Sport and Social Cohesion: the case of the Western Balkans

Background: Northern Uganda is recovering from a 23-year civil war that was largely confined to the region. During this period the rest of Uganda enjoyed a rapid GDP growth rate following wide-ranging macroeconomic reforms by the Ugandan government and its development partners. A post-recovery programme was implemented for Northern Uganda; however, the region still has the worst health status. This contributed to the country’s failure to attain MDG five for maternal health. Limited research has been conducted to determine which national and health system governance factors influence performance and affect access and utilisation of health care in countries like Uganda that have witnessed the dual context of conflict and non-conflict. A better understanding of the governance and policy development process in such settings is required if health policy adoption and implementation is to be more appropriate to the needs of the country’s entire population. Methods: A Political Economy Analysis framework was applied to compare governance factors at national and sub-national level in post-conflict Northern Uganda and in non-conflict East Central Uganda that had influenced the provision and utilisation of maternal health care. An analysis of constitutional, economic and health policies determined contextual factors, while data collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with decision-makers, implementers and communities determined the institutional and agency features. The features were used to access power and accountability relationships and incentives that drove the actions of health system stakeholders in central government, health ministry, district local government and civil society as well as in the local communities during the post conflict period in the Northern and East Central Uganda. Findings: The post-conflict period in Northern Uganda coincided with evidence of increased national political commitment to addressing the healthcare needs of Northern Uganda. However, the President, International Funding Institutions and Finance Ministry technocrats who were the dominant governance stakeholders pursued an approach to economic development that prioritised funding for the development of energy, transportation and defence sectors over that for healthcare. Women parliamentarians emerged as maternal healthcare policy champions but played a limited role in highlighting the special health needs of Northern Uganda. The Health Ministry lacked the political and technical capacity to adapt and implement maternal health care policies to specific sub-national needs. NGOs focused on human rights advocacy in Northern Uganda that enhanced the community’s demand for appropriate healthcare while in East Central Uganda they mainly addressed supply-side issues. Political patronage at national and sub-national levels negatively influenced supply and demand for healthcare. In Northern Uganda donor funding, district-based development partner presence, and CSO health system demand-side activities moderated a more positive influence. Conclusion: Decentralisation offers greater opportunities for health system recovery in settings of confined conflict but is prone to elite capture and corruption in peaceful settings within the same national context. Women leaders are critical in the development of a national health system where there is confined conflict, but political and traditional norms limit their role in the promotion of universal healthcare coverage. Despite the presence of factors that portended better maternal healthcare in the post-conflict setting, the limited involvement of the health ministry in the recovery process diminished the impact. CSOs in collaboration with communities play an important role in enhancing the responsiveness of the health system but are prone to political intrusion. The comprehension of policies, economic processes and social institutions of a country recovering from confined conflict enables the identification of variables which, if addressed, will lead to versatile, equitable health systems for all citizens.

Despite growing activity connecting sport to social cohesion, in sport-related literature, social cohesion is poorly defined and primarily organized along narrow dimensions of social relations or social capital. Yet social cohesion is a complex, multidimensional concept that encompasses belonging, shared values, trust, and civic participation. Much literature does not explore these other components in-depth, and we know little about how sport programs understand and address these components of social cohesion. Against this background, using qualitative data from a mapping survey completed by 84 European sport organizations, this study aims to create a typology of the main sport for social cohesion approaches in Europe. In the end, four main types are identified: evangelical approaches that rely solely on the power of sport; value approaches that mix sport participation with the promotion of values; integration approaches that combine sport and civic participation to foster social capital and cohesion; and belonging approaches that encourage trust, dialogue, and a greater sense belonging. To conclude, these types are critically discussed and situated against existing literature, focusing on how a fifth, more structural type might take shape.

The global politics of reconciliation provide a blueprint for postconflict reconstruction projects around the world, including in South Africa, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH on the other hand, the recent bloodshed resulted in the enforcement of ethnic segregation that spurs ethnonationalist sentiments and primordial notions of belonging. Education and youth are among the most fertile grounds to study this collision and to grasp the cultural production of new forms of identity and solidarity that emerge as a result. In education, the struggle takes place through the simultaneous unification and segregation of schools and curricula. In this article I consider one instance of this struggle, the “integration” of the Mostar Gymnasium. Building on 22 months of ethnographic fieldwork, here I illuminate the

Convergence of India-China interests on Sri Lankan context became critical during post conflict period as it provided the platform for these two powerful nations to check and balance their interests. This paper aims at discussing the impact of their interests on post conflict Sri Lanka. The main objective of the study is to theoretically analyze the convergence of Indo-China interests on above context and their impact on Sri Lanka. To achieve aforesaid objectives qualitative approach has been adopted and secondary data is the main type of data obtained from various sources such as books, journal articles, newspapers, government records and other relevant documents available in both printed and electronic versions. Document analysis, theoretical analysis and descriptive analysis are used to analyze data. In document analysis documents are interpreted to give meaning and it collects available data related to the study and interprets them to find out specific issues. Concepts derive from literature review and theoretical analysis helps to develop broader understanding on those issues and collect new knowledge. Descriptive analysis also used in certain areas to provide comprehensive understanding of collected data. The research findings conclude Chinese influence over the other regions seems inevitable with its rise as a global economic and military power which is perceived as a threat by India. India is also trying to match Chinese rise resulting suspicion and fear psychosis among one another’s achievements. Both are engaged in a competition to achieve goodwill of their neighbors. Sri Lanka has become convergence point for both India and China due to its strategic importance in the Indian Ocean and it was intensified during post conflict period. Both attempted to attract the post conflict reconstruction projects but China impressed more positively on Sri Lankan policy makers since its aid came with no influences for domestic politics. India raised the issue on reconciliation and power devolution and even supported UN resolution against Sri Lanka. Chinese approach was more peaceful and beneficial for Sri Lanka whereas India

در دهه‌های اخیر به دنبال گسترش بی‌رویه کالبدی شهرها و نقش پررنگ عامل اتومبیل، جوامع شهری به تدریج شاهد تنزل کیفیات محیطی و فضایی در امر تعاملات، همبستگی و انسجام اجتماعی شده است. انسجام اجتماعی مورد قبول واقع شدن تفاوت‌های فرهنگی و هویت بومی است که در نهایت به یک سرمایه فرهنگی قوی می‌انجامد. امروزه جنبش پیاده-راه‌سازی به دنبال تقویت حیات اجتماعی، هویت بومی و تحقق شهری انسان‌محور در کانون توجه برنامه‌ریزان و طراحان شهری جای گرفته است. تحقیق حاضر با هدفی کاربردی و ماهیتی توصیفی-تحلیلی سعی در تحلیل تطبیقی امکان‌سنجی ایجاد پیاده‌راه در معابر موجود در بافت مرکزی شهرهای نقده و قروه با هدف تقویت هویت‌بخشی، انسجام و همبستگی اجتماعی را دارد. شیوه‌های گردآوری اطلاعات مبتنی بر روش‌های اسنادی-کتابخانه‌ای و بهره‌گیری از روش‌های مشاهده، مصاحبه و وارسی میدانی می‌باشد. جامعه آماری و حجم نمونه تحقیق مشتمل بر دو گروه متخصصین حوزه علوم شهری و شهروندان بومی می‌باشد. جهت تجزیه و تحلیل کمی نیز از آزمون‌های کولموگروف-اسمیرنوف، همبستگی پیرسون، آنتروپی شانون و کوکوسو بهره گرفته شده است. نتایج حاصل از آزمون پیرسون حاکی از آن است که بین دو مولفه پیاده-راه‌سازی و تقویت انسجام و هویت شهری ارتباط همبستگی مثبت و قوی وجود دارد. همچنین طبق روش آنتروپی شانون، مولفه‌های ارتقای فضاهای جمعی و شرایط توپوگرافی به ترتیب با وزنهای 3985/0 و 002/0 بیشترین و کمترین سطح اهمیت و اولویت را در میان سایر مولفه‌ها به خود اختصاص داده‌اند. طبق نتایج روش کوکوسو نیز، بافت مرکزی شهر نقده با ضریب نهایی 252/4 در وضعیت مطلوب‌تری نسبت به بافت مرکزی شهر قروه با ضریب نهایی 83/1 در امر امکان-سنجی پیاده‌راه‌سازی جای گرفته است .واژگان کلیدی: پیاده‌راه، هویت و انسجام اجتماعی، بافت مرکزی، نقده، قروه

Collective efficacy theory is a widely used theoretical framework for explaining how social cohesion is activated as collective actions. Because collective efficacy was developed as a criminological theory, the majority of collective efficacy research focuses on the relationship between social cohesion and informal social control. Conceptually, social cohesion can be activated as civic participation – particularly voting. Although research examining voting behavior through a collective efficacy framework is scarce, findings suggest that collective efficacy is a useful framework for explaining civic participation. However, previous research is limited because it lacks key predictors of voting – namely internal efficacy and external efficacy. This study examines the relationships among social cohesion, internal efficacy, and external efficacy using a nationally representative sample of voters. Findings support collective efficacy as a useful framework for increasing civic participation. Further, social cohesion, internal efficacy, and external efficacy are key factors predicting civic participation.

Association of community-level social capital with dementia: A multilevel nine-year longitudinal study using data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study

Sport, physical activity and social cohesion are increasingly linked within the academic literature. Indeed, studies recognise both the importance of social cohesion for promoting physical activity and the potential of sport to support social cohesion. Up until now, however, the ways in which social cohesion has been defined and measured in the context of sport and physical activity have not been the subject of much academic attention. Through a scoping review of studies measuring social cohesion in the sport and physical activity context, we aim to uncover how social cohesion is defined and measured, thus allowing us to better grasp how the concept is understood and operationalised in this field. As such, full-text inclusion occurred when studies quantitatively measured social cohesion through a questionnaire/survey instrument in connection with sport or physical activity participation or within programmes using sport to foster social cohesion. A total of 40 papers were included in the review, showing broad support for the argument that social cohesion is positively related to sport or physical activity participation. However, the retained texts engage on only a surface level with the concept of social cohesion, with around half not defining the term and the associated measurement tools using only a fraction of the dimensions typically associated with social cohesion. To conclude, we propose future directions to enhance conceptual engagement with and measurement of social cohesion.

Over the past decade, growing attention has been devoted to the evolving relationship between the European Union and the countries of the Western Balkans, particularly in relation to economic growth and development. Through a range of strategic initiatives, these ties have been progressively strengthened, with regional cooperation increasingly recognized as a key driver of economic advancement. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of macroeconomic conditions on the economic growth and development of the Western Balkans, with particular emphasis on the role of education as a fundamental catalyst for innovation, economic transformation, and social cohesion. The importance of collaboration among Western Balkan countries is widely acknowledged, and several policy measures have been proposed to create a more supportive environment for regional development. These include strengthening legal and institutional frameworks, establishing mechanisms for financial incentives, enhancing capacity building, developing comprehensive information systems and regional infrastructure, and promoting knowledge transfer through education systems aligned with regional economic priorities. This paper employs a desk research methodology—encompassing synthesis, analysis, deduction, and induction of secondary data—to analyze key macroeconomic indicators at both the regional level and within individual Western Balkan countries, highlighting common trends as well as notable national differences. Despite some divergence in economic trajectories, the region exhibits common structural characteristics, including open, service-based, and developing economies. In conclusion, the article outlines the key challenges and strategic priorities that must be addressed to enhance the region’s competitiveness and ensure sustainable economic progress, highlighting the role of education as an important catalyst for innovation, economic advancement, and social cohesion.

The new European approach regarding the economic aspects of post-conflict rehabilitation (PCR) in the so-called Western Balkans was set out in the preparation documents for the EU Summit in Thessaloniki in June 2003. It stated, inter alia, that as the Western Balkan countries gradually moved from stabilization and reconstruction based on aid to association and sustainable development, policies pursuing economic and social cohesion at both the national and regional levels would become increasingly relevant. What was required was to better integrate the goal of economic and social cohesion into EU policy towards the region. There was a pressing need for new strategies to promote structural reforms across the region, including additional forms of pre-accession assistance. This would encourage states in the region to mobilize their own resources to support positive development in particularly critical areas. At the institutional level, these countries should be granted the status category of pre-accession without negotiations, which would enable them to access the pre-accession funds such as SAPARD (Special Accession Program for Agriculture and Rural Development) and ISPA (Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession). In other words, these countries should be treated as pre-accession candidates without the obligation to open negotiations on membership until they were found by the Commission to be fit on their individual merits. The region in question consists of five states—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro—that have already joined the process of stabilization and association with the EU, together with Bulgaria and Romania. In the summit’s final document, the five countries undergoing the process of stabilization and association were given the message that “the gates of Europe are open, and prospects of entering the EU are encouraging.” It was said that it was expected that Bulgaria and Romania would be granted full membership by 2007. In this document, all the states were for the first time mentioned as countries within the Western Balkans region, and thus this term was officially introduced into the policies of the EU. Having in mind what had gone on in the region’s tumultuous recent past, at the point the region of the Western Balkans became one of the regions where the processes of post-conflict resolution should be practiced within the new framework, tailored to new developments in the area. The first step in this direction concerns the need to make a major change in the strategy of providing further financial cooperation or financial support to the region. The cooperation or financial support that is provided should be directed at making the region capable of independent economic development, formulated as making the tran-

Issues of tolerance, understanding, solidarity, and social cohesion represent a key foundation for building cultures of peace (United Nations 1999). Tolerance and understanding ensure that perceived differences in group membership, values, or lifestyle do not result in discrimination and violence (Vogt 1997), whereas social cohesion and solidarity connote a sense of enhanced unity, democracy, and civic participation (Moody and White 2003; Putnam 2000). Though often discussed together, there is a potential antagonism involving the societal consequences of tolerance and social cohesion. Specifically, social cohesion is often achieved and strengthened through destructive means, such as by developing an external enemy or creating an internal scapegoat. Attempts to promote social cohesion can therefore result in decreased tolerance for differences within a society and even lead to the exclusion of groups who do not represent the internal standard or who are depicted as the internal enemy. Thus, the main question of this chapter is: How can social cohesion be achieved in a way that it is not exclusive and destructive, but rather inclusive and constructive (see Valsiner, this volume), thereby effectively contributing to a culture of peace? Potential answers to this question will differ depending on the nature of the societal context. Nation-building in postconflict societies and countries divided by civil war is often challenged with economic hardships, security concerns, or power struggles between groups (Winter and Cava 2006). These forms of instability must be addressed as efforts are taken to achieve social cohesion in such societies. For the purpose of the present chapter, we will focus our analysis on tolerance and social cohesion in the context of structural inequality and intergroup relations in more stable societies. From a social-psychological perspective, we propose that the solution for achieving social cohesion in relatively stable societies may lie in shifting processes of social categorization toward the perception of a superordinate identity between members of different groups. At the same time, we propose that tolerance for group differences must also be emphasized to ensure that social cohesion contributes to cultures of peace within societies as well as to global cultures of peace between societies. Chapter 3 Social Cohesion and Tolerance for Group Differences

Civil society is the strategic center of gravity of 21st century peace and security. Hybrid, cognitive and other gray-zone warfare aim to cripple governance, social and political cohesion, and civilian resilience, attacking the social trust that is the glue of democratic civil society. Civil defence and preparedness need reframing as a strategy of resilience. Beyond protecting physical infrastructure, they must empower citizens as the first and best line of defense against cognitive threats, promoting strategic narratives about citizenship as participatory governance and service as a rite of passage for inclusion, if not leadership, in democratic civil society. From a security and stability standpoint, civic engagement and community service comprise a form of civil defense, mitigating societal vulnerabilities and political weaknesses by developing capacities for civil resilience and social cohesion at the most fundamental levels of social organization and collective identity formulation, along the same self-paced bottom-up capacity development lines as adaptive peacebuilding. Especially since the COVID-19 outbreak, the value of service as a unifying as well as democratizing narrative has gathered strength in North Atlantic societies. Public and higher education schools can help implement a strategy of resilience as incubators of democratic citizenship, civilian resilience, and social cohesion. NATO would do well to incorporate civic engagement and community service in revised concepts of civil defense and preparedness as well as resilience, integrating them into its Comprehensive Approach, Civil-Military Interaction policy, and Civil Military Cooperation doctrine, and helping member and partner states socialize these concepts as nationally and culturally appropriate. Such resilient strategies can flip what has been a societal source of weakness into a source of strength and a civil defence and preparedness strategy of resilience into an offensive strategy of playing strengths rather than simply responding to threats.

Reviewed by: Living Together, Living Apart: social cohesion in a future South Africa ed. by Christopher Ballantine, et al. Daniel Herwitz (bio) Christopher Ballantine, Michael Chapman, Kira Erwin and Gerhard Maré (eds) (2017) Living Together, Living Apart: social cohesion in a future South Africa The clearest articulation of a working concept of social cohesion in this fine book of brief and pithy essays is given at the beginning of Ahmed Bawa’s contribution: If social cohesion were the production of a society that is uniform in all respects, it would be impossible to achieve. If social cohesion were about the production of a society that buys into a dominant political discourse or culture, it would be a terrible mistake. If social cohesion were the production of a society that succeeded in the removal of social dissent, labour strikes and so on, it would produce a sterile future. For the purpose of this essay, social cohesion is taken to mean the continuous development of a society that progressively builds broad social purpose and action towards the intensification of its human rights and social justice agendas. As such, it is process rather than event, and process rather than outcome. (134) Bawa goes on to refer to the Bertelsmann report on social cohesion: For the social cohesion radar there are three major categories; social connections (social networks, trust in people and acceptance of diversity), connectedness (identification, trust in institutions and perception of fairness), and focus on the common good (solidarity and helpfulness, respect for social rules and civic participation). (136) The question is where South Africa sits with respect to these indicators some 28 years into its democracy, a question not answered head on in [End Page 124] Bawa’s trenchant discussion of the country, nor quite anywhere else in the book, a book which rather chooses to focus on strands of cohesion, proposed, imagined or realised, running through South African culture and society. The focus is highly profitable although politics is strangely absent from this book; political parties like the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance are given short shrift although the fault lines of political culture are undoubtedly crucial to the dis-unification of the country at present, a country split between rural and urban alliances, dramatically fragmented with respect to issues of trust in governance, and equally so when it comes to whose networks include whom, and who remains invisible to such well-formed group alliances. Spiralling inequality does feature as a central trope, and is understood to be a root cause of the failure of social cohesion in South Africa. As it also is in America, Brazil and other countries with soaring Gini coefficients (the measure of inequality in wages and wealth) and with inequality the ensuing politics of resentment inevitably leading to virulent/racist nationalism (America), crime (Brazil, South Africa), corruption (South Africa, Brazil and courtesy of lobbyists also in America), and xenophobia (America, South Africa). Among themes of running interest is the extent to which cohesion is a matter of free choice, of will and decision. To what extend can one simply decide to remake one’s identity in a way that binds oneself to others in the South African context? To what extent is this a fool’s game, given structural constraints on peoples’ lives which insure their apartness? Where does freedom to refashion the self begin and end given the constraints of society, economy, history and politics, of linguistic diversity and education? This theme is given a bold answer in the opening essay of the book by writer, educator and intellectual Njabulo Ndebele who exhorts his readers and especially his black readers that: It is time for South African ‘blacks’ no longer to put a store on ‘blackness’. To continue to do so is to insist on living in a liminal space, in which dream and effort have become disentangled, almost permanently. It is time that the South African ‘black’ began to appreciate the value of aspiring towards the universal and then to live in it, to become a part of it, to add to it the cumulative value of the experience of being free in the specificity of their historical circumstances, where dream...

This chapter explores the interplay between the OSCE and civil society in pursuing reconciliation in the Western Balkans. In this article, I argue that civil society has a strong potential to pursue reconciliation in post-war areas, understood as part of a process of rebuilding trust and dialogue among communities, but in the context of the unique obstacles present in the Western Balkans. At the same time, the OSCE, with its inclusive approach to security, stands out as a key international agent for the process and, strongly supporting civil society, has played a tremendous role in ensuring the improvement of relations among the divided parties. Despite the lack of political will of the countries’ elites, civil society and the aid of the OSCE have encouraged changes in the region.

In a narrower sense, within the geo-political jargon of the European Union, the term “Western Balkans” is used alongside the term “Southeast Europe”. The Western Balkans encompasses the former Yugoslav countries of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Kosovo, excluding Slovenia but including Albania. After the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, objective reasons emerged that prompted the need for new forms of cooperation between the new and existing countries in order to promote reconciliation and stabilise the Western Balkans. NATO and the EU played a predominant role in this process, along with certain Member States of these international organisations. The aggression by Russia against Ukraine on 24th February 2022, the situation in the Middle East, and the complexity of relations between China and the United States regarding Taiwan have compelled all European countries to recognise that these conflicts pose an immediate threat to European security. Analysing the foreign policy aspects and their impact on regional security, it is essential to highlight that the Western Balkans is characterised by weak governance, a fragile civil society, and geopolitical disputes. These internal and regional factors make the region highly susceptible to local and external disinformation campaigns. On the other hand, China represents a significant global partner for Serbia, and it is important to point out that since 2016, investments from China have been accelerating and also that in the period from 2016 to 2023, about 96% of the total investments were made, a total of 5.3 billion euros, and that in each of those years, China was among the five most important investors in Serbia (Politika, 7th May 2024). As the most influential state economically and politically in the Western Balkans, Serbia has the potential to influence other countries in the region toward alternative centres of power. The latest NATO Strategic Concept, adopted in Madrid in 2022, emphasises the strategic importance of the Western Balkans and the Black Sea region for the Alliance, and NATO has expressed its readiness to continue supporting the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of interested countries in these regions. The Berlin Process (BP) is an intergovernmental initiative aimed at connecting the Western Balkan countries (WB6) with the European Union and facilitating the development of mutual relations based on European values. The focus of the process lies in high-level cooperation between WB6 officials and their EU partners. It also involves EU institutions, international financial institutions, civil society, youth, and businesses in the region. One of the significant advantages of the Berlin Process is the financing of planned and assumed commitments from EU funds, unlike most other initiatives where states finance their participation from their own budgets.