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ResearchArea: Employment Group
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Project leader(s): |
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Sponsor: |
Joseph Rowntree Foundation |
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Status: |
Completed |
Summary
Background and Aims
Over the last fifteen years social cohesion has emerged as an important policy concept. With respect to ethnic minority communities, the notion of social, and community, cohesion came to the fore following the disturbances in Burnley, Oldham and Bradford in the summer of 2001. Criticisms of the government's social cohesion agenda have centred on the lack of clarity over the meaning of the term and a tendency to decouple social cohesion from issues of racial equality. The research will investigate the nature and quality of (intra and inter) community interactions and relations at sites in two contrasting areas of the country: London and Manchester. It will examine patterns and dynamics of interaction between and within communities, including new migrants and established residents, in everyday settings, and explore how this impacts on experiences and perceptions of diversity, solidarity, belonging, disadvantage and racism.
Project Design
The project is a qualitative study, with several iterative stages. It will begin with a consultation of key stakeholders, including local authority personnel and staff and volunteers in community organisations serving the Somali, Black Caribbean and White British communities. Stage 2 of the research will involve depth interviews with sixty individuals drawn from a range of family types across these communities in each locality. Following some preliminary analysis, key issues and themes from the earlier stages of the research will feed into stage 3. This will entail depth interviews with key informants in the areas of housing, education, civic participation and paid work. As the overall data analysis nears completion, discussion sessions will take place in each area. These sessions will give participants an opportunity to comment on the themes arising in the research and facilitate discussion of how to promote constructive social cohesion.
Importance of Research
A comparison of two distinct geographical areas builds on recent literature suggesting that community relations and attachments are highly localised phenomena, established within everyday settings. The research seeks to understand which kinds of local contexts facilitate positive and productive cross-group interactions that promote inter-cultural understandings and dialogues across a range of differences. In addition, it will also seek to identify barriers and obstacles to the development of positive engagements between communities. These insights will have the potential to be applied creatively to other settings and contexts and provide questions for further research.
News
New PSI report examines financial and employment needs of social housing tenants
[added 01/07/2010]
Daylight saving: is it time for change?
[added 13/05/2010]
New PSI briefing on green fiscal reform
[added 15/06/2010]
Back to ‘the future’: assessing Britain in 2010
[added 12/05/2010]
Concerns expressed about support for people who need more help in Provider-led Pathways to Work
[added 23/02/2010]
More support needed for low-skilled workers to progress into better jobs
[added 09/02/2010]
Understanding social cohesion during
and following recession
[added 19/01/2010]
Lecture on innovation policy and the challenge of climate change
[added 09/02/2010]
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Address: Policy Studies Institute, 50 Hanson Street, London, W1W 6UP
E-mail: 
Telephone: 020 7911 7500 | 
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