Dealing with diversity: Challenges and opportunities for social cohesion in deprived neighbourhoods

Abstract

Policy makers worry about the negative impact of the concentration of disadvantaged groups and minority ethnic groups on social cohesion in deprived neighbourhoods. A popular response has been to diversify the housing stock as to house more households with a higher socioeconomic position, which in practice are mostly white Dutch. A large body of research has assessed these interventions and has not found clear evidence for the intended results: when it comes to local social networks, lower and higher income groups and ethnic communities are often found to live parallel lives. However, the recent academic literature on super-diversity and hyper-diversity suggests that these studies might not grasp the full picture: urban societies are becoming diverse in ever more complex ways, not only in terms of ethnicity and class, but also regarding activity patterns, households types, cultures, lifestyles and identities. There is an increase in diversity within traditional demographic categories as well. This poses important challenges for conducting research, particularly research on social perceptions and relations. Scholars have only recently started to study what complex urban diversity means for questions of social cohesion. Much remains unclear about how people in highly diverse neighbourhoods perceive, experience and practice local diversity. This study attempts to provide insight. It examines how residents of deprived neighbourhoods face the challenges of living among diverse others and how they seize the opportunities for positive relations across differences. The study does not focus on ethnic and income diversity a priori. Rather, it adopts a comprehensive approach to diversity. The research results refute the dominant understanding in academia and policy that diverse deprived areas lack social cohesion.