The impact of community cohesion on youth work

‘Community Cohesion’ has become the most important way of
understanding the state of ‘race relations’ in Britain today, but what
does it actually mean? The term Community Cohesion first appeared
following riots in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in the north of
England in the summer of 2001. It has since become the main way
that central and local government talks about relationships between
different ethnic groups, and the main focus for policies designed to
create better ethnic relationships. Despite this, so far there is very
little actual evidence of what ‘Community Cohesion’ really means to
youth workers and others working with different communities at a
local level. This article is based on research carried out with youth
workers in Oldham. The aim of the research was to find out what
‘Community Cohesion’ means to youth workers, and how it has
altered youth work practice.