Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T13:08:39.762Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Peace Building in Northern Ireland: A Role for Civil Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2010

Colin Knox
Colin Knox*
Affiliation:
School of Criminology, Politics and Social Policy, University of Ulster, Shore Road, Jordanstown BT 37 OQB E-mail: cg.knox@ulster.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Northern Ireland has witnessed significant political progress with devolution and a power sharing Executive in place since May 2007. These political achievements, however, conceal a highly polarised society characterised by sectarianism and community divisions, the legacy of a protracted conflict. This paper is located in the theoretical discourse between consociationalists who argue that antithetical identities cannot be integrated and advocates of social transformation who support greater cross-community peace-building initiatives through the involvement of civil society. This theoretical debate is taking place in a policy vacuum. The Northern Ireland Executive has abandoned its commitment to the previous (direct rule) administration's A Shared Future policy and is now considering alternatives broadly described as community cohesion, sharing and integration. Using a case study of a Protestant/Catholic interface community, this paper offers empirical evidence of the effectiveness of one social transformation initiative involving community groups in a highly segregated area of West Belfast.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 13 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allport, G. W. (1954), The Nature of Prejudice, Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Borer, T. A., Darby, J. and McEvoy-Levy, S. (2006), Peacebuilding after Peace Accords: The Challenges of Violence, Truth, and Youth, Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Bruce, S. (1994), The Edge of the Union: The Ulster Loyalist Political Vision, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochrane, F. (2001), ‘Unsung Heroes? The role of peace and conflict resolution organisations in the Northern Ireland Conflict’, in McGarry, J. (ed.), Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 137–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochrane, F. (2006), ‘Two cheers for the NGOs: building peace from below in Northern Ireland’, in Cox, M., Guelke, A. and Stephen, F. (eds.), A Farewell to Arms? Beyond the Good Friday Agreement, Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Connolly, P. (2000), ‘What now for the Contact Hypothesis? Towards a new research agenda’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 3, 2, 169–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darby, J. (ed.) (2006), Violence and Reconstruction, Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Hall, M. (2007), Building Bridges at the Grassroots: The Experience of Suffolk–Lenadoon Interface Group, Newtownabbey: Island Publications.Google Scholar
Hayes, B., McAllister, I. and Dowds, L. (2007), ‘Integrated education, intergroup relations and political identities in Northern Ireland’, Social Problems, 54, 4, 454–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewstone, M. and Brown, R. (eds.) (1986), Contact and Conflict in Intergroup Encounters, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hughes, J., Campbell, A., Hewstone, M. and Cairns, E. (2007), ‘Segregation in Northern Ireland: implications for community relations policy’, Policy Studies, 28, 1, 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Insight Consulting (2006), Suffolk Community Plan, Belfast: Suffolk Community Forum.Google Scholar
Jarman, N. (2006), Working at the Interface: Good Practice in Reducing Tension and Violence, Belfast: Institute for Conflict Research.Google Scholar
Jarman, N. (2008), ‘Security and segregation: interface barriers in Belfast’, Shared Space, 6, 21–34.Google Scholar
Knox, C. and Quirk, P. (2000), Peace Building in Northern Ireland, Israel and South Africa: Transition, Transformation and Reconciliation, London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lederach, J. P. (1997), Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace.Google Scholar
Lederach, J. P. (2005), TheMoral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenadoon Community Forum (2003), The Development of Lenadoon Area and the Community Forum 1992–2002, Belfast: Lenadoon Community Forum.Google Scholar
McGarry, J. and O'Leary, B. (1995), ‘Five fallacies: Northern Ireland and the liabilities of liberalism’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 18, 4, 837–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGarry, J. (2001), ‘Northern Ireland, civic nationalism and the Good Friday Agreement’, in McGarry, J. (ed.), Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 109–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGarry, J. and O'Leary, B. (2006), ‘Consociational theory: Northern Ireland's conflict and its agreement’, Government and Opposition, 41, 1, 43–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millward, Brown Ulster (2008), Suffolk and Lenadoon Residents’ Survey, Belfast: Millward Brown.Google Scholar
Morrow, D. (2008), ‘A better future: interfaces and the good relations panel’, Interface, 9, February.Google Scholar
Murtagh, B. (2002), The Politics of Territory, London: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Northern Ireland Executive (2008), Programme for Government 2008–2011: Building a Better Future, Belfast: OFMandDFM.Google Scholar
Oberschall, A. (2007), Conflict and Peace Building in Divided Societies: Responses to Ethnic Violence, London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2003), A Shared Futre: A Consultation Paper on Improving Relations in Northern Ireland, Belfast: OFM/DFM, Community Relations Unit.Google Scholar
Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2005), A Shared Future: Policy and Strategic Framework for Good Relations in Northern Ireland, Belfast: OFM/DFM.Google Scholar
Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2006), A Shared Future: First Triennial Action Plan 2006–2009, Belfast: OFM/DFM.Google Scholar
Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2007), A Shared Future and Racial Equality Strategy: Good Relations Baseline Report, Belfast: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and OFM/DFM.Google Scholar
Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2008), Draft Programme of Cohesion, Sharing and Integration, Belfast: OFM/DFM.Google Scholar
O'Halloran, C. and McIntyre, G. (1999), Addressing Conflict in Two Interface Areas, Belfast: Belfast Interface ProjectGoogle Scholar
Police Service of Northern Ireland (2009), Chief Constable's Annual Report 2008/09, Belfast: PSNI.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, T. F. (1971), Racially Separate or Together? New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Shirlow, P. and Murtagh, B. (2006), Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City, London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. (2001), ‘Northern Ireland: consociation or social transformation?’, in McGarry, J. (ed.), Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 37–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, R. (2006), ‘The Belfast Agreement and the politics of consociationalism: a critique’, The Political Quarterly, 77, 2, 217–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, R. (2008), Global Change, Civil Society and the Northern Ireland Peace Process: Implementing the Political Settlement, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. (2009), ‘The injustice of a consociational solution to the Northern Ireland problem’, in Taylor, R. (ed.), Consociational Theory: McGarry and O'Leary and the Northern Ireland Conflict, London: Routledge, pp. 309–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, S. (2009), ‘Wilson commends cross-community work in Northern Belfast’, Northern Ireland Executive press release, 24 September.Google Scholar