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Social Cohesion: Converging and Diverging Trends

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Andy Green ,
Germ Janmaat  and
Helen Cheng
Andy Green*
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, University of London
Germ Janmaat
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, University of London
Helen Cheng
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, University of London
*
e-mail: Andy.Green@ioe.ac.uk
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Abstract

Social theorists frequently argue that social cohesion is under threat in developed societies from the multiple pressures of globalisation. This article seeks to test this hypothesis through examining the trends across countries and regions in key indicators of social cohesion, including social and political trust, tolerance and perceptions of conflict. It finds ample evidence of long-term declines in cohesion in many countries, not least as exemplified by the erosion of social and political trust, which is particularly dramatic in the UK. The trends are not entirely convergent, since on most indicators Nordic countries have become more cohesive, yet each country faces challenges. In the final section the authors argue that different ‘regimes of social cohesion’ can be identified in specific clusters of countries which are based on different cultural and institutional foundations. In the ‘liberal model’, which applies in the UK and the US, the greatest threat to cohesion comes not from increasing cultural diversity, but from increasing barriers to mobility and the subsequent atrophy of faith in individual opportunity and meritocratic rewards — precisely those beliefs which have traditionally held liberal societies together.

Keywords

Social cohesiontrustinequalityD63D74
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 215 , January 2011 , pp. R6 - R22
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

∗

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Research on Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES); grant number RES-594-28-0001.

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