Community cohesion without parallel lives in Bradford

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concept of community cohesion is the centrepiece of the policy that was formulated by the British government in response to the urban disturbances in northern English towns during 2001. A number of official reports identified lack of community cohesion as the critical factor. The central argument for community cohesion, the self-segregation thesis, was based on evidence from Bradford. The core idea, parallel lives, was first articulated in the Ouseley Report and incorporated into the Cantle Report and subsequent government reports into the 2001 disturbances. The Commission for Integration and Cohesion widened the concept of community cohesion, which encompassed faith and ethnic groups, to include income and generation, suggesting that the concept was more complex than earlier definitions allowed. However, the increasing concern with terrorism has meant that Muslims remain the focus of debates on cohesion, and a conflation of the community cohesion programme with the government's anti-terrorism strategy is evident in the policy literature. Samad's article is based on research carried out in Bradford to unearth and explore the factors that enhance or undermine community cohesion in those areas where there are established Muslim communities and, additionally, those in which Muslim migrants have recently arrived. It scrutinizes the debate on a number of issues: the difficulties in defining and implementing community cohesion policy, and the issues of segregation, social capital, transnationalism and belonging. This data-driven analysis takes the main areas of debate and tests them with evidence from Bradford. The research findings challenge some of the fundamental assumptions that have informed government policy by providing new evidence that throws light on central aspects of the debate. The need to reflect on these assumptions became more relevant after the English riots of 2011, centred in London, and the subsequent necessity to develop an effective strategy that engages with their root causes.