Jobs to Social Cohesion : Via Interests, Attitudes, and Identities

The remit of this paper is to examine the link from jobs to social cohesion, focusing particularly on what kinds of jobs are most likely to improve social cohesion, and how policymakers can support those impacts. The paper suggests several qualitative mechanisms for a causal impact from particular a...

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Main Author: Kilroy, Austin
Format: Working Paper
Language:en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12137
id okr-10986-12137
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-121372021-04-23T14:02:59Z Jobs to Social Cohesion : Via Interests, Attitudes, and Identities Kilroy, Austin Labor Social development The remit of this paper is to examine the link from jobs to social cohesion, focusing particularly on what kinds of jobs are most likely to improve social cohesion, and how policymakers can support those impacts. The paper suggests several qualitative mechanisms for a causal impact from particular aspects of jobs to social cohesion. In particular, jobs can help: (i) form diverse trust ties and friendships, (ii) diminish ignorance and prejudice towards other social groups, and (iii) create cross-cutting social identities based on occupation, firm or industry membership, which diminish the salience of other social cleavages. These mechanisms are subject to a number of scope conditions, as set out in the paper. Why are these insights relevant for public policy? First, because they show how crucial jobs can be to building social cohesion in a society. Second, because they point the way to some opportunities for public interventions to facilitate those links: particularly in terms of catalyzing interpersonal interactions through events like trade fairs and networking events, and in terms of encouraging social minorities to enter occupations and industries that have more frequent and intimate interpersonal interactions. 2013-01-18T17:42:51Z 2013-01-18T17:42:51Z 2012-10 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12137 en_US Background Paper for the World Development Report 2013; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language en_US
topic Labor
Social development
spellingShingle Labor
Social development
Kilroy, Austin
Jobs to Social Cohesion : Via Interests, Attitudes, and Identities
relation Background Paper for the World Development Report 2013;
description The remit of this paper is to examine the link from jobs to social cohesion, focusing particularly on what kinds of jobs are most likely to improve social cohesion, and how policymakers can support those impacts. The paper suggests several qualitative mechanisms for a causal impact from particular aspects of jobs to social cohesion. In particular, jobs can help: (i) form diverse trust ties and friendships, (ii) diminish ignorance and prejudice towards other social groups, and (iii) create cross-cutting social identities based on occupation, firm or industry membership, which diminish the salience of other social cleavages. These mechanisms are subject to a number of scope conditions, as set out in the paper. Why are these insights relevant for public policy? First, because they show how crucial jobs can be to building social cohesion in a society. Second, because they point the way to some opportunities for public interventions to facilitate those links: particularly in terms of catalyzing interpersonal interactions through events like trade fairs and networking events, and in terms of encouraging social minorities to enter occupations and industries that have more frequent and intimate interpersonal interactions.
format Publications & Research :: Working Paper
author Kilroy, Austin
author_facet Kilroy, Austin
author_sort Kilroy, Austin
title Jobs to Social Cohesion : Via Interests, Attitudes, and Identities
title_short Jobs to Social Cohesion : Via Interests, Attitudes, and Identities
title_full Jobs to Social Cohesion : Via Interests, Attitudes, and Identities
title_fullStr Jobs to Social Cohesion : Via Interests, Attitudes, and Identities
title_full_unstemmed Jobs to Social Cohesion : Via Interests, Attitudes, and Identities
title_sort jobs to social cohesion : via interests, attitudes, and identities
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2013
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12137
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