Introduction

This final chapter seeks to draw out some of the implications of the data presented in earlier chapters. Linking back to the context presented earlier, the argument developed here is presented in three sections. The first outlines some of the implications for our understanding of the operation of the local state in implementing central government policy. The consequences for local authority personnel, and for the communities they seek to serve, of the simultaneous operation of the Prevent and Community Cohesion policy programmes, is explored. Additionally this section of analysis reveals the practical challenges of managing policy at the local level, and the wider issue of the problematic nature of the governance of local communities.

The second section adopts a wider perspective to ask whether the Prevent and Community Cohesion policies can be credible in the absence of a robust assault on the reproduction of inequalities in Britain. This introduces a political critique of the assumptive framework that has sustained these policies. This analysis returns to some of the questions raised in Chapters Two and Three about the ideological, rather than practical, consequences of the massive political investment that has gone into developing and implementing these two policies. We suggest that it is unhelpful to assess these policies solely on the terms on which they were established. Rather, understanding their political significance requires that they be placed in relation to other political projects which are excluded from the governmental definition and operation of these policies.

The third and final section addresses the broader conceptual issues of how a democratic polity may be constructed which can promote both security and cohesion. It uses the critique of existing policy approaches to argue for a more positive dialogue about the political environment that will be necessary in order to sustain both equitable social cohesion and security for all citizens. Of necessity this can only be a brief invitation to take up a political dialogue that already has an extensive and contested history. But it is hoped that this section will further make explicit the questions that are not adequately present in the current formulation of counter-terrorism and Community Cohesion policies.