Strengthening Social Cohesion In Conflict Affected Societies

Bilateral and multilateral donors are increasingly focusing on strengthening social cohesion in efforts to build and sustain peace in conflict-affected societies. What does promoting social cohesion mean with respect to international engagement? This policy brief provides an overview of the “social cohesion” approach, explains how it applies to conflict-affected and fragile contexts, and introduces a typology of common interventions. It discusses the added value of taking a social cohesion approach to development and peacebuilding practice, as well as challenges policymakers and practitioners may encounter when using it. Social cohesion can be understood as positive relations among individuals and groups (the horizontal dimension) and between society and the state (the vertical dimension). While fostering, rebuilding or sustaining cohesion are challenges for any society, they are particularly difficult in conflict settings where divisions fuel violence and violence reinforces divisions. We argue that taking a social cohesion approach in divided, conflict-affected societies offers several advantages. First, it has the potential to focus intervention on less tangible aspects of conflict - drawing attention to overlooked grievances and bringing tensions between groups and the state into focus. Second, it helps integrate a peacebuilding lens in a broad variety of policy spaces. Third, it helps policymakers to integrate citizen perspectives into development strategies and to focus on the provision of quality peace for all citizens. Taking a social cohesion approach, however, also brings challenges. It may be sensitive for external actors to address social grievances, identity-based divisions and power relations. Dominant groups may feel threatened in their position of power and push back against these attempts, or tensions among historically marginalised groups may cause friction. Donors may experience backlash against programmes that directly address sensitive topics. At the same time, if the intent is to take a transformative approach to building social cohesion, it may be difficult for donors to maintain a neutral stance. Social cohesion programmes may risk increasing tension in the short term, but to restore inter-group trust and state legitimacy over the long term, it might be necessary to confront and accept tension. Reflecting on the potentials and pitfalls of strengthening social cohesion in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, we suggest that policymakers and practitioners should: Think politically. Fostering social cohesion may initially appear less political or less contentious than peacebuilding, but it inevitably involves engaging politics, as well as identity and power dynamics. Securing donor support for “apolitical” social cohesion programming may at first appear to be advantageous, but this perception risks overlooking power relationships, politicised grievances, hierarchies and other salient dimensions of social structure (e.g., class dynamics). Expect pushback. The social cohesion approach has the potential to interrupt powerful political and economic structures that link social and political identities (e.g., ethnicity, class and gender) to power, status and public goods. Donors should expect overt and covert pushback and contention and be prepared to encounter the stickiness of informal institutions. Work across multiple dividing lines. Strengthening in-group trust and cooperation may negatively affect out-group relationships and overall social cohesion. Fostering social cohesion in the wake of violent conflict requires networks to address multiple social divisions. Large coalitions that cut across race, ethnicity, gender, class and generation are notoriously difficult to form and sustain, yet essential for building sustainable peace.

This book explores a critical question: in the wake of identity-based violence, what can internal and international peacebuilders do to help “deeply divided societies” rediscover a sense of living together? In 2016, ethnic, religious, and sectarian violence in Syria and Iraq, the Central African Republic, Myanmar, and Burundi grab headlines and present worrying scenarios of mass atrocities. The principal concern which this volume addresses is “social cohesion” - relations within society and across deep divisions, and the relationship of individuals and groups with the state. For global peacebuilding networks, the social cohesion concept is a leitmotif for assessment of social dynamics and a strategic goal of interventions to promote resilience following violent conflict. In this volume, case studies by leading international scholars paired with local researchers yield in-depth analyses of social cohesion and related peacebuilding efforts in seven countries: Guatemala, Kenya, Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

This book shows the important links between social conditions and health and begins to describe the processes through which these health inequalities may be generated. It reviews a range of methodologies that could be used by health researchers in this field and proposes innovative future research directions.

This book focuses on the formal and informal reconciliation processes during conflict and post-conflict periods in various locations in the Asia-Pacific, and includes cases studies based on primary research conducted in countries such as Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, South Thailand, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands. It offers insights to further our understanding of the social and political processes of reconciliation in a region that has witnessed numerous armed conflicts, many of them perpetuating over generations. The book also draws lessons from the richness arising from diversity in terms of religious and cultural practices, social life, and forms of government and governance, and through the exploration of theories and practices of reconciliation in conflict and post-conflict contexts in the region. It provides useful reference material for researchers, academics, policy makers and students working in the areas of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, reconciliation, social cohesion, development, transitional justice and human rights in the Asia and Pacific region.

This volume has three foci - the rationale for considering how aspects of education can affect social cohesion; case studies that review particular country experiences with curricula and textbooks; and practical guidelines and applications to help countries improve areas of education.

Examines the literature on social cohesion. Presentsa range of indicators that have been used to measure social cohesion.

This book is based on discussions from the Asian Regional Consultation on Social Cohesion and Conflict Management that was sponsored by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Participants, speaking in their personal capacity, included representatives from government, civil society, and donor organisations. The papers included in this volume cite a multiplicity of traditional obstacles to social cohesion and integration in the region, ranging from xenophobic nationalism to poverty, socioeconomic disparities, gender inequality, and ethnic, religious, and cultural discrimination.

As interest in social capital has grown over the past decade—particularly in public health —so has the lack of consensus on exactly what it is and what makes it worth studying. Ichiro Kawachi, a widely respected leader in the field, and 21 contributors (including physicians, economists, and public health experts) discuss the theoretical origins of social capital, the strengths and limitations of current methodologies of measuring it, and salient examples of social capital concepts informing public health practice. Among the highlights: Measurement methods: survey, sociometric, ethnographic, experimental The relationship between social capital and physical health and health behaviors: smoking, substance abuse, physical activity, sexual activity Social capital and mental health: early findings Social capital and the aging community Social capital and disaster preparedness Social Capital and Health is certain to inspire a new generation of research on this topic, and will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in public health, health behavior, and social epidemiology.

This publication contains guidance on developing a methodological framework for social cohesion indicators which can be applied at local, regional, national and European levels, covering the conceptual approach used and its practical application. It sets out the results of the main applications and trials carried out in 2003 and 2004 and how they tie in with devising a framework of action.

The establishment of durable, democratic institutions constitutes one of the major challenges of our age. As countless contemporary examples have shown, it requires far more than simply the holding of free elections. The consolidation of a legitimate constitutional order is difficult to achieve in any society, but it is especially problematic in societies with deep social cleavages. This book provides an authoritative and systematic analysis of the politics of so-called 'deeply divided societies' in the post Cold War era. From Bosnia to South Africa, Northern Ireland to Iraq, it explains why such places are so prone to political violence, and demonstrates why - even in times of peace - the fear of violence continues to shape attitudes, entrenching divisions in societies that already lack consensus on their political institutions. Combining intellectual rigour and accessibility, it examines the challenge of establishing order and justice in such unstable environments, and critically assesses a range of political options available, from partition to power-sharing and various initiatives to promote integration. The Politics of Deeply Divided Societies is an ideal resource for students of comparative politics and related disciplines, as well as anyone with an interest in the dynamics of ethnic conflict and nationalism.