Introduction: Community Cohesion – A New British Policy Agenda

Abstract

At times over the past decade it was felt as if Britain’s media and politicians have talked about little else but the interrelated issues of youth, multiculturalism and community cohesion. The violent disturbances in the English northern towns and cities of Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in the summer of 2001 saw Pakistani- and Bangladeshi-origin young people clash with the police, as well as with white young men, and led to media fears that ̒Britain was witnessing the development of a violent and oppositional ‘Asian gang’ (Alexander, 2000) subculture. These events prompted a significant re-shaping of government policy approaches to ‘race relations’ (Solomos, 2003), the meaning and impact of which is the key focus of this book, with the emergence of ‘community cohesion’ (Cantle, 2001; Home Office, 2005) as both an explanation for existing problems between different ethnic communities, and as a goal for future progress. All public bodies in Britain now have a duty to promote community cohesion, and public support for cohesion is regularly measured at the local level (DCLG, 2008b). This cohesion analysis of ‘parallel lives’ suggested that profound physical and cultural ethnic segregation in many parts of the country had led to racial tensions and to separate and oppositional identities that urgently need to be overcome in favour of common identities and values if Britain’s multi-ethnic society is to operate successfully and peacefully.