‘British values’ and community cohesion

Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of promoting ‘British values’. The Trojan Horse affair has shaped subsequent debates on community cohesion and the counter-extremism agenda, but it was, in its turn, shaped by preceding events. These earlier events — urban disturbances, claims that communities are self-segregating, perceived threats of terrorism, and specific acts of terrorism themselves — have produced a variety of political interventions. These have included policies designed to mitigate what were understood to be problems of community cohesion, threatening the social fabric and security. The interventions helped to create the narratives that were drawn upon in interpretations of the Trojan Horse affair, just as the latter has been taken as evidence of the veracity of those concerns and as a motivation for further interventions.