The impact of community cohesion on youth work

‘Community Cohesion’ has become the most important way of understanding the state of ‘race relations’ in Britain today, but what does it actually mean? The term Community Cohesion first appeared following riots in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in the north of England in the summer of 2001. It has since become the main way that central and local government talks about relationships between different ethnic groups, and the main focus for policies designed to create better ethnic relationships. Despite this, so far there is very little actual evidence of what ‘Community Cohesion’ really means to youth workers and others working with different communities at a local level. This article is based on research carried out with youth workers in Oldham. The aim of the research was to find out what ‘Community Cohesion’ means to youth workers, and how it has altered youth work practice