Social Cohesion Contested

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985955%3A_____%2F24%3A00588564" target="_blank" >RIV/67985955:_____/24:00588564 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/60460709:41110/24:100947

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Social Cohesion Contested

Original language description

In recent decades ‘social cohesion’ has emerged as a major concern of states, policymakers and researchers. ‘Social cohesion’ is represented as a desirable policy goal and as the basis for everything from economic growth to individual well-being. At the same time, it is increasingly presented as a single substance, which can be measured, tracked, and compared across diverse societies. But why should we think of the complex ways in which we can live well together in terms of a single substance? Social Cohesion Contested challenges this way of thinking, suggesting that ‘social cohesion’ has become a buzzword that obscures as much - or more - as it illuminates. Dan Swain and Petr Urban trace the rise of the concept through the policy agendas of transnational and international bodies, and analyze the reactions of social researchers to the demands of policymakers for a clear and operationalizable concept. They argue that the term is frequently used in a way that assumes broad understanding and agreement, while in practice it is subject to contradictory definitions and often loaded with various implicit and explicit values, which become masked behind a veneer of scientific authority and normative legitimacy. The more that ‘social cohesion’ is treated as a single substance with a clear and uncontroversial meaning, the more it narrows the space for debate and contestation around both the policies adopted in its name and the understanding of the social on which it rests. In contrast, if ‘social cohesion’ is to mean anything it ought to be understood explicitly as a contested concept, and actively subject to contestation. The book thus provides not only a critique of a popular concept, but an example of engaged philosophical criticism of social research and policy.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

B - Specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA19-20031S" target="_blank" >GA19-20031S: Towards a New Ontology of Social Cohesion</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

ISBN

978-1-5381-7662-7

Number of pages

156

Publisher name

Rowman & Littlefield

Place of publication

Lanham

UT code for WoS book

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