Definition
Social cohesion refers to the extent of connectedness and solidarity among groups in society. It identifies two main dimensions: the sense of belonging of a community and the relationships among members within the community itself. It stems from a democratic effort to establish social balance, economic dynamism, and national identity, with the goals of founding a system of equity, sustaining the impulses of uncontrolled economic growth, and avoiding social fractures.
Social cohesion is a social process which aims to consolidate plurality of citizenship by reducing inequality and socioeconomic disparities and fractures in the society. It reflects people’s needs for both personal development and a sense of belonging and links together individual freedom and social justice, economic efficiency and the fair sharing of resources, and pluralism and common rules for resolving all conflicts.
Description
There are many different definition and consequently conceptual approaches to...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Canadian Government. (1999). Final report on social cohesion. Ottawa: The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science, and Technology.
Council of Europe. (2005). Methodological guide on social cohesion policy. Retrieved April 2013, from http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/socialpolicies/socialcohesi ondev/source/GUIDE_en.pdf
Durkheim, E. (1893). The division of labor in society (G. Simpson, Trans.). New York: The Free Press.
Easterly, W., Ritzen, J., & Woolcock, M. (2006). Social cohesion, institutions, and growth. Economics and Politics, 18(2), 103–120. Wiley Blackwell, 2007.
Rossel, S. (1995). Changing maps: Governing in a world of rapid change. Ottawa: Carleton Univerity Press.
Ritzen, J., Easterly, W., & Woolcock, M. (2000). On ‘good’ politicians and ‘bad’ policies: Social cohesion, institutions and growth.
Rudiger, A., & Spencer, S. (2004). Meeting the challenge: Equality, diversity and cohesion in the European Union’, Paper presented to the Joint European Commission/OECD conference on the economic effects and social aspects of migration, Brussels.
Stanley, D. (2001). Holding the centre: What we know about social cohesion. Strategic Research and Analysis and the Social Cohesion Network.
Stanley, D. (2003). What do we know about social cohesion: The research perspective of the Federal Government’s Social Cohesion Research Network. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 28(1), 5–18.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Manca, A.R. (2014). Social Cohesion. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2739
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2739
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0752-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0753-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law