Key barriers to community cohesion: views from residents of 20 London deprived neighbourhoods |
| |
Authors: | Marcello Bertotti Faye Adams-Eaton Kevin Sheridan Adrian Renton |
| |
Institution: | (1) IHHD (Institute for Health and Human Development), University of East London, Romford Road, London, E15 4LZ, UK |
| |
Abstract: | The notion of community has been central to the political project of renewal of New Labour in the UK. The paper explores how
the discourses of community are framed within New Labour and discusses these in the light of the results from research which
focuses on how people within urban deprived areas construct their community. It draws upon the results of one part of a larger
research project (the ‘Well London’ programme) which aimed to capture the views of residents from 20 disadvantaged neighbourhoods
throughout London using an innovative qualitative method known as the ‘World Café’. Our results show the centrality of young
people to the development of cohesive communities, the importance of building informal relationships between residents alongside
encouraging greater participation to policy making, and the need to see these places as fragile and temporary locations but
with considerable social strengths. Government policies are only partially addressing these issues. They pay greater attention
to formally encouraging citizens to become more involved in policy making, largely ignore the contribution young people could
make to the community cohesion agenda, and weakly define the shared norms and values that are crucial in building cohesive
communities. Thus, the conclusion is that whilst an emphasis of the government on ‘community’ is to be welcome, more needs
to be done in terms of considering the ‘voices’ of the community as well as enabling communities to determine and act upon
their priorities. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|