Edited by Nick Johnson.
Published 2008 (ISBN 1 905370 35 0) Price £9.95
The challenge of how we build sustainable and cohesive communities at both local and national level is one of the key debates of public policy. We live in a time of rapid change generated by globalisation, demography and technology. Britain, despite its status as one of the world’s richest economies and most diverse societies, is still a place of inequality, exclusion and isolation. Segregation between communities seems to be growing in some parts of the country. Extremism, both political and religious, is on the rise as people become more disillusioned and disconnected. The recent Commission on Integration and Cohesion report, Our Shared Future, argued the need to focus on developing policy solutions that enable people to live together rather than side by side, that promote greater shared identity, that support new migrants in adapting to life in Britain, that define what it means to be a citizen, and that instil a greater sense of civic responsibility and social solidarity into all those in our society. We need to make Britain, in the words of the Chief Rabbi’s new book, “the home we build together”. Building on this recent work, the essays in this monograph seek to articulate more fully where the policy debate has taken us and to identify the implications for delivery at a local level. The authors come from a variety of backgrounds and we aim to bring a combination of the academic, practitioner and policy-maker perspective to these issues. Most importantly, the essays aim to take the issue forward. The time for abstract discussions is over; it is now time to deliver on cohesion.