How do you define social cohesion for someone who has never heard the term and why is it important?

Indeed, we had to deal with a very complex concept of social cohesion in our research of the candidate countries of Eastern neighborhood and Western Balkans.

But the more we researched, the more we realized how important cohesiveness is for societies in order to be healthy, well-functioning.

and to master the art of living peacefully, even when there are contested interests or opinions.

And most importantly, for the times we live in, cohesiveness is essential for societal resilience in the face of external threats, including the hybrid ones.

One could also say that it's a two-way street, wherein on the one hand, cohesion enhances democracy, and on the other hand, democracy enhances cohesion.

But what exactly is it then, right? In a nutshell, there is no single definition of social cohesion.

But isn't that mostly a question of how wealthy a country is and whether its own democratic policies are good rather than something EU accession on the social key can really fix? How do you separate what accession can realistically change from what depends on national policies and resources?