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Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs and policies are being developed and implemented across the country. CVE is being criticized by various community leaders and members due to its inherent criminalizing nature as it is currently put into place by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). By exploring the various meanings of community in a multicultural community, various processes and practices can come to be analyzed as ways to prevent violent extremism without oversight from the DOJ and the DHS. Metro Detroit is a multicultural community that experiences statistically low levels of radicalization of community members who legitimize violent extremism. Even such cases can be delegitimized when considering the circumstances in which they exist. When examining the community cohesion that exists in Metro Detroit through various organizations, especially interfaith organizations, it becomes apparent that there is a strong attempt to create a cohesive community. The argument is not that community cohesion automatically leads to the absence of violent extremism, but that community cohesion builds relationships and practices so that potential causes for violent extremism can be addressed, lessened or diminished. It is suggested that the support of strengthening community cohesion in terms of CVE be dismantled from the DHS and the DOJ. Restructuring would best be supported as a joint effort between the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, all of which are better equipped to deal with the causes of violent extremism. / Master of Arts

The fields of family studies and child development share many similar concepts, yet the relationship between the two is rarely tested. This study is an exploratory examination of the conceptual similarities between the Circumplex Model of Family Functioning (Olson, Sprenkle, & Russell, 1979) and the Maccoby and Martin (1983) model of parenting typologies. Adaptability in the Olson model is conceptually similar to the demandingness/control dimension described by Maccoby and Martin, while cohesion is conceptually similar to the warmth-hostility dimension. It was hypothesized that each parenting type would exhibit specific family functioning styles. Participants were recruited through ten area day care centers. Thirty-five mothers and twenty-four fathers participated. Self-report and observational methods were used. Parents were administered FACES III and the PARI at group meetings at the respective centers. Seventeen families agreed to participate in an at-home session, where two observational game-tasks, the Guess the Rules game to measure adaptability and the Kvebaek Family Sculpture Task to measure cohesion, were completed. Analysis of variance, correlation coefficients, and chi-square statistics were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Two anomalous findings occurred: almost half the parents described their families as chaotic and over half the parents were typed as uninvolved. These findings influenced the results. The results suggest some support for the conceptual similarities between the models. Correlations between the FACES and PARI subscales were low but significant, suggesting adaptability and authoritarian control, as well as cohesion and hostility-rejection are related. ANOVA results suggested that the parenting group means for the FACES subscale scores were significantly different, and in directions that support the model. Parents who described themselves as permissive perceived themselves as the most adaptable and parents who perceived themselves as uninvolved perceived their families as the least cohesive. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2016. / The study seeks to establish whether social cohesion is a factor for the success or failure of an LED project. This process is important as there is a need to understand what are some of the factors that are integral to the functioning of LED projects to the extent of them (the LED projects) serving the intended purpose. There seems to be a general understanding that projects would naturally thrive albeit without proper understanding of the reasons thereof. This study seeks to provide for an understanding on the part of participants in projects as well as to the stakeholders that would support such projects of the probable factors that would lead to the success or failure of projects. This is very important as such factors need consistent consideration. The study focussed only on active participants of a LED projects within the geographical area of Polokwane over the period of the study. These projects were supported by the Polokwane Municipality as well as the Limpopo Department of Agriculture. Within this context the researcher argues that social cohesion is imperative for the success or failure of LED projects. It is also further argued that the projects‟ successes or failures are not solely in economic terms but also on the social bonds that hold together communities or members of projects that have a common goal or objective. A quantitative research method was used to gather data. A random sample of 85 respondents was interviewed by the researcher from both successful and failed projects. The data were analysed using the SPSS software with specific focus on Chi-square analysis. The study found that social cohesion is a factor for the success or failure of an LED project. Further it was established that factors such as education of the respondents play a role. It is observed from the findings that these factors are important for social cohesion to be a factor for success of LED projects. Further, it has been also observed there is an opportunity to compare the influence of education separately as a factor for success against the influence of incubation. However such could be an opportunity for further studies. It has been observed that this study contributes to the understanding of the importance of social cohesion in the implementation of LED projects both those that are stakeholder supported and those that are not. There are lessons to be learned about the importance of this factor over and above the economic practices of the LED processes. This study emphasises the importance of the human and societal elements to the implementation of LED projects that may be overlooked and/or assumed to have a role although not clearly defined. The study seeks to make provision for the fact that stakeholders involved in the implementation of LED projects need to incorporate and weigh the importance of social cohesion, education and incubation as integral components for the success of an LED project over and above invested material resources. These lessons may also be transferable to projects other than LEDs that seeks to understand the success or failure in their implementations.

Thesis (M.A. (Translation Studies and Linguistics )) -- University of Limpopo, 2012 / Refer to the document

“Territorial Cohesion” has been a topic of intense debate within the EU Policy lexicon. This has been partly because it’s still in cycles of interpretations and is in a quest for an acceptable and a discreet operational framework. However, parallel to ongoing discourses, Cohesion Policy for the period 2014-20 has been rolled out. The thesis is an attempt to examine and suggest, as to what extent, the current architecture of Cohesion Policy is contributing to achieve “Territorial Cohesion”, a Treaty objective, in its programmes, particularly the transnational programmes under the European Territorial Co-operation objective. “Territorial Cohesion” has been analyzed in specific Cohesion Policy regulations, programmes and validated by stakeholder inputs. A suitable theoretical outline, i.e. “conformance” and “performance” framework and a qualitative research approach have been employed to arrive at the conclusions. Cohesion Policy in its current cycle is focused on delivering Europe 2020 strategy’s priorities of “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”. The articulation of “Territorial Cohesion” objectives therefore is inadequately done in the scope and theme as well as in “programming” of Cohesion Policy. Interventions are proposed in its architecture to finesse Cohesion Policy-Territorial Cohesion interface, key to meeting Cohesion Policy goals.

This work describes cohesion policy on three levels: cohesion policy of EU, of Czech republic and of North-East cohesion region. The first chapter is about cohesion policy in EU. It contains information about legal and programming documents and about development of cohesion policy. The second chapter describes cohesion policy in the Czech republic. It deals with documents, programs and authorities. The third chapter is about cohesion policy in the North-East cohesion region. It characterizes situation in the region, operational programs and concrete projects.

This dissertation offers insights into the use of ideas in policies designed to address uneven territorial development in regions outside metropolitan areas in the European Union (EU). The focus is on integrated territorial development policies which draw on the notion of territorial cohesion in two different national contexts within the EU: Germany and Romania. The theoretical background of the thesis traces how territorial disparities are addressed in key theoretical paradigms which have influenced regional development thinking. Integrated territorial development is singled out as a key policy approach designed to overcome development disparities by tapping into underutilised endogenous assets and knowledge as part of a cross-sectoral vision within a defined space (be it an urban, rural, or regional context). Forward-thinking as this approach strives to be, it faces fundamental challenges in places which have been grappling with a rise of economic, social, and political disparities for many years. Understanding these processes through the relational concept of peripheralisation steers research towards engaging with people’s perceptions of spatial disparities and policies designed to address them. The conceptual framework of the thesis is designed around principles which enable an interpretive analysis of public policy. This mode of inquiry is based on an anti-foudnationalist ontology and a constructivist epistemology. The cornerstone of this approach is understanding policy actions as indeterminate, prone to unintended consequences, and fundamentally shaped by the backtalk of the complex social system it seeks to influence. Policy-making and implementing is hence viewed as a setting in which disparate and contingent beliefs and actions of individuals come together to shape a temporarily concerted course of actions. Different types of policy ideas (in many cases belonging to different schools of thought) hence come together in a process of policy framing where policy substance, actors’ identities and relationships, and the policy process are shaped. To operationalise this framework, the methodological design of this research follows an abductive mode of scientific inquiry which pursues an iterative engagement with the field and the theory. The empirical research is designed around two case study regions – the Chemnitz Region in The Free State of Saxony (one of Germany’s 16 federal states) and the North-West Region in Romania. The rationale behind the selection of the case studies was to choose regions in starkly different policy contexts, yet which are as similar as possible in terms of their socio-economic development trajectories. The study analyses three policy instruments: integrated urban development funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), integrated rural development funded through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and regional development planning initiatives. The primary data stems from 43 semi-structured expert interviews conducted with 46 policy practitioners and experts. Policy documents, local and regional strategies, and statistics have served as a source of secondary data. The analytical approach draws on principles of grounded theory for inductively developing theoretical categories and establishing causal explanations in the form of mid-level, provisional theories. The first block of the analysis engages with the substance of integrated territorial development policies and strategies, showcasing different interpretations of territorial cohesion in national contexts. Governments in both contexts view territorial cohesion as a means of strengthening the governance and coordination of policies, with a focus on local development conditions. Nonetheless, little emphasis is put on the competitive polycentric development approach, balanced development, and the environmental dimensions. In both studied contexts, polarised development is grasped as an inevitable approach for overcoming broad regional structural weaknesses. The second analytical block engages with policy processes which underpin the implementation of integrated territorial development strategies. This serves to highlight the settings in which policy-relevant actors apply the integrated instruments available to them. The analysis centres on the separation of urban from rural development, the ownership of the goals pursued through integrated development and the ensuing impact on actors’ motivation to engage with complex policy procedures, and the role of experts in guiding policy beneficiaries The final block of the analysis touches on the problematisation of peripheralisation in relation to integrated development instruments in four domains: demographic change, structural economic shifts, infrastructures and services of general interest, and place identity and marketing. These domains are not tied to any specific policies, but have rather emerged as salient in the inductive analysis. The research concludes with a number of open questions and suggestions for policy makers. A key observation is that the notion of territorial cohesion itself tends to bring little value added to policy programmes, as many topics are already addressed in bespoke national normative concepts and policy programmes. Far from being an end-state, territorial cohesion comes across as a process which is shaped by contrasting perceptions on competitive and balanced development; by centralised and devolved modes of governance; by functional territorial planning or network-based development windows of opportunity. The added value of policies which draw on territorial cohesion to address territorial disparities may lay in bringing the perspective of peripheralised policy communities to the forefront of the debate and enabling innovative forms of cooperation.:Preface and acknowledgments – iii Table of contents – vii List of figures and tables – xi Abbreviations – xv Introduction – 1 PART I: THEORETICAL, CONCEPTUAL, AND METHODOLOGICAL GROUNDS 1. Theoretical insights into territorial cohesion and disparities in the EU – 15 1.1. Key shifts in regional development policy thinking – 15 1.1.1. The neoliberalisation of regional and local development – 16 1.1.2. The neoliberalising logic of strategic spatial planning – 23 1.1.3. New approaches towards development policies – 24 1.2. Normative and policy dimensions of territorial cohesion – 26 1.2.1. Establishing European planning concepts – 27 1.2.2. Dimensions of territorial cohesion and its integrative role – 30 1.3. Towards a relational understanding of territorial disparities – 36 1.3.1. Understanding territorial disparities through peripheralisation – 36 1.3.2. Ideational dependency in development policies – 39 1.4. Territorial cohesion and peripheralisation: research perspectives – 40 2. Conceptual framework – 43 2.1. Policy analysis: a constructivist perspective – 44 2.1.1. The case for an anti-foundationalist ontology of public policy – 45 2.1.2. Policy analysis in an interpretive epistemology – 49 2.2. Understanding the role of prominent policy ideas – 52 2.2.1. Decentering political science – 53 2.2.2. Prominent policy ideas: an interpretive perspective – 54 2.3. Reflexive agency in public policy – 56 2.3.1. Putting travelling ideas to use in policy design processes – 56 2.3.2. Policy frames and policy framing – 61 2.4. Guiding principles – 64 3. Methodology – 67 3.1. Interpretive analysis in spatial policy research – 68 3.2. Research design – 72 3.2.1. Key principles – 72 3.2.2. Comparing two case studies – 75 3.2.3. Generating theory: principles and quality criteria – 79 3.3. Methods – 85 3.3.1. Qualitative interviewing – 85 3.3.2. Policy and document analysis – 90 3.4. Case and respondent selection – 91 3.4.1. Selecting regions in Germany and Romania – 91 3.4.2. Selecting respondents – 95 PART II: CONTEXT 4. The administrative context of integrated territorial development policies – 105 4.1. The ESI funds and the Cohesion Policy: a brief overview – 106 4.1.1. The key aims of the ESI funds – 107 4.1.2. EU priorities for the Cohesion Policy – 108 4.1.3. Integrated territorial development – 110 4.2. Planning and regional development in Saxony and Romania – 112 4.2.1. Saxony – 113 4.2.2. Romania – 114 4.3. Policy instruments for integrated territorial development – 115 4.3.1. Saxony – 115 4.3.2. Romania – 120 4.4. Policy directions – 125 5. Territorial structures of, and development trends in the studied regions – 127 5.1. Territorial structures – 127 5.1.1. The Chemnitz region in Saxony – 127 5.1.2. The North-West region in Romania – 130 5.2. Population and demography – 133 5.3. Transport infrastructure – 135 5.4. Economic profiles – 139 5.4.1. Employment concentration – 139 5.4.2. Commuting – 142 5.4.3. Economic sectors - 142 PART III: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS 6. The substance of integrated territorial development policies and strategies – 149 6.1. Normative positions on territorial cohesion – 149 6.1.1. Normative Positions – 150 6.1.2. Linking the storylines – 152 6.1.3. Key remarks – 153 6.2. The substance of governmental policies – 155 6.2.1. Categorising space: the inevitability of polarised development – 157 6.2.2. The role of integrated territorial development policies – 163 6.3. The substance of local and regional strategies – 169 6.3.1. Integrated Rural Development Plans – 169 6.3.2. Integrated Urban Development Plans – 174 7. Ideas in action: making sense of integrated territorial development – 189 7.1.Practical constraints and affordances of using integrated instruments – 189 7.1.1. The urban-rural split in ESI-funded instruments – 189 7.1.2. Centralising the ownership of European goals – 196 7.2. The role of experts in framing integrated responses – 203 7.2.1. Experts’ roles beyond bureaucracies – 204 7.2.2. Attuning expertise to local conditions – 204 7.2.3. Conveying expertise at a regional level and beyond – 208 7.3. From ideas to action – 210 7.3.1. Fostering motivation – 210 7.3.2. Eroding trust through complex bureaucracies – 215 8. Problematising integrated development: a local-regional perspective – 219 8.1. Demographic change – 219 8.2. Structural economic shifts – 225 8.2.1. Regional economies in transition – 226 8.2.2. Towards competitive territories – 231 8.3. Infrastructures and public services – 235 8.3.1. In-between adaptation and expansion – 236 8.3.2. Key remarks – 240 8.4. Place identity and marketing – 240 8.5. From problems to perceptions of cumulative disadvantages – 247 PART IV: CONCLUSIONS 9. Conclusions and implications – 255 9.1. Summary of the research approach. Key findings – 255 9.1.1. Research approach and theoretical anchors – 255 9.1.2 Policy ideas and their role in policy framing 258 9.2. Reflections and implications – 264 9.2.1. Methodological reflections – 265 9.2.2. Policy implications – 266 9.2.3. Perspectives for further research – 269 References – 271 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Analysed policy documents – 301 Appendix 2: Analysed strategies – 303 Appendix 3: Details about the interviews – 305 Appendix 4: List of original quotes – 311

The concept of community cohesion is the centrepiece of the policy that was formulated by the British government in response to the urban disturbances in northern English towns during 2001. A number of official reports identified lack of community cohesion as the critical factor. The central argument for community cohesion, the self-segregation thesis, was based on evidence from Bradford. The core idea, parallel lives, was first articulated in the Ouseley Report and incorporated into the Cantle Report and subsequent government reports into the 2001 disturbances. The Commission for Integration and Cohesion widened the concept of community cohesion, which encompassed faith and ethnic groups, to include income and generation, suggesting that the concept was more complex than earlier definitions allowed. However, the increasing concern with terrorism has meant that Muslims remain the focus of debates on cohesion, and a conflation of the community cohesion programme with the government's anti-terrorism strategy is evident in the policy literature. Samad's article is based on research carried out in Bradford to unearth and explore the factors that enhance or undermine community cohesion in those areas where there are established Muslim communities and, additionally, those in which Muslim migrants have recently arrived. It scrutinizes the debate on a number of issues: the difficulties in defining and implementing community cohesion policy, and the issues of segregation, social capital, transnationalism and belonging. This data-driven analysis takes the main areas of debate and tests them with evidence from Bradford. The research findings challenge some of the fundamental assumptions that have informed government policy by providing new evidence that throws light on central aspects of the debate. The need to reflect on these assumptions became more relevant after the English riots of 2011, centred in London, and the subsequent necessity to develop an effective strategy that engages with their root causes.