The Rise and Fall of Social Cohesion

The paper is based on the book, "The Rise and Fall of Social Cohesion" (to be published by Oxford University Press, 2013). The aim of the book is to understand how social cohesion can be established and demolished. The decline in social trust in the US and UK, and the increase in social trust in Sweden and Denmark are used as examples of profound changes in social trust levels. The former two countries went from being high-trust countries to low-trust countries, and the latter two, from high-trust to extremely high-trust countries. The argument is that, in order to explain these changes in the judgments of trustworthiness of other citizens, one need to understand how the large majorities (which perceive themselves as belonging to the middle of society) altered their perceptions of the broader society in which they live. The overall argument is that the dramatic decline in trust levels in the US and UK is to be explained by Americans and British developing the perception that most other citizens belong to the “bottom” of society rather than to the trustworthy middle classes. Furthermore, this “bottom” of society has come to be perceived as extremely untrustworthy, undeserving and dangerous. Following the same logic, the book argues that the dramatic increase in trust levels in Sweden and Denmark are to be explained by Swedes and Danes developing the perception that most citizens belong to the trustworthy “middle” of society rather than to the “bottom”. Furthermore, the Swedes and Danes came to perceive the (perceived) narrow “bottom” of their society as trustworthy, deserving and peaceful; or at least this is the case as long as native Swedes and Danes are those identified there. The book is based on unique survey data from the four countries, a study of mass media content in UK, Sweden and Denmark and an experiment among Danish students.