'A Past Built on Difference, a Future which is Shared' - a Critical Examination of the Recommendation made by the Commission on Integration and Community Cohesion

Abstract

In this article I critically examine the interim statement and final report of the Commission on Integration and Community Cohesion (CICC) produced in 2007. The article explores the CICC’s attempts to distance their approach to building community cohesion and increasing integration from what they describe as the ‘simplistic’ explanations and recommendations adopted by previous high-profile reviews, especially the Cantle chaired Community Cohesion Review of 2001. However, it will be suggested here that the CICC have unwittingly reproduced many of the latter’s problematic explanations and recommendations. The ‘cultural’ explanations, and recommendations, epitomized by the ‘contact hypothesis’ and Cantle’s co-option of social capital theory are fully present in the CICC’s statement and reports. This is most evident in their recommendations on ‘single group funding’.