Social Cohesion in a Culturally Diverse Exchange Economy

by Clarence S. Bayne* 1. introduction This paper was inspired by my attendance of a conference of the CIRCLE/CCRN Round Table 2000, held in Edmonton 26th and 27th May, 2000. The over all theme for the conference was “Culture, Connectedness and Social Cohesion.” After the fi rst few papers had been presented, the conference found itself wrestling with many different perspectives on social cohesion. But no clear consensus emerged around a defi nition. The failure or unwillingness to defi ne the concept was addressed by Collen Mercer (Nottingham Trent University), Rod Fisher (CIRCLE/CCRN Round Table, 2000), Ritva Mitchell (Arts Council of Finland Research Department). Hatto Fisher (CIED Network, Greece) used the term social cohesion but never really defi ned it; or rather seemed to have many defi nitions (CCRN, 2000). There seemed to be a sense at the conference that social cohesion was a work in progress. Rod Fisher informed us that the term was not widely used in England. Ritva Mitchell told the conference that Finnish policy planners prefer to use derivatives of the concept: social disintegration and cultural diversity. The conference agreed that this obvious variation in the interpretation of the term social cohesion should not detract from the value of the work that we were