Social Cohesion, Social Capital and the Neighbourhood

Abstract

In current theoretical and policy debates concerning social cohesion, the neighbourhood has re-emerged as an important setting for many of the processes which supposedly shape social identity and life-chances. It is in this context of a renewal of interest in local social relations and particularly the deployment of notions of social capital that this paper offers a critical review of a wide-ranging literature. The paper explores initially and briefly the idea that societies face a new crisis of social cohesion and outlines the key dimensions of societal cohesion. The core of the paper is then devoted to an examination of where the contemporary residential neighbourhood fits into these wider debates, particularly in relation to the interaction between social cohesion and social capital. In this context, some of the key debates around the concept of social capital are outlined. In moving beyond abstraction, the paper also shows how social capital can be broken down into relevant domains for policy action at the neighbourhood level and how concepts such as social cohesion and social capital can be operationalised for research purposes.

The role of familial habitus in shaping children's views of their future employment

“…The type of employment characteristic of this chain was also important to children. Olivia tempered her own aspirations for a career in professional sport with an expectation that a career in the police service may be a more realistic and family-sanctioned Research which considers the effect of family background on the labour market choices and outcomes of young people highlights the importance of class and social context (Forrest and Kearns, 2001;Green, 1997). MacDonald et al (2005) suggest that long-term experiences of 'poor work' in families and social networks influence the transitions of socially excluded young adults as class and place provide limited opportunities for escaping conditions of social exclusion.…”

The contribution of community enterprise to British urban regeneration in a period of state retrenchment

“…Similar trends can be observed in the USA (Varady et al 2015), most countries in the European Union (EC 2014) and indeed worldwide (Peredo and Chrisman 2006). Although a significant amount of research has been undertaken, the field is still dominated by discussions about definitions of different types of organisation (Teasdale 2011) and uncertainties about distribution and prescriptions about scale and relationship to social and community capital (Forrest and Kearns 2001). In Britain there is a high level of contingency in that each community enterprise evolves in response to different local conditions, the availability of assets and access to funding.…”

Religion and urban regeneration: a place for faith?

“…We argued earlier that globalisation and its related changes might increase the significance of space and place. However, in addition to the local neighbourhood, "there are many other sources [of social identity] partly dependent on our individual and collective time-geographies and action-spaces within the urban arena" (Forrest and Kearns, 2001). …”