ABSTRACT
The young people whose voices take prominence throughout this book live in unprecedented times of change, contrasts and complexity. Growing up in multicultural Britain, whether or not their heritage lies in this country, they are witnessing the evolution of population, institutional structure and accompanying systems of beliefs and morality within their communities, and making personal and shared adjustments to their religious identities, faith and practice. There are echoes between the experiences of these young people and their counterparts in other European countries, in North America, Australasia and other advanced societies (Scheffer, 2011) and, in investigating modern-day stories, the classic themes of early social science in the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been revisited. It was argued in the first chapter that despite great differences between then and now, both periods have experienced enormous demographic movement and the transformation of city life.
