Cohesion failing in pathfinders, says government
Housing market renewal pathfinders have adopted a confused approach to community cohesion, a government report has concluded.
The review of pathfinder cohesion programmes by the communities and local government department found many partnerships did not even understand what a cohesive community might look like. It also criticised pathfinders’ ability to integrate different groups within their areas.
Housing market renewal and community cohesion examined pathfinder documents and conducted interviews with officers in each of the nine areas designated pathfinders in 2000. The authors also studied four pathfinders - Renew North Staffordshire, Urban Living Birmingham & Sandwell, Elevate East Lancashire and Partners in Action Oldham - in greater detail.
The report said: ‘There is a lack of understanding about what community cohesion is and what pathfinders should be aspiring to achieve; what does a cohesive community look like and how can housing market change promote this ideal situation?’
Community cohesion became part of pathfinders’ remit following riots in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham in the summer of 2001.
There were also concerns attempts at creating cohesive communities could actually upset delicate relationships. The report said: ‘Certainly, the in-migration of new households that might be of a different age, class or ethnicity and the transition to a more mixed community will not necessarily be a smooth experience.
‘At least in the short term, neighbourhood stability might be undermined,’ it concluded.
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Readers' comments (4)
Peter | 28/10/2009 4:32 pm
Dealing with humans is never a smooth experience. Cohesive community is an ideology that cannot be imposed or be measured by using tick boxes.
You can't just throw a group of people together in a pot and expect things to work out fine! Thousands of years of prejudice, mistrusts, jealously, ignorance, and the lack understanding cultures and religions is not just going to disappear because someone thought community cohesion is the panacea that will stop riots or the indigenous population thinks that the immigrants always get a better deal than them. Why do you think that the extreme right wing parties are doing so well?
We will probably get another soundbite on this matter when the next group politicians take charge of the government!
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Nigel Mathers | 28/10/2009 7:52 pm
Renew North Staffordshire has not just ignored community cohesion, it has actively destroyed and demolished long-established and cohesive communities (e.g. Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent).
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Douglas Nuttall | 29/10/2009 11:52 am
Research shows that CC is very unstable. Meen and Meen (2003) A start would be to understand triggers that set a change in progress. This could be a local employer closing or a particular troublesome family moving onto an estate.
I have been trying to identify key estate design features that have a direct effect on triggering good / bad CC because this can be changed. Whilst the more social aspect can only be attributed to excellent housing management and on site intellegence.
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Jim Paton | 29/10/2009 8:08 pm
Hardly surprising as the whole thing is a top-down concept unrelated to real life. It is a theory of manipulation and social control which doesn't have a hope of working, even in it own terms -and those terms are obnoxious.
These people bandy around the word "community" regardless of whether there is one or not and they wouldn't have a clue about how to start creating one.
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