Community Engagement and Community Cohesion

An exploration of the challenges to be addressed if government policies to promote community engagement are to be genuinely inclusive of newcomers as well as more established communities.

Community engagement and community cohesion are both current public policy priorities. But there have been gaps in our understanding about how to promote community representation in ways that take account of diversity and population change. This research explores:

* whose views were being heard and whose were not;
* what were the barriers to being heard and how they could be overcome;
* how these barriers could be addressed in ways that would promote community cohesion, rather than increasing competition within and between communities.

Through three case studies, the study also identifies ways in which new communities can be involved effectively, together with more established communities, thereby increasing cohesion and mutual solidarity.