University of Twente Student Theses
How to measure social cohesion at neighbourhood level: An application for the city of Enschede
Daorueang, Panisara (2010) How to measure social cohesion at neighbourhood level: An application for the city of Enschede.
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| Abstract: | Social cohesion is multidimensional and multilevel. Conceptualizing social cohesion in terms of definition and measurement is not an easy task. Many authors determine their own concept which varies from one another. The measurement of social cohesion at neighborhood level has been accepted as a good exercise for policy making. It is considered a challenge for the authority to recognize the importance of neighborhood to allocate the available resources and the needs. This study aims to get a better insight into the concept of social cohesion and how to measure it at the neighborhood level. The research tries to explore the definition, dimensions and indicators of social cohesion and the measurement of social cohesion within the context of Enschede, the Netherlands. It tries to differentiate between the horizontal and vertical aspects in order to measure the state of social cohesion. Based on literature review and the statistical approaches, social cohesion index at neighborhood level was derived. Using z-score classification system, different indicators under five dimensions were calculated and assessed. A cut-off value was used to classify the moderate score and applying the weighting technique. The advantage of the mean z-score is that it describes the level of social cohesion directly. Each indicator was justified in terms of horizontal and vertical social cohesion and its state was analyzed using a scoring system. The analysis showed that some indicators have shortcomings and fails to represent social cohesion. Moreover some indicators could not be applied according to the literature. The measurement of social cohesion varies from place to place and also depends on the kind of indicators used. The study further showed that measurement of social cohesion at neighbourhood level is dependent on the concept and data availability. Keywords: Social cohesion, Horizontal aspect, Vertical aspect, Neighbourhood level, Measurement, Enschede |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | ITC: Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation |
| Programme: | Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation MSc (75014) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/90749 |
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