Full Description
There is an alleged crisis of cohesion in the UK, manifested in debates about identity and 'Britishness', the breakdown of social connections along the fault lines of geography, ethnicity, faith, income and age, and the fragile relationship between citizen and state. This book examines how these new dimensions of diversity and difference, so often debated in the national context, are emerging at the neighbourhood level.
Contributors from a range of disciplinary backgrounds critically assess, and go beyond the limits of, contemporary policy discourses on 'community cohesion' to explore the dynamics of diversity and cohesion within neighbourhoods and to identify new dimensions of disconnection between and within neighbourhoods. The chapters provide theoretically informed critiques of the policy responses of public, private, voluntary and community organisations and present a wealth of new empirical research evidence about the dynamics of cohesion in UK neighbourhoods. Topics covered include new immigration, religion and social capital, faith schools, labour and housing market disconnections, neighbourhood territoriality, information technology and neighbourhood construction, and gated communities.
"Community cohesion in crisis?" will be of interest to academics, policy makers, practitioners and students in the fields of human and urban geography, urban studies, sociology, politics, governance, social policy, criminology and housing studies.
Contents
Introduction ‾ John Flint and David Robinson; Community cohesion and the politics of communitarianism ‾ David Robinson; Community cohesion in Bradford: neoliberal integrationism ‾ Jon Burnett; Connectivity of placeand housing marker change: the case of Birmingham ‾ Ian Cole and Ed Ferrari; Shifting geographies of minority ethnic settlement: remaking communities in Oldham and Rochdale ‾ Deborah Phillips, Ludi Simpson and Sameera Ahmed ‾ Employment and disconnection: cultures of worklessness in neighbourhoods ‾ Del Roy Fletcher; Beyond 'social glue'? 'Faith' and community cohesion ‾ Robert Furbey; The third sector and community cohesion in deprived neighbourhoods ‾ Peter Wells; Welfare state institutions and secessionary neighbourhood spaces ‾ John Flint; New immigration and neighbourhood cohesion ‾ Kesia Reeve; Too much cohesion? Young people's territoriality in Glasgow and Edinburgh ‾ Keith Kintrea and Naofumi Suzuki; Geodemographics and the construction of differentiated neighbourhoods ‾ Roger Burrows; Secession or cohesion? Exploring the impact of gated communities ‾ Sarah Blandy; Conclusions ‾ John Flint and David Robinson.
