Reconciling Diversity and Community Defining Social Cohesion in

Reconciling Diversity and Community? Defining Social Cohesion in Developed Democracies Allison Harell & Dietlind Stolle

Valuing Community What makes a community and why do we care? • community evokes feelings of ‘togetherness’ • provides for identity and personal roots • lack of community associated with social dysfunction

Uses of Social Cohesion Shared Identity common backgrounds and values Networks and Norms social capital and informal social control Access and Inequality income heterogeneity and the welfare state

Critiques Assumption of Homogeneity Dominant Focus on Shared Values Aggregation Problems Causal Under-Specification

A Re-Definition “cooperative relations among individuals and groups of individuals based on mutual respect, equality and norms of reciprocity”

A Re-Definition Three key components: • Structural Equalities Income inequality, political inequality and inequality of resources across salient cleavages • Extensive and Bridging Networks The number of friends and acquaintances as well as composition questions • Facilitative Values Cooperative norms and support for democratic process

Model of Social Cohesion Structural Equality Among Groups Quality of Democracy Crime/Safety Facilitative Values Institutions Extensive & Bridging Networks Among Individuals Economy Political and Social Stability Social Support System Population Health

Comparing Communities Networks Among Individuals Structural Equality Among Groups Isolated and Disconnected Extensive and Overlapping Large Gaps Social Exclusion Structural Fragmentation Small or Non. Existent Gaps Anomie Social Cohesion

A Step in the Right Direction? • Deal with causation issues • Link micro and macro • Take account of the political dimension • Distribution of values across groups • Applies across levels of analysis

Reconciling Community & Diversity Social cohesion must be reframed as… A set of social processes and relationships that allow for peaceful and mutually respectful interaction in diverse societies And recognize that inequality, rather than diversity, is the primary threat