Community Cohesion Policies and Meaningful Interactions: Ethnographic Reflections on Gender and Interethnic Relations in Northern England

Since 2001, community cohesion has become central to discussions, policies and practices concerned with encouraging interaction between different ethnic groups in the UK. Discursively at least, it has signalled a shift from earlier race relations policies aimed at promoting multiculturalism. This paper examines policies of community cohesion alongside an exploration of interethnic and intercultural encounters within everyday spaces. Drawing upon two pieces of ethnographic research in the North of England, we draw attention to the ways in which ‘mixing’ is gendered and consider this in terms of the opportunities created for meaningful interactions.