Social cohesion and local leadership in disadvantaged neighbourhoods: encounters, urban trauma and complexity

At certain times in history there have been pressures on societies driving a sense of solidarity and unity or division and cleavage. The recent UK context of austerity, a hostile migration policy, and rising inequalities have exposed fault lines in the fabric that weaves urban communities together. This thesis draws on urban encounters, chronic urban trauma and complexity theory to examine what makes a meaningful interaction that builds social cohesion. The particular focus of the study is on how historical, relational and spatial factors in predominantly White, relatively deprived neighbourhoods in Sheffield influence contemporary encounters and social cohesion. Applying complexity theory to social cohesion has led to a focus on the possibility spaces and the attractors that can encourage communities to build wider coalitions that are welcoming of difference. The study combines ethnographic research in three neighbourhoods together with action research with community activists supporting leadership development and integration in their geographical patches or communities of interest. It contributes new empirical analysis of these three neighbourhoods as examples of social cohesion understood as a ‘wicked’ system that is, by its nature, prone to sudden shifts in tolerance and acceptance levels. A context in which people are becoming increasingly devoid of basic securities in their lives will create an affect that has political consequences that may be deleterious to efforts to build social cohesion. However, the study also highlights the transformative potential of encounters across difference. It argues that local emergent leadership needs to be capable and confident in facilitating meaningful interactions that contribute to building social cohesion that values diversity. Paying attention to the influence of local leaders will impact upon both the local communities directly and through realigned relationships between deprived neighbourhoods, the city and the state.