multidimensional nature of austerity-age poverty by academic theologians in the UK. The article analyses the impact that austerity has had on Christian responses to poverty and inequality in the UK. We draw on our six ethnographic case studies and …
Zombie multiculturalism meets liberative difference
This paper grapples with an unresolved tension – twenty-first century Britain is indelibly multicultural and yet diversity is increasingly depicted as a threat to social cohesion. A society characterised by superdiverse cities where some suggest that ‘multiculturalism has failed’. On the basis of an analysis of three dominant theoretical and ideological discourses – community cohesion, multiculturalism and interculturalism – it will be argued tha…
Babel or Pentecost? Faith, Difference and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century
This article emerges from many years work in diverse inner city communities. It suggests that urban Britain will be understood properly, and public theology engaged fully with contemporary society, by seriously exploring the normative and contested nature of difference. The article critiques the view that diversity poses a threat to communal life and exposes current examples of essentialist identity politics. It argues that identities premised on…
Theological Reflection
Review of Elaine Graham, Heather Walton, Frances Ward, ‘Theological Reflection: Sources’ in the International Journal of Public Theology
Urban Ministry
Review of Ronald E Peters, 'Urban Ministry - An Introduction' in the International Journal of Public Theology
Negotiating faith on the Coventry Road
This article, which arises from three years of ethnographic fieldwork, explores the negotiation of faith, place and social identity amongst British-Muslim youth in one inner-city community in Birmingham, UK. Narratives drawn from fieldwork are brought into a critical dialogue with theoretical discourse about the nature of culture, the built urban environment, youth identities and contextualised religious discourse within the British-Muslim commun…
Islamic radicalism and multicultural politics
Islamic radicalism and multicultural politics: the British experience." Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 22(4), pp. 491–492
Neet’ believers? An analysis of ‘belief’ on an urban housing estate
This article explores the impact that the experience of deep-seated social exclusion amongst unemployed white young men on a large urban housing estate in Birmingham, UK has on the ways in which they talk about identity, meaning and ‘belief’. Arising from detailed ethnographic fieldwork, the article forwards an analysis of current debates about youth social exclusion and the deployment of the acronym ‘NEET’ with reference to these young men and o…
Civilisations in conflict? Islam, the West and Christian faith
Civilisations in conflict? Islam, the West and Christian faith, by J. Andrew Kirk, Oxford, Regnum Books, 2011, xii + 205 pp., £24.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-87034-587-3
A Theology of Community Organizing
The rising importance of community organizing in the US and more recently in Britain has coincided with the developing significance of social movements and identity politics, debates about citizenship, social capital, civil society, and religion in the public sphere. At a time when participation in formal political process and membership of faith groups have both declined dramatically, community organizing has provided a new opportunity for small…
Ways of Meeting and the Theology of Religions
No abstract available Review of David Cheetham, ‘Ways of Meeting and the Theology of Religions’
Zombie multiculturalism meets liberative difference
This paper grapples with an unresolved tension – twenty-first century Britain is indelibly multicultural and yet diversity is increasingly depicted as a threat to social cohesion. A society characterised by superdiverse cities where some suggest that ‘multiculturalism has failed’. On the basis of an analysis of three dominant theoretical and ideological discourses – community cohesion, multiculturalism and interculturalism – it will be argued tha…
The Violence of Poverty
Faith groups are in the front line of the struggle to defeat poverty in breadline Britain. Given their roots in local communities Churches and Christian NGOs are well-placed to challenge economic policies that have resulted in the spiraling of food poverty, homelessness, personal debt and child poverty. By framing poverty as a political choice, a form of structural violence and systemic sin this paper brings peace studies and political theology i…
Immanuel Kant Believed in Zombies
Politics, Poverty and the Church in an 'Age of Austerity
The 'Age of Austerity' has ruptured the social fabric of contemporary Britain. Arising from our three-year Life on the Breadline project, this article represents the first fieldwork-led analysis of the multidimensional nature of austerity-age poverty by academic theologians in the UK. The article analyses the impact that austerity has had on Christian responses to poverty and inequality in the UK. We draw on our six ethnographic case studies and …
Subverting Poverty Stigma—Dub Theology and the Politics of Shame
Poverty stigma scapegoats people with direct experience of poverty, blaming and shaming them for being poor. The depiction of poverty as individual moral failure has enabled political leaders to sidestep its systemic causes. In breadline Britain the blaming and shaming of people in poverty as ‘undeserving’ ‘skivers’ has resembled a debilitating form of epistemic violence. Drawing on case studies and interview data from our Life on the Breadline p…
Sociology (11 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Theology (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)