Social cohesion is having its season in Aotearoa New Zealand. Political parties invoke it, government agencies place it in strategic plans, and community organisations discover it in funding applications with the enthusiasm once reserved for words such as diversity, inclusion and resilience. The phrase is everywhere. The evidence of progress is harder to find. This … Continue reading When Everything Becomes Social Cohesion
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What Holds Us Together?
I recently watched Aaron Bastani’s conversation with Pankaj Mishra on Downstream. They covered a great deal of ground, from the changing balance of global power to the decline of Western media and the persistence of colonial habits of thought. What stayed with me, though, was a quieter question underneath much of the conversation: what happens … Continue reading What Holds Us Together?
The Missing Machinery of Cohesion
Bhaskar Sunkara’s complaint that diversity in Britain has been turned into a perverse form of multiculturalism is provocative, but it points to a real problem. He has argued in a video discussion that multiculturalism can be hollowed out into a managerial politics of diversity; see also his related critique of liberal anti-racism here. The issue … Continue reading The Missing Machinery of Cohesion
