Define: Diversity in communities is associated with distrust, and this equates to "lower rates of civic engagement and social cohesion." People "hunker down" in their homes and do not participate in their communities as much if the community is more diverse.
Walker, E., & Stepick, L. (2014). Strength in diversity? Group heterogeneity in the mobilization of grassroots organizations. Sociology Compass, 8(7). doi: 10.1111/soc4.12191.
Apply: This was a disheartening theory to read at first, because it implies diversity does not lead to citizen participation that we as community developers would hope for (though the source also says there is conflicting evidence for this theory.) But if we are applying this theory, it would mean that, for example, if you are working with a group of inner city teens to bring art to a city, you would probably want only to invite inner city teens to the community development meetings. There would be less social cohesion, and perhaps outcomes would not be as successful if say, you brought others like senior citizens into the meetings. The feeling of engagement and participation the teens feel with the project and with their city might cease if people who are not like them (senior citizens) begin to get involved.
Adapt: It's difficult to consider where diversity would be a "bad" thing, because "diversity" does not mean only one thing; there are hundreds of things about a person that can make them different from others. At my internship, Cancer Support Community, diversity would not be good in all of our group sessions because those who have lost someone to cancer and those who have cancer themselves face very different challenges. So if you are a program director at a business or agency, you would want to consider creating guidelines of who can join what programs based on certain characteristics they have, so that the whole group benefits from a mutual feeling of understanding.
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