Abstract

In the context of current debates about integration and social cohesion, the authors examine religiously underpinned social capital—capable of both bonding and bridging parts of the community—in a deprived part of inner-city Birmingham. On the basis of a series of qualitative interviews with key social actors and a critical engagement with relevant sociological theory, they demonstrate that an understanding of the locality must encompass the following key dimensions. First, local social capital needs to be understood as a response to social exclusion and infrastructural deprivation. Second, there is evidence of local conflict and interethnic cooperation as well as of a local habitus of shared dispositions and strategies. Third, local, religiously inflected social capital significantly intersects with transnational concerns, connections and movements. Fourth, religion plays a crucial role both in facilitating networks/initiatives and as a key motivational force for local activists.