IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/avg/wpaper/en8750.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Defining Social Cohesion

Author

Listed:
  • Justine BURNS
  • George HULL
  • Kate LEFKO-EVERETT
  • Lindokuhle NJOZELA

Abstract

Promoting social cohesion is one of the most difficult, yet one of the most important, challenges facing South Africa. However, while there is a widespread agreement that social cohesion influences economic and social development, and that nurturing a more cohesive society is an important policy goal in itself, little progress has been made in trying to measure it and track progress in this domain over time. One of the most severe limitations to this progress is the lack of definitional consensus on social cohesion. It may seem intuitive to describe it as the glue that binds us together, or the forging of a common sense of identity and belonging. To others, it may speak to a willingness to extend trust to outsiders, to respect fellow citizens and uphold their dignity, and to be moved to action in the face of persistent inequality on behalf of those who are marginalised. Alternatively, specifically in the South African context, its very essence may be seen as common humanity embodied in the notion of ubuntu.

Suggested Citation

  • Justine BURNS & George HULL & Kate LEFKO-EVERETT & Lindokuhle NJOZELA, 2018. "Defining Social Cohesion," Working Paper d31a4f67-a9b4-427e-9dc3-f, Agence française de développement.
    • Handle: RePEc:avg:wpaper:en8750
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.afd.fr/sites/afd/files/2018-07-05-31-42/Defining%20Social%20Cohesion-Burns-Hull-Lefko-Everett-Njozela-pr-72.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Staveren, I.P. & Pervaiz, Z. & Chaudhary, A.R., 2013. "Diversity, Inclusiveness and Social Cohesion," ISD Working Paper Series 2013-1, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Toyin Cotties Adetiba, 0000. "Frustrating the frustrated: Analysis of the plights of African Migrants seekers in uMhlathuze area of Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 14616283, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    2. Tawanda Matema & Paul Kariuki, 2022. "The Impact of Social Media on Social Cohesion in South Africa," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 14(2), pages 1-12.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Danquah, M. & Ouattara, B., 2023. "Aid and social cohesion," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 118-131.
    2. Tiaan MEIRING & Catherine KANNEMEYER & Elnari POTGIETER, 2018. "The Gap Between Rich and Poor: South African Society’s Biggest Divide Depends on Where You Think You Fit In," Working Paper ffd19ae8-4b12-4b82-b218-8, Agence française de développement.
    3. Verhoeven, Loesje & Ritzen, Jo, 2022. "Globalisation increased trust in northern and western Europe between 2002 and 2018," MERIT Working Papers 2022-005, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Afrique du Sud;

    JEL classification:

    • Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:avg:wpaper:en8750. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AFD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afdgvfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.