Stocktake research project: a systematic literature and selected program review on social cohesion, community resilience and violent extremism 2011-2015

The Victorian Government has a strong and demonstrated commitment to strengthening social cohesion and resilient communities by seeking to promote community safety and wellbeing and mitigate anti-social behaviours, including any form of racial, ethnic and religious exclusivism. Driven by this commitment, the Social Cohesion and Community Resilience Ministerial Taskforce commissioned the Centre for Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing (CCDW) at Victoria University, in partnership with the Australia Multicultural Foundation (AMF), to undertake a systematic stocktake review and analysis of (a) recent research and (b) program initiatives (2011-2015) on the role of social cohesion and community resilience in redressing the risk of socially harmful forms of exclusivism, including violent extremism and racism. The Stocktake Report identifies key themes and findings from the literature and selected programs reviewed, as well as critical knowledge gaps and practical recommendations that can guide Victoria’s policymaking, research and program investment and direction. The Report is divided into two main parts: a systematic literature review and a selected program review, as well as sections on methodology, knowledge gaps and recommendations. The systematic research literature review examines research conducted 2011-2015 in order to answer two key questions: 1. What factors influence, lead to, or protect against racial, ethnic or religious exclusivism? 2. How do social cohesion and community resilience address these factors in ways that mitigate socially harmful dimensions of exclusivism such as racism, intolerance and violent extremism? Following a rigorous seven-phase systematic literature search methodology (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006; Gough et al., 2013), the review synthesises evidence from (1) scholarly peer reviewed literature published in academic journals, and (2) ‘grey literature’ such as reports and policy briefs from government departments, think tanks and research institutes. The systematic search of peer-reviewed literature returned 10,484 results. After a multiple-stage elimination process assessing relevance to the key research questions, this pool was reduced to 284 highly relevant articles. These data were supplemented by 86 grey literature results, 45 articles from a further manual journal search, and a number of identified books and book chapters based on the research team’s expert knowledge of the research fields. The selected program review involved a combination of electronic database and manual search strategies to identify relevant national and overseas programs designed to redress exclusivism, strengthen social cohesion and inclusion, and counter violent extremism (CVE). The identified programs were critically reviewed using two criteria: (1) program effectiveness (deliverables, evaluation, sustainability, transferability and impact), and (2) applicability to the Victorian context. Twenty-five national and overseas programs were selected for closer analysis and discussion.