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In recent decades social cohesion has emerged as a major concern of states, policymakers and researchers. Social cohesion is represented as a desirable policy goal and as the basis for everything from economic growth to individual well-being. At the same time, it is increasingly presented as a single substance, which can be measured, tracked, and compared across diverse societies. But why should we think of the complex ways in which we can live well together in terms of a single substance? Social Cohesion Contested challenges this way of thinking, suggesting that social cohesion has become a buzzword that obscures more than it illuminates.
Dan Swain and Petr Urban trace the rise of the concept through the policy agendas of transnational and international bodies, and analyze the reactions of social researchers to the demands of policymakers for a clear and operationalizable concept. They argue that the term is frequently used in a way that assumes broad understanding and agreement, while in practice it is subject to contradictory definitions and often loaded with various implicit and explicit values, which become masked behind a veneer of scientific authority and normative legitimacy. The more that social cohesion is treated as a single substance with a clear and uncontroversial meaning, the more it narrows the space for debate and contestation around both the policies adopted in its name and the understanding of the social on which it rests. In contrast, if social cohesion is to mean anything it ought to be understood explicitly as a contested concept, and actively subject to contestation. The book thus provides not only a critique of a popular concept, but an example of engaged philosophical criticism of social research and policy.
List of contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Staking Out the Terrain - Key Trends and Directions In Social Cohesion
Chapter 2: From Radars to Regimes - Concepts Of Social Cohesion In Focus
Chapter 3: Between Economic Growth and Social Rights - European Policy Discourse
Chapter 4: Exporting Cohesive Societies - Social Cohesion and International Development
Chapter 5: Contesting Social Cohesion
Bibliography - Part A: Policy Literature
Bibliography - Part B: Research Literature
Index
About the Authors
About the author
By Dan Swain and Petr Urban
