What's the glue that sticks communities together?  Do we have some of it?  You bet! 

The Coast is known for surfing but living in the mountains net surfing is more my thing and while I was looking for the latest musings on that vexed question of population growth I found a study on Social Cohesion.  Glue.

The connection between population growth and social cohesion is that rapid, uncontrolled, and unmanaged population growth puts a lot of pressure on the way communities ‘work’.  It can ‘unglue’ us. 

There seem to be unwritten rules in every culture and each society that people who belong know and abide by.  It helps life roll along nicely.  That’s my idea of social cohesion ( but I’d find it hard to design a study on that, it's good that someone is trying to work it out).  

The authors of the Monash study, while acknowledging  ‘Most current definitions dwell on intangibles, such as sense of belonging, attachment to the group, willingness to participate and to share outcomes’ they have developed some measures around economic, political  and socio-cultural factors that enhance or erode ‘social harmony’.  

What interested me was they measure participation by asking questions not only about voting but also about joining a protest........We certainly have some of that!

The Bureau of Statistics has also released its latest Progress Report

Their study says while our progress on ‘family and social cohesion’ is not bad, we’ve gone backwards in the last ten years on biodiversity, also very pressured by rapid uncontrolled, unmanaged population growth.