Challenging Diversity? The Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Ethnic Diversity and Social Cohesion

这个FRL项目关注的是移民和种族多样性的增加如何影响社会凝聚力。英国目前正经历着人口种族构成的重大人口变化，2001年至2011年间，非白人英国人的比例从13%上升到20%。在学术、政府和公共领域，人们都在表达这样的担忧：这种日益增长的多样性对以下方面构成威胁：居民社区凝聚力（破坏邻居之间的信任和联系）;更广泛的社会凝聚力（导致公民脱离接触，对陌生人的信任下降，对福利政策的支持减少）;群体间凝聚力（培养种族间的紧张关系，推动对极右翼组织的支持）。当保守的估计认为这一趋势只会增加时，了解种族多样性是否、如何以及为什么会影响社会凝聚力，以及如何改善任何负面影响，对于维持一个有凝聚力的和谐社会至关重要。然而，我们对种族多样性如何影响社会凝聚力的理解仍然存在重大差距。首先，目前的大部分研究集中在如何暴露于一个人的居住社区内的多样性影响社会凝聚力。然而，社区只是个人与其他族裔群体接触的一个场所。在学校、大学、工作场所、志愿者团体等地方，个人每天都接触到不同的环境。然而，这些地方的多样性水平如何影响社会凝聚力在很大程度上是未知的。这是一个重要的遗漏，因为个人实际上更有可能在这些地方遇到多样性，而不是在他们的社区。其次，大多数研究假设，随着成年人邻里之间的多样性增加，他们的社会凝聚力也会相应地发生变化。然而，成年人对种族多样性环境的反应可能会受到他们一生中各种经历的影响，例如父母的态度，学校的多样性，以及他们成长的社区的多样性。因此，为了理解多样性如何影响社会凝聚力，我们还需要了解个人一生中对种族多样性的经历。因此，本研究的主要目的是试图更全面地了解族裔多样性如何影响社会凝聚力：首先，研究在学校、工作场所或民间团体中与其他群体接触，沿着邻里，如何影响凝聚力;其次，一个人一生中的多样性经历如何影响凝聚力。只有对个体的复杂社会世界有了更完整的了解，我们才有希望理解多样性对社会凝聚力的影响。然而，如果我们确实发现，在某些地方，在个人生活的某些时刻，日益增加的多样性可能会损害社会凝聚力，那么我们需要知道“什么有效”来减轻这种摩擦。因此，本研究将探讨如何干预，如跨文化教育，工作场所的多样性培训，国家多元文化政策，和青少年种族混合计划，可以帮助减轻日益增加的多样性的任何压力。这一努力的关键是分析现政府的主要融合政策之一：国家公民服务。

This FRL project is concerned with how rising immigration and increasing ethnic diversity affect social cohesion. The UK is currently undergoing a significant demographic shift in the ethnic composition of its populace, with the proportion of non-White British rising from 13% to 20% between 2001 and 2011. Across academic, governmental and public spheres, concerns are being articulated that this growing diversity poses a threat to: residential community cohesion (undermining trust and connectivity between neighbours); wider, societal cohesion (leading to civic disengagement, declining trust in strangers and lower support for welfare policies); and inter-group cohesion (cultivating inter-ethnic tensions, and driving support for far-right organisations). When even conservative estimates predict this trend will only increase, understanding if, how and why ethnic diversity affects social cohesion, and what can be done to ameliorate any pejorative effects, is of paramount importance to the maintenance of a cohesive, harmonious society.Yet, significant gaps remain in our understanding of how of ethnic diversity affects social cohesion. Firstly, much of the current research focuses on how being exposed to diversity within one's residential community affects social cohesion. However, the community is just one site at which individuals come into contact with other ethnic groups. In places like schools, universities, workplaces, volunteering groups, individuals are being exposed to diverse environments everyday. However, how levels of diversity in these places affect social cohesion is largely unknown. This is an important omission given that individuals are actually more likely to encounter diversity in these places than in their neighbourhoods. Secondly, most research assumes that as diversity within an adult's neighbourhood increases, their social cohesion will shift accordingly. However, how adults respond to ethnically diverse environments is likely influenced by all kinds of experiences throughout their lives, such as the attitudes of their parents, the diversity of their schools, and how diverse the neighbourhoods were they grew up in. To understand how diversity affects social cohesion we therefore also need to know what individuals' experiences of ethnic diversity have been over their entire lives. The primary aim of this research is therefore to try and create a much fuller picture of how ethnic diversity affects social cohesion by: firstly, looking at how coming into contact with other groups in schools, workplaces, or civic groups, along with neighbourhoods, affects cohesion; and secondly, how experiences of diversity over one's whole life affects cohesion. Only with this more complete picture of the complex social worlds of individuals can we hope to understand the effect of diversity on social cohesion. However, if we do find that increasing diversity, in certain places, at certain points over an individual's life, can harm social cohesion, then we need to know 'what works' to ameliorate such frictions. This research will therefore investigate how interventions, such as intercultural education, workplace diversity training, national multiculturalism policies, and ethnic mixing programs for adolescents can help alleviate any pressures of increasing diversity. Key to this endeavour will be an analysis of one of the current government's key integration policies: the National Citizen Service.