http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/

Sorry the above one should work!

Well dnicholson you could blame the main stream America for being “not good at it” or you could use the far more logical argument that actually says mc does destroy Australia’s social capital!

We are having this thing lumped upon us like a cross to bare and to be honest the main stream does not want nor need it.

Peter Tang etc -

you derive wisdom from CNN -??

Check report of John Howard & Co. associations with EXclusive Brethren - & Co

"The Catch The Fire ministries sparked a row with the Islamic Council of Victoria in 2002 when it claimed in a newsletter that Muslims were demons training to make Australia an Islamic state, that the Koran promoted violence and that Muslims derived money from drug dealing...." LINK with

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22546811-662,00.html?source=cmailer

Jews were demonized - Hitler was widely revered. Most people like you thought the Jews were a problem. Hitler delivered propaganda plenty - and people bought it - ITS a TRAP

Oh but then the holocaust didn't even happen - silly jews

ARE YOU RUN BY YOUR FEARS ?? Who are the terrorists really ?? They could be people who are fatally pissed at extremely bad attitudes (not to mention outrageously insulting and dehumanizing stereotypes) WE are required TO REACH UNDERSTANDING through dialogue not judgement and blame and acts of terror- with so much demonizing and ugly blame
how would U expect self respecting people to defer to such superior ignorant mainstream attitudes

I'll invite any Muslim to come over - to dinner too - so now will I be reported as suspect and conspirator...

Howard sold alert fridge messages and you may even have used your fridge magnet..
Multiculturalism is NATURAL inevitable human evolution. You don't deal with the difficulties and change by demonizing groups of people. yes we are all human but ... some are more human than others...

When the likes of the old toad Alan Jones are rewarded for spewing forth pearls of racism we can admit its mass scale stupidity that buys his bile.

The old criticism on CNN about Islam being evil patriarchy -and subjecting women to honour killings- is coming from a society where the sexism may not come in scarves and honour killings but it DOES come in many forms that are sick and oppressive. I'll give you plenty of research.

EasyTimes or Michael Jonas

You assert that “…a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded…that…in the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings.”

From this you declare that there is a “plethora of evidence” that multiculturalism “destroys the fabric of society”.

Oh dear! I hope you’ve got some of that “plethora” at hand because the “massive new study” shows nothing of the sort.

Robert Putman’s latest study extends his earlier work, published as “Bowling Alone”. His main thesis was that the US had experienced a major collapse in civic, social, and political life since the 1960s. Putman’s major empirical evidence came from his finding that participation in bowling clubs in the US had declined.

Note: according to Putman this collapse started in the 1960s – well before multiculturalism was ever discussed as social policy in the US, or in Australia. What Putman identified was change rather than decline. These changes had little or nothing to do with immigration or ethnic diversity. Changes include:

(a) Changes in family structure with more people living alone or in smaller families and single and childless people - less likely to engage in communal events.

(b) Suburban sprawl requiring people to travel much further to work, shops and leisure opportunities. As a result they have less time and opportunity to become involved in community groups.

(c) Electronic entertainment, e.g. TV and computers, has privatised leisure time. The time spent on these reduces the involvement in groups and social activities.

(d) Casualisation and fragmentation of the work force with increasing numbers of women returning to work after giving birth.

Now multiculturalism doesn’t cause people to sit in front of TVs and computers or to have smaller families and later or to live in the outer suburbs. The causal association between the changes Putman observes and cultural diversity is tenuous in the extreme. The apparent reduction in trust and isolation is just the latest bandwagon jumped on by those opposed to multiculturalism.

Frank, good point re the historical trend, but Putman has been quite specific in admitting that "social capital" has not only diminished over time, but is also notably lower in more diverse communities. But he certainly doesn't conclude that this is a necessary state of affairs, pointing to cases where this doesn't hold, and suggesting possible solutions (which sound mostly like the sort of things we take for granted here).

However, in one sense, it's not an entirely surprising conclusion - the more diverse communities would presumably tend to be the ones that have experienced more recent immigration, and it would folly to deny that it does take some amount of time for ethnic/cultural barriers to be lowered. But to take the conclusion from this article, which is essentially that ethnic diversity has led to some negative consequences in the US, and extend it to suggest that multiculturalism by its vary nature "destroys the fabric of society" is completely unjustified.

Frank Gol, Putnam said people in more diverse communities tend to hunker down like turtles more than homogenous commnunities. People in ethnically diverse communities are less likely than people in homogenous communties to participate in and be trusting of the wider community. Therefore ethnically diverse commmmunities are not really that great. As we all know except capitalists, academics, socialists need i GO ON.

Davo

You say: "People in ethnically diverse communities are less likely than people in homogenous communties to participate in and be trusting of the wider community. Therefore ethnically diverse commmmunities are not really that great. As we all know except capitalists, academics, socialists need i GO ON"

Well, frankly, yes, you do need to go on.

How does any of this relate to the claim that multiculturalism "destroys the fabric of society?"

Can you tease out for us the causal links between diverse rates of communal behaviour and social policy? What's the logic behind your use of the word 'therefore' in the above quotation? That is, how do you justify turning an empirical statement ("...are less likely...) into a value statement ("are not really that great")?