Source
https://www.helenclark.foundation/research/social-cohesion-in-new-zealand-2026 — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Summary
Social Cohesion in New Zealand (The Helen Clark Foundation / Eaqub & Eaqub, April 2026) is an annual national measurement of social cohesion — the foundation, the report argues, on which a community or nation navigates complexity. Based on a survey of 2,882 people (late 2025) modelled on Australia’s Scanlon Monitor, it finds cohesion drifting lower on every dimension: strong pride and belonging persist, but institutional legitimacy is falling sharply (trust in government at 39%, a record low) and loneliness has risen from ~1% (2010) to ~14% (2025). A clustering analysis identifies three New Zealands — the Connected (30%), the Ambivalent (41%) and the Alienated (28%, disproportionately Māori and Pasifika) — and the evidence points to poverty as the critical driver of in-cohesion, belonging as the action lever, and contact-by-deliberate-design as the remedy. Its companion UK-lessons study yields four governance lessons: fund for continuity, evaluate relationships not events, share authority and agency (communities holding budgets), and align economic with cohesion policy. For the thesis it anchors the community-resilience argument and supplies concrete design principles for a self-governing, cohesive intentional community.
Key claims
See key_claims frontmatter (7 claims, cited to section/figure). All figures are survey results (n=2,882, late 2025; clustering on 5,513 two-year responses). feeds: [] — thesis background, not an NI input.
Key thesis insights
- Social cohesion is the community-resilience foundation — and it’s under strain. The report’s premise (cohesion is what lets a community navigate complexity) is the project’s own premise for community self-sufficiency; the measured decline in institutional legitimacy and rise in alienation set the national backdrop against which an intentional community must build internal cohesion. OT_059
- “Share authority and agency” directly supports the self-governing-community model. The strongest governance lesson — communities that hold budgets and set priorities themselves build cohesion, whereas activity delivered for them reads as asking for attendance not empowerment — is direct evidence for the Neobiome model of community self-determination over imposed/centralised provision. Resonates with the embedded-network autonomy point in REG_004 and the community-owned-energy thread in LIT_055. OT_059
- Contact-via-shared-practical-goals is an intentional-community design principle. Prejudice falls and belonging rises not from proximity but from sustained, place-based activity around shared practical goals — community gardens, repair workshops, language classes. These are exactly the shared productive activities a self-sufficient community is built around, so the social and the productive design reinforce each other. OT_059
- Housing tenure shapes belonging. Homeowners show markedly higher participation and neighbourhood belonging than renters via duration-in-place — linking the cohousing/collective-tenure thread (OT_058, OT_054): secure, long-term, collective tenure could deliver ownership-like belonging without individual ownership. OT_059
- The equity dimension. Māori (~47%) and Pasifika (~49%) are disproportionately in the alienated cluster — a structural inequity the thesis’s Te-Tiriti/Māori-housing strands (OT_051) must hold alongside the community-resilience argument. OT_059
Research targets
Documents to retrieve
- (none — this report resolves no open target.)
Research gaps
- The companion UK-lessons report (Collins, Knights & Eaqub 2026, Social cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand: Lessons from the UK) is cross-referenced here and covered as a separate source, not raised as a research target.
Connections
Links to
Referenced by
Sources (1): OT_060