Social Cohesion

The Policy-Making Concept of Social Cohesion

The concept of social cohesion adopted by the European Union (EU) is an excellent example of the first strategy. It is essentially a normative reference associated with operational criteria revolving around indicators (e.g., employment, health) that are selected by public debate, politicians, and technocrats. This predominant concept of social cohesion in the current international debate was developed in the 1990s by the EU as part of a political discourse imbued with an essentially normative-evocative meaning that seeks to define a desirable horizon for society. The concept of social cohesion is defined as

The notion of social cohesion is believed to represent the central values of solidarity and equality that are the original features of the “European model.” It is contrasted sharply with the so-called Anglo-Saxon (English-speaking countries) model, which is regarded as steeped in more individualistic values and less concerned with distributive aspects or the state's role as guarantor of the common good (European Commission, 2007).

According to Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Duncan Gallie, Anton Hemerijk, and John Myers (2002), explicitly underlying the EU's concerns with social cohesion are the changes in its economy and demography in recent decades, particularly its inclusion in the globalization process and the subsequent impact on job creation/unemployment and distribution of wealth, and the resultant challenges to its welfare state. These changes provoke social tensions, which, in turn, jeopardize social cohesion. The EU concept of social cohesion has to do with an effort to maintain the (idealized) standard of the immediate past that it would like to preserve.

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