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Social cohesion is a key concept in development studies. Weak social cohesion is often related to slow economic growth and (violent) conflict. So far few attempts have been made to measure this complex concept in a systematic manner. This paper introduces an innovative method to measure national-level social cohesion based on survey data from 19 African countries. We distinguish three dimensions of social cohesion; i.e. the extent of perceived inequalities, the level of societal trust, and the strength of people's adherence to their national identity. Importantly, our social cohesion index is based on individuals' perceptions vis-à-vis these three different dimensions of social cohesion rather than certain macro-level 'objective' indicators such as GDP/capita or Gini-coefficients. We develop two social cohesion indices: a national average Social Cohesion Index (SCI) and a Social Cohesion Index Variance-Adjusted (SCIVA); the latter one takes into account the level of variation across different ethnic groups within countries. The SCI and SCIVA are computed for and compared across nineteen African countries for the period 2005-2012 on the basis of Afrobarometer survey rounds 3, 4 and 5. We also investigate quantitatively the relationship between countries' levels of social cohesion and the occurrence of a range of conflict events. As expected, we find that countries with low levels of social cohesion in a particular year according to our SCI are more likely to experience a range of different conflict events in the subsequent year.

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While recent scholarship has highlighted the role of horizontal inequalities in provoking political instability and violent group mobilisation, some countries have been able to prevent their ethnic, religious or regional inequalities from escalating into widespread violence at the national level. This obviously raises the question: under what circumstances are horizontal inequalities more likely to provoke violent group action? In order to understand the linkages between horizontal inequalities and the emergence of violent conflict, we need to analyse not only countries where violent conflicts have emerged but also countries which have been able to manage their ethno-regional tensions and inequalities relatively peacefully. The current paper aims to do just that for the case of Ghana. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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