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I. Introduction
There is a burgeoning accumulation of both theoretical and empirical literature onsocial cohesion often revealing a matrix of divergent interpretations regarding itsconceptual meaning as a construct with corollary multiplicity of areas of investigation,making the subject
of social cohesion quite „untidy‟.
And D
espite Mitchell‟s (197
9)claim that socials cohesion does not have an agreed upon meaning, and the failure of theclassical work of macro-sociologist (e.g., Durkheim, 1951) to arrive at a connotativedefinition of cohesion, one common core depiction in the extant literature (e.g.,Bruhn,2009)is the notion of social cohesion as a bond that brings people together. In seeking tounpack the notion of social cohesion, Helly et al. (2003) has argued that this notionimplies the promotion of a sense of communality and responsibility of communitymembers towards each other. These can be substantiated through community-based civicaction and active involvement in networks that tend to act as an adjuvant for socialcohesion, particularly in fragmented societies and precarious political systems.Taking Lebanon as an example, the need to bring communities together around civilvalues facilitated through community actions and initiatives represent a focal point forconsideration
given the country‟s
perennial disputatious political culture and inherentsocial divisions, particularly among its vying confessional communities. Further, the factthat Lebanon represents a labyrinth of political and social problems whose analyses gobeyond the scope of this research, experimenting with a community-based initiative inthe en routes towards promoting social cohesion is not without merit. In fact, there is no apriori reason to suggest that community-based action of a civic and developmental naturecannot contribute to the promotion of social cohesion. At the most general level, webelieve that community-based action does make a contribution to social cohesion while atthe same time its outcome remains testable. This research represents a testable model of community-based action for social cohesion in Lebanon by drawing on the experiences of those communities involved in the n-initiative. Particularly, it reports the findings of acase-study concerned with community-based civic action in five geographic regions inLebanon as an example of involvement in community development for social cohesion inopen-dialogue context provided in public spaces.In addition to this introduction, the study is organized as follows: theoretical framework of the study; the n-initiative, methodology and methods of data collection, findings,lessons learned, and conclusion.
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