Survey findings are typically considered in isolation in the media, with no understanding of context, of what is within and what is beyond the expected.
It appears a significant proportion of Australia’s Chinese community feel the Australian media cover China within a narrow framework.
EPA/Kanzaburo Fukuhara
Yusuf Sayed, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Teachers in South Africa need far more high quality professional development, policy direction and support to take social cohesion from concept to classroom
The story of Australia’s multicultural future needs to be informed by an understanding of the past. Those who do not know history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
Recent federal governments have not had the courage to draft, debate, test and pass legislation asserting and implementing Australian multiculturalism.
AAP/Richard Ashen
Mainstream Australia isn’t allowed to define multicultural priorities, as the policy has no legislative legitimacy.
Harmony Day is part of efforts in Australia to promote social cohesion, which showed a marked improvement in 2015, according to the Scanlon Foundation survey.
Wikimedia Commons/DIAC Images
Despite perceptions of a divided and troubled nation, social cohesion in Australia actually improved on most measures in 2015, the latest Scanlon Foundation survey finds.
Acknowledging and strengthening the potential of the Muslim community is key to promoting a cohesive diverse society in Australia.
Muslim Women’s Welfare of Australia
The cowardly murder of Jews in France and Denmark, in conjunction with terrorist attacks designed to shut down discussion, is justifiably a cause for more than a passing concern. Europe may be witnessing…
Australians have high levels of national pride and belonging – much higher than for many comparable countries.
EPA/Barbara Walton
Every year, come January 26, Australia Day revives the annual dialogue around notions of national identity, our values and what it means to be Australian. It’s an opportune time to reflect on the findings…
“We must have shared and equal life”, reads a sign at the Max Rayne school in Jerusalem, hit by an arson attack on November 29.
US Embassy Tel Aviv
Israel is a deeply divided society, a fact reinforced by separate schools for Jews, Arabs and Christians. In 1984, the Hand-in-Hand movement began working to build peace via a network of integrated, bilingual…
There was an expectation that there would be an increase of negative views on immigration in 2014 – but the reverse has occurred.
AAP/Dan Peled
The report on the 2014 Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion surveys, released on Wednesday, finds both continuity and change. On attitudes to asylum seekers, for example, there is a large measure…
It is difficult to convey complex and nuanced research findings around immigration and social cohesion when the media’s interest is in polarisation and headlines.
AAP/Dan Peled
If you were to believe some reports in the mainstream media earlier this week, Australians are now more racist, alarmed by immigration and much more negative about asylum seekers arriving by boat. However…
Research Director: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES) research division, and Coordinator of the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), Human Sciences Research Council