45 Years of Research and Writing - A biographical Catalogue

EARLY 1970s Student Days and VSO in India

During this period I completed a first degree in Lingusitics at Reading University and followed this with a year in India with Voluntary Service Overseas. I was a teaching assistant in a residential school in Andhra Pradesh.

LATE 1970s Newham Community Renewal Programme and M.Phil Reasearch

In 1975 I moved to Newham in Eat London to work as a trainee community worker with the Renewal Programme. I was responsible for managing a community centre which was based in a reduntant church and for community English classes for members of the South Asian communities, many of who had recently arrived as refugees from East Africa. The Renewal Programme supported my M.Phil research based on filedwork with teenagers in local secondary schools.

 

 

 

 

EARLY 1980s Lingusitic Minorities Programme and Canning Town Methodist Church

From 1979 to 1985 I held two part time jobs as lay pastor in the Methodist Church in Canning Town and as Research Officer with the Linguistic Minorities Project at the Institute of Education, University of London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Late 1980s Evangelical Coalition for Urban Mission

From 1985 I worked for the Evangelical Coalition for Urban Mission, first as one of their London field Officers and later as National Development officer. This was in the period following the influential Faith  in The City report. I turned my attention from linguistics to sociology of religion and community studies and wrote extensively on urban mission topics, with a focus on local religious and ethnic diversity and a commitment to racial justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MID 1990s Aston Community Involvement Unit

From 1990 (having recently married and started a family) I returned to local community work as research officer with Aston Charities Community Involvement Unit. I was responsible for a number of participatory research projects in partnerships with local voluntary, community and faith sector organisations. I became a trustee of the Association of Research in the Voluntary Sector and published extensively from the findings of local research in Newham. An increasing number of my outputs appeared in peer reviewed academic journals and I became an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of East London, Centre for Institutional Studies and a regular participant in academic conferences in sociology of religion and voluntary sector studies. As a sideline I wrote about cycling from the perspective of a local cycling campaigner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

1998 -2005 University of East London

During this period I went onto the payroll of UEL as a Research Fellow undertaking a series of projects for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, alongside some other casual and freelance work. My publications centred on the debates around social capital, faith and urban regeneration policy and the sociology of ethno-religious diversity. In 2002 we relocated from Newham to Preston and found a new environement for urban mission, community work and research studies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2005 -2010 Salvation Army Preston and William Temple Foundation

From 2005 I was employed as Community Manager for the Salvation Army in Preston. At various points I was able to do some freelance work and spent some time on the payroll of William Temple Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2010 -2016 Together Lancashire and Evangelical Alliance

From 2011 I was employed in two part time jobs. I worked for Together Lancashire as development worker helping local churches to develop social action intiatives and support networks. I was also Research Mangager for the Evangelical Alliance 21st Century Evangelicals Research programme. I also became an honorary Associate Research Fellow for the William Temple Foundation. Most of my publications were based on the research on evangelicalism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

2017 -- Retirement and Retrospection

I continue to be active in retirement in urban church work and City of Sanctuary, and in my role with William Temple Foundation. Writing now is mainly retrospective while I have become commissioning editor for a new series of Temple Urban Tracts.



    

1972 Undergaduate Dissertation

Language in Zagreb 


(1975) Some errors of Telugu speakers of English (Journal of
Central Institute of English Hyderbad India   

(1979) Attitudes to Language in a Multicultural Community in East London

Thesis submitted to the University of London,University College London, September 1979, and awarded the degree of Master of Philosophy

February 1980  "Language and Racial Attitudes in East London", Unpublished
M.Phil Thesis University College London

conference papers based on this

  • Language and Society in Newham
  • Language and Racial Stereotypes
  • Accent Class and Religion
  • Religious Attitudes of Teenagers

All the papers listed above can be accessed in this folder





LINGUISTIC MINORITIES PROJECT AND COMMUNITY LANGUAGES & EDUCATION
PROJECT 1979-1985

I have set up an archive of papers from this project

HERE


Greg Smith was one of six collective authors of:
"The Other Languages of England" (1985) Routledge & Kegan Paul (a revival edition was published in 2017)

and


"Linguistic Minorities in England" The report of LMP submitted to the DES in July 1983

download here      Summary is here

Greg Smith alone published:

"Locating Populations of Minority Language Speakers: An example of practice from the Coventry Languages Project" (1982) LMP working Papers No 1   DOWNLOAD HERE

"The Geography and Demography of South Asian languages in
England: some methodological problems: (1982) LMP working Papers No.2. download here

(Part of this republished in India in 1983 in a collection
"Essays in honour of by Regional Institute of English,
Bangalore) download here

"Representative Sampling of Linguistic Minorities" (1984) LMP
working Paper No. 4. download here

"Language, Ethnicity, Employment, Education and Research: The Struggle of Sylheti Speaking People in London (1985) LMP Working Paper No. 13


and was also joint author of LMP working papers Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

All LMP / CLE publications were once available from Information Office, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL


Urban Mission 1983-1991 :Published monographs

"Community Development and Christian Mission" is one chapter in a book of essays in theology of community work from six practitioners. In "Changing the Agenda" (1989) British Council of Churches:

Smith G. (1989) "Evangelicals and Liberation Theology" from
Christian Urban Resource Unit, University of Bradford

Entry on "City" in IVP's new Dictionary of Ethics and Pastoral Theology

Urban Mission 'Grey literature' : Ecum In House Publications


A number of discussion papers and reports written by Greg Smith
include.

1) Biblical Bases of Socio-Political Action

2) Mission Audits: Resources for UPA Churches

3) Mission Audits: towards an appropriate methodology.

4) Base Communities: Models of Good Practice in Urban UK.

5) Mustard Seed Missions 1987
(a report on 17 local innner city evangelistic campaigns)

6) Crumbletown:  A role play exercise
looking at the politics of inner city housing.

7) Ray Bakke Tour 1987 ( A report on consultations in seven
British cities by Greg Smith & John Oliver)


8) Report on a visit to Singapore and Asia Theological
Association Urban Ministry conference. 


9)"Christian Youth Work in Newham 1986" with Shirley Jackson
  
A report of the Newham Youth for Christ Survey of 86 churches.

10) Newham Churches and Homelessness (1990) report on NCRP's
pastoral care of the homeless working party.
 



Articles in Christian magazines etc CITY CRIES and ECUM Bulletin :

I held partial editorial responsibilities for this magazine and
briefing notes on Urban Mission from 1987-91:

Articles published here by Greg Smith include:

 

Third Way articles etc   All of these Third way articles are now archived and available on Google Books.


Red & Yellow Black & white (ethnic churches)  Third Way August 1984


Open letter to Brian Griffiths February 1986


The Newham Sect (Christians in politics) 1987  In Third Way October 1987 

Review article on Books about Liberation Theology July 1989

On insurance (1991)  In Third Way April 1991

You and Who Else (on concept and theology of community)  In Third Way Feb 1995

 Miscellaneous Other


Various articles and served on editorial board of "Church Growth Digest" (1987 - 1992)

Various articles and partial editorial responsibility from 1980
to present in "Racial Justice" magazine of Evangelical Christians for Racial Justice.

Papers And Reports In  Community work and Urban Ministry



Smith G. (1991) "Poverty and its Alleviation ; Strategies for
Community Work"
from Christian Urban Resource Unit, University of Bradford

Smith G. (1993) "Neighbourhood Profiles; Pt.1 Some Background onSurveys and the Census. Pt.2 Doing a Survey and Presenting the Results" published as Alliance Briefings No 8 & No. 9 by Churches Community Work Alliance, Westhill College, Birmingham. (The same
material is also published by the Association of Community
Workers in their "Talking Point" series of papers and as part of
the ACW "Community Work Training Skills Manual".

Smith G. (1994) "(Almost) All You Could Ever Want To Know;
Newham in the 1991 Census, Implications for Community Work" in "Newham Needs and Responses ; CIU Annual for 1994" , Aston Community Involvement Unit.


Smith G. (1993) "West Ham Parish Survey Report" summary version     and Full Report

Smith G. (1994) "Neighbourhood and Networks in Newham; report on a research project ...... by a team of medical students" from
Aston Community Involvement Unit.

Smith G. & Rodrigues D. (1994) "The directory of Research in Newham" published by Newham Community Research Forum available from Aston Community Involvement Unit.


 (1995) "Poverty Ethnicity and Geography: Newham in the 1991 Census" working paper of Geography Dept. Queen Mary & Westfield College, London  Summary of this Smith G (1996) "Census Data" and the Church Urban Fund (guidelines for funders)". in Crucible..


Smith G (circulated by Aston CIU) "Census information on Newham;Update of Findings and Sources Spring 1995

  

Directory Database of Religious Groups in Newham  1992

(funded by Aston Charities Trust) with report on the findings and implications of this commissioned by LB Newham Social Services Dept.

and 2nd Edition 1994-95

with 3rd edition 1999

1996 "The Unsecular City" in Rustin & Butler "Rising in the East" London, Lawrence & Wishart ( much of the data and argument i s also in this presentation to the Marchant Seminar 1995)

 

(1996) "Ties, nets and an elastic bund: The concept of community in postmodern society

" in Community Development Journal July 1996 (Oxford)


7) "Networking for Urban Mission; A case study of the UK in the 1980s"

(it was refereed and accepted for publication in Urban Mission Journal in the USA but the journal went broke and ceased to publish

other papers on Social Network Analysis

Paper on religious networks in Newham presented at ISSR Toulouse 1997

looks at inter church relationships in East London...

...

Unpublished paper More than a little quiet care... analyis of the contribution of churches to social welfare in East London

IT Rams CD.. How Community Work Became Computer Work Published alongside Bulletin of Standing Conference on Community Development September 1999

1999 With F. Handem "CANNING TOWN AND FAMILY LIFE TODAY STATISTICAL REVIEW"by FELISBERTA HANDEM & GREG SMITH JULY 1999 Aston Community Involvement Unit, London E7 9AB


Building Bridges or Barriers Christians and Muslims in Newham: in City Cries Journal of ECUM, No 36 (autumn 1998)

 

"Community - arianism"

On line Book: Community and Communitarianism; Concepts and contexts by Greg Smith

This book length manuscript was first published in 1996 on the Web by UK Communities Online Download Pdfs of chapters


1998a) A Very Social Capital; Measuring the vital signs of Community Life in Newham in "Rising East" Vol.2. no.1. London Lawrence & Wishart ... reprinted in Building Civil Society&.(1998) eds. Knight B Smerdon M & Pharoah C . , West Malling Kent. Charities Aid Foundation pp 51-73

(1998b) Ethnicity Religious Belonging and Interfaith Encounter : Some Survey Findings from East London (1998) in Journal of Contemporary Religion Vol 13. No3 pp 333-351 "



THE CRAP REPORT ON EMPLOYABILITY IN CANNING TOWN MARCH 2001

The Community Research Action Project (CRAP) was a piece of research carried out by Aston Mansfield CIU for the Canning Town SRB Partnership on the Rathbone Estate in Canning Town between November 2000 and March 2001. (summary of report)

 The Barking Road Community Audit

A REPORT BY GREG SMITH OF THE ASTON MANSFIELD COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT UNIT ABOUT A COMMUNITY PROFILE CARRIED OUT ON BEHALF OF A LOCAL GROUP OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND VOLUNTARY AGENCIES.

Cycling

These pieces (and others) are archived here in this folder

"ON YOUR BIKE NEWHAM: The cyclists guide to East London" (1989)Greg Smith joint author with other members of London Cycling Campaign (Newham Group).

Smith G. (2000) "Cars Crush Cycling" in Electronic Journal: Social Issues Volume One. Issue 1 December 2000-March 2001 Special First Edition: The New Oil Crisis

 'Faith Makes Community Work,' 2000

Report of an evaluation of Shaftesbury's community worker scheme, in the wider context of faith-based regeneration funded by the DETR Summary Here


6) Feasibility study for East London Day Centre for Homeless People with Alexis Keir for Newham Community Renewal Programme, followed by evaluation of the Turnaround Project Spring 2000


Smith G. (2000 C..) Global Systems and Religious Diversity in the Inner City  Migrants in the East End of London" MOST Journal on Multicultural Societies, Vol. 2, No. 1 ISSN 1564-4901 © UNESCO, 2000

 

 Smith G. (2001) 'Religion as a source of social capital in the regeneration and globalisation of East London', (2001) Rising East, (vol 4. No.3 Spring 2001). London, Lawrence and Wishart.

Religion and the Rise of Social Capitalism (2002) in Community Development Journal (April 2002 edition) Oxford. OUP.

Engaging Faith Communities in Urban Regeneration

At the end of September 2002 I finished working on a JRF funded research project on (Full report Here) set up in collaboration with Coventry University and Sheffield Hallam University.

 Smith G. (2002). "Community Research: A practitioner's perspective on methods and values." The journal of community work and development 1(3): 31-48.

Smith G. (2003). Faith in the Voluntary Sector : A common or distinctive experience of religious organisations? Manchester, Working Papers in Applied Social Research, Dept of Sociology: University of Manchester.


Smith G. (2003), "The Christ of the Barking Road" in J.Vincent (ed) "Faithfulness in the City " published by Monad press, St. Deiniols Library, Hawarden, CH5 3DFand from 2011 a sequel from Preston : The Christ of Fishergate Hill by Greg Smith.. A contextual and Biblical Reflection

 

Smith G & Soteri-Procter A. (2004) Tracing and Mapping: the challenges of compiling databases and directories  in Social Research Update, Issue 42 published on paper and on the web quarterly by the Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2

Smith G. (2004). "Implicit Religion and Faith Based Urban Regeneration"… in Implicit Religion Vl 7 No 2 Augut 2004

Smith G. (2004). "Faith in Community and Communities of Faith? Government Rhetoric and Religious Identity in Urban Britain." Journal of Contemporary Religion Vol. 19, No. 2, May 2004

 

Smith G. (2004) "Building Community; within and without the walls of the church" in eds Eastman M. & Latham S. (2004) "Urban Church; a Practitioners Resource Book" London, SPCK, ISBN 0-281-05603- X


Urban Ministry and Mission in Preston : Towards a Strategic Overview. A paper for Preston Christian Action Network and the Anglican Commission On Urban Life And Faith OCTOBER 2004:

Smith G (2005) "Children’s Perspectives on Believing and Belonging"

London: National Children's Bureau for Joseph Rowntree Foundation 84pp. ISBN 1 904787 53 3

Summary Findings here 

(an unpublished paper arising from this work can be downloaded here.


Smith G. (2006) Religious Identities, Social Networks and the Power of Information ;Field work issues in mapping religious diversity in London    in Fieldwork in Religion vol 1 no 3 September 2006

Great Gulfs and Chasms 2006

- Greg Smith on the Bridge Builders Project in Preston paper presented 15th June 2006 , NCVO, London at ESRC NCVO seminar on Faith-based voluntary action, published report from the ESRC or available on the web HERE

 

February 2006 :   Reports and working papers from the Bridge Builders Preston Project

A project funded by MB Reckitt Trust...Working for greater understanding and co-operation between the faith communities and local statutory agencies.All the reports and working papers of the project are available here


Smith G. Faith in Local Government: The emergence of religion in the politics of an Inner London Borough 1975-2006:   

in The Politics and Religion Journal  Volume IV (No. 2) - Autumn 2010 ISSN 1820 - 659X (online) or Here  


Baker C. and Smith G., (2011) “Spiritual, religious and social capital – exploring their dimensions and their relationship with faith-based motivation and participation in UK civil society.”  Summary working paper Manchester: William Temple Foundation (Based on a paper presented at the BSA Sociology of Religion Group Conference, Edinburgh April 2010)   Statistical appendix Here

Faith and Volunteering in the UK: Towards a Virtuous Cycle for the Accumulation of Social, Religious and Spiritual Capital?
Diaconia. Journal for the Study of Christian Social Practice
2011/2,2
  p. 175–193  available here


 "Faith, Progressive Localism & the Hol(e)y Welfare Safety Net" ebook for the William Temple Foundation 

Greg Smith April 2015

An analysis of the British welfare system takes a candid look at the role of faith-based organisations, asking how and why these groups have tried to plug service gaps. With case studies from local authorities in North West England, Greg Smith brings together and builds on some of the most significant research on religion, poverty and the welfare state from over the last decade. "Faith, Progressive Localism & the Hol(e)y Welfare Safety Net" is available to download now." Kindle version £2.99 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Progressive-Localism-Welfare-Safety-Temple-ebook/dp/B00W1SLFW6/

or  here

‘The Seven Pillars of Religion in the Public Sphere (or what on earth is religion?)’ by Greg Smith

Temple Tract Greg Smith - August 2016
ebook for the William Temple Foundation

available to download here: http://amzn.to/2bBg44X    

or here


G.Smith - Edited Volume 2015
21st Century Evangelicals Reflections on Research

Buy it here 

The draft text of this is available here 

Evangelicals and the Encounter with Islam: Changing Christian Identity in Multi-Faith Britain.

Smith, G. (2018). Entangled Religions, 5, 154-209. https://doi.org/10.13154/er.v5.2018.154-209 https://er.ceres.rub.de/index.php/ER/article/view/7343 or

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19oVfwoZWBPHmJFZvLhuJkIb1IQ4Ss-DE/view?usp=sharing  


Testimony and Theodicy: Evangelical Christians, answered and unanswered prayers for healing  in

Theology and Ministry  Volume 5 (2018) download from

https://www.dur.ac.uk/theologyandministry/volumes/5/ 
  or https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gfbhItAGU0RAfMk5UpgGvvNv8CmJ8vca/view?usp=sharing

   

Smith, Greg., 2017, 'Evangelical Social Action in the UK',

Crucible, the Journal of Christian Social Ethics, October, pp. 25–37

can be accessed here

 

Does Faith Make You Healthy and Happy? The Case of Evangelical Christians in the UK 

Greg Smith, William Temple Foundation : June 2017 The Journal of Religion & Society Religion and Politics [ Supplement 14 ]

Edited by Ronald A. Simkins and Zachary B. Smith, Creighton University Free Download pdf at

https://dspace2.creighton.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10504/113358/2017-19.pdf

or https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7UDiSlsmmA8SllNTm01bW03RFE

 

Religion and Brexit: populism and the Church of England

Smith, G. and Woodhead, L., 2018. Religion and Brexit: populism and the Church of England. Religion, State & Society, 46(3), pp.206-223. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09637494.2018.1483861

Or

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16KVk3d02QnYB18zyEdY5L9Dp7dFU9tC5

The Revenge of the Racists and the Silence of those who Worship the Lamb |

 Greg Smith (2018)

In a provocative and timely new Temple Tract, Greg Smith provides a sociological and theological reflection on populist nationalism, religious prejudice, xenophobia and racism in the contemporary context of the United Kingdom and especially England, with comparisons with the USA and Europe. Drawing on new empirical research on religion and Brexit voting trends, along with decades of activism in the church, Greg considers how we can better respond to the challenges of xenophobic and racist social attitudes.

Can be dowloaded for free at http://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/temple-tracts-series-4/

   


Trans-Atlantic Evangelicalism: Toxic, Fragmented or Redeemable? (2020)

Greg Smith


In the wake of the 2020 US presidential election, Greg Smith investigates the rapidly changing, and often fraught, nature of evangelical identity in both the US and the UK. Drawing on survey data from the Evangelical Alliance, Smith offers a nuanced picture of evangelical self-understanding in relation to British values, moral questions, contemporary politics and our current culture wars. What, asks Smith, is the future for evangelical identity on both sides of the Atlantic?
https://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/temple-tracts/

or at https://drive.google.com/file/d/14cJ6XwAiT4TK9DkgVcE7BI6rURBlpx1P/view?usp=sharing

   

MAY 2021

How can we create multicultural church? Blog Article for Psephizo May 2021

My latest William Temple blog considers some of the complex relationships between flag, state, and church: Is Britain Flagging


Urban Mission 40 Years On (July 2021)

This first instalment of the William Temple Founation Urban Tracts series offers an overview of urban ministry since the early 1980s and draws out some important lessons from the last 40 years. Are there distinctive characteristics and key principles that are transferable to new places, new times, and a new generation of practitioners? As we head, post-pandemic, towards a ‘new normal’ for urban society and the church there are exciting opportunities to be grasped.

Or download here


The Ordinary Theology of British Evangelicals : The Bebbington Quadrilateral and Beyond (October 2021)

 this is my final paper based on data from the Evangelical Alliance 21st Century Evangelicals Research Programme

Download direct from

https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/theologyandministry/Volume7/TheoMin7_31-54_SmithG_BritishEvangelicals.pdf

 

In THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY 7 (2021): 31–54 ISSN 2049-4513

© THE AUTHOR    This is an open access article distributed under a CC BY 4.0 licence www.theologyandministry.org

2023  .Is there still Faith in the City. Blog https://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/is-there-still-faith-in-the-city/?



August 2023
Children, Religion and Social Capital: Bonding and Bridging in Multi-faith Urban Neighbourhoods by Greg Smith
Based on a research project I carried out 20 years ago

Cover Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 33

Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 33

New Vistas in the Study of Religious and Non-religious Belief

Series: 

https://brill.com/display/title/64742