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Sense of belonging and social cohesion

in fragmented societies: a normative

approach from Latin America

Ana Sojo, Social Affairs Officer, Social Development Division, Economic Commission

for Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile

he Economic Commission for Latin America and

the Caribbean (ECLAC) has defined social cohesion

as the dialectic between instituted mechanisms of

social inclusion or exclusion and the ways in which people

perceive them and behave and dispose themselves towards

them, thus determining the extent of a sense of belonging.

This notion undoubtedly goes beyond mere material satis-

faction. In these terms, increasing social cohesion implies

strengthening the social ties that build trust and reciprocity,

and moving towards social inclusion grounded in citizens’

enjoyment of decent levels of social well-being in a context

of respect and mutual appreciation of diversity and of effort

to forge a community of shared norms and values.

The erosion, weakening or rapid transformation of the ties

that bind individuals to society – a phenomenon noted

by Émile Durkheim as early as 1893 – have been crucial

problems of human coexistence, and are still contemporary

concerns. Moreover, the current spectre of fundamental-

ism, related to what Amartya Sen

calls the ‘miniaturization’

of social identities, raises questions about the causes of its

vigorous resurgence and the transformation of social bonds.

This leads to the further question of how the globalization-

era ‘world-society’ – as Giacomo Marramao termed it – can

build its own order in the face of rising religious, ethnic or

other fundamentalisms. If identity and a sense of belonging

are central themes of our age, how are they constructed, how

is this belonging reproduced, how are the multiple actors

and sectors making up society affected differently, and in

what ways does today’s pace of modernization and globali-

zation affect the references of belonging? As Marramao has

pointed out, the current form of globalization, by sidestepping

new needs and demands for social ties, goes hand in hand

with expanding diasporas of identities. Given that identity

All people should be able to express their belonging and personal choices

through the various social identities they adopt

Civic equality is a right that must be exercised collectively, rather than individually,

because it equates to being treated as a citizen who is equal to others

Image: María Elisa Bernal

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