Book Review: Merlin Schaeffer (2014), Ethnic Diversity and Social Cohesion. Immigration, Ethnic Fractionalization and Potentials for Civic Action

Recent scholarly debates in Europe have become preoccupied with the effects of increased ethnic diversity on social relations, trust and social participation. It has been widely investigated, if and how ethnic diversity impacts the quality of urban and neighbourhood contacts between people of different origins. Particularly, the question whether the increase in ethnic diversification leads to ‘hunkering down’ of social capital (Putnam 2007) or ‘erodes’ trust (Stolle, Soroka, Johnston 2008) could be regarded as a starting point of a dynamic academic discussion in many European countries on so called ‘diversity effects’ at the neighbourhood or local community levels. Here, Merlin Schaeffer’s book Ethnic Diversity and Social Cohesion. Immigration, Ethnic Fractionalization and Potentials for Civic Action arrives as a comprehensive review of to-date debates and methods, it also brings diverse, often contradictory arguments together, and points to new research directions.