Rethinking Community Safety, Cohesion and Wellbeing

Abstract

As we have argued, dominant notions of community safety, cohesion and wellbeing established in mainstream political and social policy discourse have largely served to socially construct a disproportionate understanding of major threats to human wellbeing in contemporary British society. In particular, by directing public attention on to risks posed by the relatively vulnerable sections of society, interest has been distracted from attending to more serious social harms resulting from the activities of the powerful. This chapter seeks to redress this diversion by refocusing the debate on community safety, cohesion and wellbeing in a way that offers greater recognition of social harms that are symptomatic of a dysfunctional political and economic system. In particular, the chapter will examine the destructive effects of ‘anti-social’ policies and practices of government and private corporations on community wellbeing. It will argue that the process of building safer communities will require greater attention to these issues, and the planning and mobilisation of a different democratic accord prepared and able to call the powerful to account. Once this process begins to happen then genuine possibilities may emerge for refocusing the social policy agenda towards generating a vision of a universalised approach to supporting human wellbeing.