Promoting Social Integration – A Brief Examination of Concepts and Issues

Abstract

Social integration is one of a constellation of “social” terms that is being used widely in contemporary policy development to describe concepts whose aim (as stated by the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action) is to foster societies that are stable, safe, just and tolerant, and respect diversity, equality of opportunity and participation of all people. Other terms that often invoked in support of this goal are “social inclusion”, “social cohesion” and “social capital”. All of these are contested terms, which often results in fruitless debate about what is meant when the terms are used. More seriously for policy makers, they are also notoriously difficult concepts to measure and operationalize, which is a distinct disadvantage in the current context of “evidence-based policy making”. This short paper is intended to highlight some of the main conceptual, contextual and policy issues surrounding the use of the terms.