The quote 'Cohesive communities are ones that are able to exist together in a state of harmony and peaceful
relationships characterised by a climate of mutual understanding and respect', taken from 'Themes, Messages
& Challenges' from the Commission for Cohesion and Integration Consultation, describes the ideal scenario
of disparate cultures, religions, race and class living side by side in communities of interwoven peaceful
relationships but, in reality, how many communities/towns/cities in the UK reflect this?
Perceptions and attitudes – for example, with regard to inequalities, employment opportunities or fundamental
racial or religious differences – all affect the cohesiveness of any community. The difficulty lies in
extracting this information from the general public and forming a strategic plan from it. Underlying opinions
are difficult to establish and yet are vital to building the depth of understanding that can guide programmes
aimed at developing a more cohesive environment. So the question is: how do you get to the heart of people's
opinions, attitudes and beliefs?
In its June 2007 report, the Commission on Integration and Cohesion recognised the difficulties faced by all
partners when trying to effectively measure cohesion or integration. This challenge is specifically addressed
by Identity Structure Analysis (ISA).
ISA is a social measurement technique that allows those studying communities to identify factors that are
shared by communities or are considered (possibly wrongly) to be 'different' and therefore a source of tension.
ISA measures specific aspects of communities, cultures and interactions, reporting on, for example:
The extent to which communities actually share common values and beliefs;
Those factors on which one section of the community feels other groups are different or they themselves are seen as different;
Different groups' perceptions of and evaluations of relevant community participants, for example public bodies, schools, religions, government;
Trends in perceptions, measuring the extent to which different groups feel that their situation is getting better or worse and whether or not they have positive aspirations;
The differences between different subgroups, for example based on age, social strata, level of education, or time in the UK,
can also be identified.
ISA is a tremendously flexible tool that can be adapted to study any factors of interest. ISA is a software platform that
the researcher uses to build a study 'instrument' in which the factors to be studied are defined. The software then also
presents this 'instrument' as a visual tool for the researcher to use with the groups being studied. ISA builds an
understanding of the study group by capturing input from individuals and the data on these individuals can then be manipulated
by the software to look at group dynamics, for example similarities and differences.
ISA has been used extensively on an international level to measure factors affecting community cohesion.
Examples include studies of the identities of Israeli, Christian, Arab Youths, Hong Kong Chinese and Irish
Republicans and Unionists. Extensive studies on the identity of immigrants and offspring of migrant ancestry
has been carried out in the UK, covering, for example, Muslim Pakistanis, Greek Cypriots, Birmingham Gujeratis
and Kashmiris. Throughout these studies, the core component has been the use of ISA techniques to build
dedicated survey instruments, conduct complex analysis and generate meaningful, measurable results, which
provide clear insights into the crosscultural issues at hand.
Sycadex Ltd has been formed specifically to widen the use of ISA in the social and work arenas. We have
developed the software package 'ipseus', which allows ISA to be put to practical use by social researchers,
psychologists and those responsible for developing community cohesion programmes. Our team of researchers and
developers works with our clients through a clear process, which can begin with background ethnographic
research (to define the scope and content of the instrument), instrument development, survey data capture and
data analysis. We can also provide clients with detailed training so that they too can become expert users of
the ipseus software and build their own powerful survey and analytical instruments for ongoing measurement of
social cohesion issues.
Source: Public Service Review, Transport, Local Government and the Regions, Issue 12
Author: Allen Erskine Download Printable Version
