Lessons from the A-levels fiasco: putting culture and values at the heart of policymaking

The problems behind the recent exam results chaos illustrate a more general need to rethink which factors shape public policy, writes Stephen Muers. He discusses the role of legitimacy, context, and symbolism in UK policymaking

The seed and the day of small things:Finding power and powerlessness in Quaker theology

This paper explores early Quaker uses of ‘the Seed’ and of ‘the day of small things’, and the theology of power and powerlessness that emerges from a consideration of these key images. I argue for a theological account of power that begins from the experience of ‘being empowered’ through the active presence of the Holy Spirit – an experience which I take to be central for, although far from unique or or even distinctive to, early Quakerism. I argue that divine empowerment, expressed and explored in reflections on the seed and on the day of small things, sets up an economy of power that avoids the ‘power struggle’ that often characterises representations of power and its distribution, within and beyond theology

Organizational ethnography and religious organizations: the case of Quaker decision-making

How should we study the management practices of religious organizations to do justice to their distinctive religious motivations and traditions? In this article, we articulate how a specific research approach – organizational ethnography – may enable a deeper understanding of religious and/or spiritual organizational practice. We approach our methodological research questions by engaging with the literature on the distinctive decision-making practices of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), commonly known as the Quaker business method. Having shown that the Quaker business method destabilizes a simple binary between “insider” and “outsider” and between believers and nonbelievers, we bring the theory and practice of organizational ethnography into conversation with Quaker accounts of decision-making. We conclude with pathways for future research in the space this destabilization creates

Organisational ethnography and religious organisations: The case of Quaker decision-making

How should we study the management practices of religious organizations to do justice to their distinctive religious motivations and traditions? In this paper, we articulate how a specific research approach – organizational ethnography – may enable a deeper understanding of religious and/or spiritual organizational practice. We approach our methodological research questions by engaging with the literature on the distinctive decisionmaking practices of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), commonly known as the Quaker business method. Having shown that the Quaker business method destabilizes a simple binary between ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ and between believers and non-believers, we bring the theory and practice of organizational ethnography into conversation with Quaker accounts of decision-making. We conclude with pathways for future research in the space this destabilization creates

Always with You: Questioning the Theological Construction of the Un/Deserving Poor

The cultural persistence and political salience of the ‘un/deserving poor’ – the moral categorization of people in poverty – rests, inter alia, on the use of Christianity to construct a class-inflected position from which to judge or categorize the lives of others. Interpretation of the claim that the poor are ‘always with you’ (Matthew 26:11) plays a role in this process of asymmetrical moralization, specifically through the framing of ‘the poor’ as a class with divinely-mandated functions and virtues. To develop theological challenges to asymmetrical moralization, I examine patterns in contemporary and historical interpretation of the gospel accounts of the woman who anoints Jesus (the wider context of the claim that the poor are ‘always with you’). I propose that, while many interpreters attempt to use these texts to establish a position from which to judge both the woman and ‘the poor’, they can be reread in a way that undermines that construction

«The Poor Will Never Cease»: Theological-Textual Configurations of Time, Responsibility and Justice

Theological ethics, particularly Christian theological ethics, is very well-equipped both to treat the interests and needs of future generations as a genuine and pressing concern – and also to evade some of the questions they pose about temporality, by appealing to judgement beyond history. Phenomenological approaches to the question of future generations are important as a counterbalance to this tendency in theological ethics, insofar as they force us to remain with, and wrestle with, the relation to future persons as future. In this article I show that drawing on phenomenological approaches, in order to attend to temporality, produces an account of justice and responsibility to future generations that is more adequate theologically, as well as ethically. Attending to how the other, the future and the imperative of justice interrelate yields an approach to theological ethics that does not need to assume for the ethicist the God’s-eye view – the view from outside time, narrative or interpersonal encounter – and that is thus able to grapple with the core questions raised by bringing future generations into ethics