ABSTRACT
This chapter describes ongoing research into the processes by which political activity, at least in part, follows the contour lines of ethno-religious communities in Upton, a large, pseudonymous English city. It presents a project to assess the variable significance of religious collectivities as vehicles of political activity. To give the project a sharper focus, the chapter examines issues of school-level education as the site on which the interaction between religious and political forces takes place. Main reasons for positioning the issue of education at the centre of the project are that it is known to be both a constant, long-running site of political struggle at local level and a topic which elicits strong responses from ethno-religious communities. The chapter concentrates on how and why religious factors are central to some mobilisations of political action but not to others, even when school-level education is selected as the sole focus of the action.
