Table Of ContentYouth, Multiculturalism and Community Cohesion
PalgravePoliticsofIdentityandCitizenshipSeries
Series Editors: Varun Uberoi, University of Oxford; Nasar Meer, University of
SouthamptonandTariqModood,UniversityofBristol
The politics of identity and citizenship has assumed increasing importance as
ourpolitieshavebecomesignificantlymoreculturally,ethnicallyandreligiously
diverse.Differenttypesofscholars,includingphilosophers,sociologists,political
scientists and historians make contributions to this field and this series show-
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of interest to a number of audiences including scholars, students and other
interestedindividuals.
Titlesinclude:
DerekMcGhee
SECURITY,CITIZENSHIPANDHUMANRIGHTS
Sharedvaluesinuncertaintimes
NasarMeer
CITIZENSHIP,IDENTITYANDTHEPOLITICSOFMULTICULTURALISM
TheriseofMuslimconsciousness
GaneshNathan
SOCIALFREEDOMINAMULTICULTURALSTATE
Towardsatheoryofinterculturaljustice
MichelSeymour(editor)
THEPLURALSTATESOFRECOGNITION
PaulThomas
YOUTH,MULTICULTURALISMANDCOMMUNITYCOHESION
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Youth, Multiculturalism
and Community Cohesion
Paul Thomas
UniversityofHuddersfield,UK
©PaulThomas2011
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction:CommunityCohesion–ANewBritish
PolicyAgenda 1
1 TheEmergenceofCommunityCohesion 14
2 GoingwiththeFlow?InternationalComparisons 42
3 CommunityCohesion:TheDeathoftheBritishModelof
Multiculturalism? 69
4 MythsandRealities:CommunityCohesioninPractice 92
5 CommunityCohesion:MorethanEthnicity? 116
6 UnwillingCitizens?MuslimYoungPeopleandIdentity 133
7 WhiteYoungPeopleandCommunityCohesion–Refusing
Contact? 151
8 AContradictiontoCommunityCohesion?The‘Preventing
ViolentExtremism’Agenda 168
9 Conclusion:CommunityCohesionasaNewPhaseof
BritishMulticulturalism 187
Bibliography 198
Index 209
v
Acknowledgements
This book is the culmination of a long-term involvement in research-
ing understandings and impacts of community cohesion practice with
young people, and young people’s experiences of cohesion and iden-
tity in Oldham and Rochdale, Greater Manchester, and I would like to
thankalltheyouthworkersandtheiragenciesinthoseareaswhohave
participatedintheresearch.Youthworkprofessionalsaroundthecoun-
trycontinuetowork,ofteninverychallengingcircumstances,towards
amoretolerant,diverseandequalsociety,andtheydeservegreatpraise
fortheirefforts,especiallyatatimewhenpoliticiansmistakenlytellus
we need less publicly funded work with young people and communi-
ties.Ihavetriedtohighlightthevoicesandexperiencesofthoseyouth
workers and the young people who took part in the research processes
asmuchaspossible,buttheconclusionsareinevitablymine.Myhope
is that, in drawing on real experiences at ground level to suggest what
the new policy approaches of community cohesion in Britain do and
could represent, this book and its arguments can be of use to policy-
makersandeducationalpractitioners,aswellasacademiccolleaguesand
students.
In particular, I would like to thank Oldham Metropolitan Borough
Council Youth Service for the considerable access that facilitated both
myoriginaldoctoralresearchandtheYouthIdentityProject,andthank
theRochdalePridePartnershipforthefundingthatenabled theYouth
Identity Project to be extended to Rochdale. The positive involvement
ofarangeofyouthworkersandagenciesfromRochdaleinthatresearch
was a credit to them and their area. I would also like to thank Kirklees
Metropolitan Council in West Yorkshire for funding my evaluation of
the initial ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ (PVE) work in their area. I’d
also like to thank my institution, the University of Huddersfield, and
mySchool,theSchoolofEducationandProfessionalDevelopment,for
their consistent support of my research, with this support including
study leave and initial funding of the Youth Identity Project that gen-
erated much of the data utilised here. Thanks to my colleagues for all
their encouragement, in particular to Pete Sanderson, who has worked
with me on the Youth Identity Project and generally inspired me, to
HelenJonesandAnnHarrisforalltheirhelpasmyresearchconfidence
vi
Acknowledgements vii
developed, to Jenny Armitage for all her transcription work, to Andy
MycockforhisadviceandtomydedicatedcolleaguesintheYouthand
Community Work Team. I would also like to thank Paul Bagguley and
YasminHussainoftheSchoolofSociologyandSocialPolicy,University
ofLeeds,foralltheirencouragementandguidanceasexcellentdoctoral
supervisors.
IwouldliketothankPalgraveMacmillanandtheirstaffforsupport-
ingthisbook,andtheanonymousreviewerselectedbyPalgrave,whose
constructivecommentsontheproposalwereinvaluableinhelpingme
to shape my approach. I would like to thank the editors and anony-
mous referees of Youth and Policy and the Journal of Social Policy for
their comments on articles that included aspects of what has become
Chapters1and4;JaapTanjaoftheAnneFrankStichtinginAmsterdam
for his comments on the draft of Chapter 2 concerning developments
in the Netherlands; the editors and anonymous referees of Sociology
for their comments on the article that included aspects of what has
becomeChapter6;andtheeditorsandanonymousrefereesofThePolit-
icalQuarterlyandtheBritishJournalofPoliticsandInternationalRelations
fortheircommentsonarticlesthatincludedaspectsofwhathasbecome
Chapter8.
Above all, I would like to thank my family for all their love, support
andpatienceduringthewritingofthisbookandduringthepreceding
yearsofresearch.Thankyousomuchtomywife,Bev,mysonsRhysand
Matthew,mysisterMarie,andespeciallytomyparents,MelandMeryl,
foreverything.
Introduction: Community
Cohesion – A New British
Policy Agenda
AttimesoverthepastdecadeitwasfeltasifBritain’smediaandpoliti-
cians have talked about little else but the interrelated issues of youth,
multiculturalismandcommunitycohesion.Theviolentdisturbancesin
theEnglishnortherntownsandcitiesofOldham,BurnleyandBradford
in the summer of 2001 saw Pakistani- and Bangladeshi-origin young
peopleclashwiththepolice,aswellaswithwhiteyoungmen,andledto
mediafearsthatBritainwaswitnessingthedevelopmentofaviolentand
oppositional ‘Asian gang’ (Alexander, 2000) subculture. These events
prompted a significant re-shaping of government policy approaches to
‘racerelations’(Solomos,2003),themeaningandimpactofwhichisthe
key focus of this book, with the emergence of ‘community cohesion’
(Cantle, 2001; Home Office, 2005) as both an explanation for exist-
ing problems between different ethnic communities, and as a goal for
futureprogress.AllpublicbodiesinBritainnowhaveadutytopromote
communitycohesion,andpublicsupportforcohesionisregularlymea-
suredatthelocallevel(DCLG,2008b).Thiscohesionanalysisof‘parallel
lives’ suggested that profound physical and cultural ethnic segregation
inmanypartsofthecountryhadledtoracialtensionsandtoseparate
andoppositionalidentitiesthaturgentlyneedtobeovercomeinfavour
of common identities and values if Britain’s multi-ethnic society is to
operatesuccessfullyandpeacefully.
The dangers of such separate, particularly Muslim, identities were
apparentlyconfirmedbythehorrificeventsinLondonon7July2005,
whenfouryoungBritishMuslimskilledthemselvesand52commuters
fromavarietyofethnicbackgroundsinfourco-ordinatedsuicidebomb-
ings on public transport. The fact that this was not an aberration was
confirmed by further botched attacks two weeks later, an attack on
Glasgow airport in 2007, and a number of very serious foiled plots
1
2 Youth,MulticulturalismandCommunityCohesion
leading to convictions. The reality that the large majority of these
Islamist attacks and plots have involved young Muslims educated and
mostlyborninBritainhassuggestedthatBritainindeedhasa‘Muslim
problem’ (Masood, 2006), with government responding through the
‘PreventingViolentExtremism’(PVE)agenda(DCLG,2007b)aspartof
the overall CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy (Home Office, 2009).
Blame for this emerging and home-grown terrorist threat and for the
broader problem of ethnic segregation and separate identities in many
townsandcitiesthatisarguablycausalhasbeensquarelylaidatthedoor
of ‘multiculturalism’, not only from perspectives historically question-
ing of the relativity of values and identities implicit in multiculturalist
policyapproachesanditseffectsonnationalsolidity(Parekh,2006),but
from apparent liberals (Goodhart, 2004) and even equality campaign-
ers, who suggested that multiculturalism had left Britain ‘sleepwalking
to segregation’ (Phillips, 2005) through its one-sided focus on differ-
ence. The accusation here is that too great a policy focus on the needs
of individual ethnic minority communities, and on their distinct and
fixed ethnic cultures, has fatally weakened overarching identities and
concern for commonality, with the result being separate and opposi-
tionalidentitieswithinspecificethnicandreligiouscommunities.Some
evidence in support of this analysis of failed policy approaches to eth-
nic relations comes in detection of a ‘white backlash’ (Hewitt, 2005)
againstequalitypoliciesseentofavournon-whiteethnicminoritycom-
munities,whilstignoringthelivesandconcernsofwhiteworking-class
communities experiencing profound changes relating to economic re-
structuring (Collins, 2004). Some of this white discontent has taken
a political form, with a rise in support for far-right groups such as
theBritishNationalParty(EatwellandGoodwin,2010),alongsidecon-
cernsthatovertlyracistandoppositionalidentitiesaregrowingamongst
whiteyoungpeopleinsomeareas.
These developments, both events and policy responses, in the first
decade of the twenty-first century suggest that what has previously
been seen across Europe as the relatively successful ‘British model of
multiculturalism’ had failed and is now of necessity being replaced.
In the 1960s, Britain accepted that assimilationist approaches to post-
war non-white immigration, which had tried to force new migrants
to abandon their own cultures, language and traditions, had failed,
andinsteadstartedtopromoteformsofmulticulturalismwithinpublic
policy(Solomos,2003).AkeyfigureinthismovewasLabourHomeSec-
retary Roy Jenkins, who linked multiculturalism with integration, the
approachtowhichhedefinedin1966as:
