The glass menagerie of urban governance and social cohesion: concepts and stakes/concepts as stakes

Social goals and social action are increasingly framed by a host of ambiguously egalitarian notions. The ambiguity of notions like ‘social cohesion’ originates principally in the tentative accommodation of competition and social justice that former radical approaches considered in fundamental contradiction. The social cohesion terminology has become part of political realism and the question is whether such notions are or could be fuelling practices that promote social justice, overcoming the ambiguity/contradiction of the different/competing interpretations nebulously juxtaposed in their fluid definition. This article comments on interrelated ambiguities in the content of social cohesion, governance and tolerance starting with a reformulated goal (social cohesion) which necessitates new means of implementation (‘new governance’) that entail the dominance of non-conflictual social relations (tolerance). Social cohesion, governance and tolerance are Janus-faced concepts, full of restrictions and contradictions but also full of possibilities related to the mobilizing potential of their inherently positive meaning. Social cohesion and governance would become real stakes if radical discourse and politics tried to invest them with content and meaning that would effectively transgress their legitimating function of conservative social regulation, and create massive demand for more social justice both in terms of redistributive justice and of democracy. L'action et les objectifs sociaux sont de plus en plus conditionnes par une foule de notions soi-disant egalitaires. L'ambiguite de concepts tels que la cohesion sociale emane surtout de l'essai d'adaptation entre concurrence et justice sociale, considerees precedemment par les approches radicales comme fondamentalement contradictoires. La terminologie de la cohesion sociale s'est peu a peu integree au realisme politique, mais il s'agit de savoir si de telles notions nourrissent ou pourraient nourrir des pratiques favorables a la justice sociale, en eliminant la contradiction/ambiguite des interpretations diverses/concurrentes vaguement juxtaposees dans le flou des definitions. L'article etudie des ambiguites correlatives contenues dans cohesion sociale, gouvernance et tolerance, en partant d'un objectif reformule (cohesion sociale) necessitant des moyens originaux de mise en uvre (‘nouvelle gouvernance’) porteurs de relations sociales non-conflictuelles (tolerance). Ces trois notions a deux visages sont empreintes de restrictions et contradictions, mais aussi de possibilites liees au potentiel mobilisateur de leur sens intrinsequement positif. Cohesion sociale et gouvernance deviendraient des interets reels si le discours radical et la politique s'efforcaient de leur donner des contenus et significations qui transgresseraient effectivement leur fonction justificative de regulation sociale conservatrice, et creeraient une demande massive pour davantage de justice sociale en termes de justice redistributive et de democratie.