Cohesion and Social Capital

The chapter maps the evolution of the concept of social cohesion across scholarly and institutional arenas. It shows how cohesion operates with a dual status: analytically fragile in research debates yet powerful in policy communication, where it condenses concerns about order, integration and collective welfare. The discussion reviews major trajectories, from foundational reflections on social order and solidarity to contemporary frameworks that operationalise cohesion through multidimensional indicator sets, while noting persistent ambiguity and the recurrent conflation of aims, measures and outcomes. It then clarifies approaches to operationalisation by distinguishing ideational and relational components and horizontal and vertical dimensions, and surveys efforts to construct composite indices. Turning to its relationship with social capital, the chapter presents competing positions that either fold capital into cohesion or treat them as distinct but associated constructs, with implications for debates on exclusion, migration and education. It concludes that cohesion remains conceptually under-specified and normatively loaded, whereas research on social capital appears more internally consistent. The chapter’s contribution is to synthesise these trajectories and specify where cohesion and social capital intersect, diverge and remain indeterminate, providing clearer terms for analysis and use.