Reflections on social cohesion in contemporary South Africa

Abstract

Social cohesion has become an important construct in South African society in recent years. It has a fairly short history, appearing predominantly in the post-apartheid period and more specifically in the period around 2012 when the Department of Arts and Culture (the government department responsible for drafting the social cohesion strategy) hosted a social cohesion summit and adopted social cohesion and nation building strategy (DAC, 2012). In 2014 a social cohesion summit was held and a second report back on the 2014 social cohesion summit was then held in 2015 along with other related activities such as presentations to parliament on social cohesion by the Department of Arts and Culture. Since this process began the concept has become particularly commonplace and whilst it is used by many across government and non-governmental sectors I want to concentrate here on the ways in which it is used by the Department of Arts and Culture in official strategies and formal speeches. Social cohesion is connected to several related concepts which I will only be able to mention briefly in order to consider why social cohesion may have emerged as important in this moment. Most significantly, I want to suggest that the use of social cohesion at this point in time should not be unproblematically celebrated. Rather we need to question why we want social cohesion, in what forms, and what it might offer to whom at this moment in South African history. Tracing the origins of social cohesion shows that it is a concept that has roots beyond South Africa. Internationally, social cohesion has emerged out of the literature on social capital (see Portes, 2000 for an overview; also Putman 1993, 2001). In this context social cohesion has been understood to be just one aspect of social capital. Authors writing in this tradition have focussed on how social cohesion may be improved (usually among people living within defined geographical spaces as in neighbourhoods or communities (see Kawachi and Berkman, 2000; Forrest and Kearnes, 2001)) and what the positive outcomes may be for those with higher levels of social cohesion (see Forrest and Kearnes, 2001). However, two points that are evident in this literature will form the basis of my reflections here. Firstly, this literature recognises that social cohesion (and indeed the broader construct of social capital) may not always be positive. The oft cited example of the mafia is an illustration of how a group may display all the components of high social cohesion but to negative effects (see Greeley, 1997). Secondly, in the global literature, social cohesion has not been linked to nation building in the way it has in South Africa and so I will consider the consequences of this further. Connected to this, social cohesion has not always been considered as something that the State can, or should, promote. These points are the focus of my reflections here.