Additional Week 6 Resources by

The work of our colleagues Frank Gaffikin and Malachy McEkdowney and Gavin Rafferty ‘Public Space for a Shared Belfast ‘ a research report for Belfast City Council.

conflict_moocs — 2014-05-13 09:41:35 UTC

Our our geo-tagged images illustrating the policing around President Obama’s visit to Belfast during the G8 summit.

conflict_moocs — 2014-05-13 09:41:42 UTC

Full panel discussion

conflict_moocs — 2014-05-27 11:06:02 UTC

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:03:27 UTC

These institutions must deliver to agreed standards education, R&D, published work/field trips (respectively), CO2 reduction, and satisfaction/league table status and be affordable. My case study: Harvard University provides some fantastic opportunities for online learning with their justification including global availability. National Tables 2012/14 statistics illustrate study leave is not a popular reason for absenteeism in education in England. This may of course be because study leave has been authorised by your local authority. University participation rates don’t provide any statistics. Therefore I ask in view of Cs whether online learning is available for students to attend revision classes from their home.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:03:31 UTC

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:03:40 UTC

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:03:51 UTC

When the occupants of the 'other space' are made to believe that those in the 'other space' are never in any way like them at any moment to merit 'space sharing', then we are sure to continue witnessing entrenched positions. To break the cycle, then, may require a 'renewal of the mind' (and more) about the 'other' and an exemplary demonstration of it as happened between apposing forces in World War I as captured at:

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:04:14 UTC

is this truly ecumenical or is it just a reaction to the rapid falling away of all church attendance in the UK and an attempt to at least fill one place of worship in any district on a regular basis

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:04:24 UTC

is this truly ecumenical or is it just a reaction to the rapid falling away of all church attendance in the UK and an attempt to at least fill one place of worship in any district on a regular basis

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:04:28 UTC

is this truly ecumenical or is it just a reaction to the rapid falling away of all church attendance in the UK and an attempt to at least fill one place of worship in any district on a regular basis

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:05:14 UTC

Marathons are not perhaps a good example with the necessary policing involvement and cost with road and traffic management. You may not see a policeman every 50 m along the route but the background involvement is huge

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:05:48 UTC

to fill this in even for a parade of floats to celebrate a local village fete - how is it possible, you just would not know who is attending 30 days out

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:06:07 UTC

....published Home Office figures show that England and Wales are in the middle of the European murder league at 13.5 deaths per million population. Finland tops the table at 23.4, followed by Scotland at 21.4, and Ireland on 20 per million. Northern Ireland now has a murder rate well below Scotland at 15.2. Austria has the lowest murder rate in Europe at 6.1 per million.... so you are a migrant would you pick Dublin, Glasgow , or any other Scottish city, in preference to Belfast if you did not chose Austria for whatever reason?

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 07:06:12 UTC

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-02 11:33:13 UTC

The idea of communities policing themselves will only start to happen once the police, and especially the PSNI relax and allow themselves to be more community orientated. After all, for a long time they were quasi military, working with the army to Police events and protect the troops and themselves from the community. They need to focus a bit more on the word Service and one day, while the Metropolitan Police are not the best example, when we see this on the streets of Belfast we will know that a suitable relationship of trust between communities and police has built up so that the communities will be trusted by the state to organise and manage events in the public spaces on their own.

Non-Gender Specific Word Cloud

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-03 11:30:29 UTC

This is how the word cloud for non-gender specific changed over the weeks.

Man Word Cloud

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-03 11:30:39 UTC

This is how the word cloud for man changed over the weeks.

Woman Word Cloud

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-03 11:30:40 UTC

This is how the word cloud for woman changed over the weeks.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 07:58:27 UTC

The Shared Future and Cohesion Sharing and Integration Initiatives look very comprehensive and appear to be aiming in the right direction. I think the section on Empowering the Next Generation is an excellent approach because it will be the next generation that will probably make the most difference. It would be nice if we could have some feedback on how these initiatives are working to date and if they have made a significant change. I also believe that cultural festivals are a great way of bringing people together.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 07:58:47 UTC

I don't know to what extent people in the mainland are aware of Belfast and NI as tourist spots but we've definitely seen a huge uptick in visitors because of attractions like the Titanic Belfast (mentioned above) and many of the cultural events that we've hosted in the past years. These events and attractions have attracted cruise liners and Belfast has become one of the most busy cruise ports in Europe. Here's a recent article from the Belfast Telegraph on the increase in tourism. However, in contrast to this, the more negative aspects of the cultural/economic/identity divide in Belfast gain a lot of news coverage, and I would argue, certainly impact people's decisions to visit NI.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:00:25 UTC

In early 2012 amidst fears of Iran's growing nuclear program, an Israeli graphic designer, Ronny Edry, started a social media campaign to connect Israeli and Iranian civilians over the web, which involved posters of ordinary Israelis and Iranians in their daily lives expressing that they don't want to bomb them.
In a sense, Edry was creating a "virtual space" across which Israelis and Iranians could see each other's faces and make the personal connections on a grassroots level, which revealed that they are both people who want peace.
I met Ronny 2 years ago in Israel, and he explained that since Israel and Iran are such different and separated societies, Israelis hardly know what Iranians look like, let alone understand that they were just like them, and did things like go out and post photos of their lunch on Facebook too. Connecting them online started to break down these barriers that made it easier to demonize the other.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:01:15 UTC

Young people are often very comfortable in a "mixed" environment in my experience but return home to separate zones without regular positive contact with other "communities .”
I agree Carole that parents and other community gatekeepers are hugely influential in restricting the space and time available for young people to mix comfortably. This may be out of fear but also it is as likely born of the need for influential people to maintain their status.
At a recent presentation by Dr Chris Allen, www.chris-allen.co.uk, on Islamophobia, he presented statistical evidence of the differing attitudes to Islam between the generations. Similar polling has lately examined attitudes to immigration in the UK. There is a clear difference between the negative opinions of the elder members of society and the more tolerant attitudes of the young.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:01:52 UTC

There has been a lot of interesting material on young people and the city. Take a look at this Demos report:

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:02:04 UTC

The national youth orchestra is a great example , I think

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:02:12 UTC

There was an interesting programme on Radio 4 last week on Educating Ulster. The programme looks at the movement towards integrated schools in Northern Ireland - asking if they work, who chooses them and why there are so few of them. Seehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b044gpxh I agree that music is a great way of pulling people together across the divides as is sport.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:02:26 UTC

I think this is so right - a move to adopt integrated planning for sustainable, Eco-friendly villages would be a way of countering the individualistic and hostile mentalities of a lot of cities/residential areas. The replacement of terraced houses in the 60s with high rises was a planning disaster : what critics call the creation of 'slums in the sky' have severely negative effects on sociability and wellbeing. There are many designers working on alternatives to the proliferation of segmented structures which separate people into isolated units dependent on consumption alone and hostile /fearful of outsiders, turning them instead into communities

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:03:16 UTC

Riots & demonstration has griped all over the world. In India we have communal riots, demonstration against government, we also had protest against a nuclear plant in Jaitapur after the earthquake that occurred in Japan.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:03:25 UTC

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:03:42 UTC

the policing of the Notting Hill Carnival helped define British public order policing from the 1970s onwards. Compare the dancing police officers with this:

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:04:03 UTC

I am unsure who is policing the events as none of the footage is from the police and I cannot be sure the sources avoided having police in their images. I agree there is diversity amongst the images as countries, activities, purpose, emotions, intent and levels of distress. Consistency appears to be police training in which impacts include focus upon community relationships/interactions. In the UK policing has recently undergone a rebranding resulting in new Ethics and internal structure. However many of the events upon Padlet occurred outside of Britain and prior to UK police rebranding.
My most recent experience of policing at Greater Manchester and Cheshire events has been fantastic and without conflict yet identities remaining strong. Events include University of Salford when Peter Fahy spoke at my debate group, and Four Heatons Farmer’s Market Stockport, Jodrell Bank Live 2013, and Moss Side Carnival.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:04:18 UTC

The policing of Notting Hill seems all good fun and relaxed but that is as a result of much work by the Met and the community. It wasn't all like that and it still isn't like that
http://www.tmponline.org/2012/08/29/i-came-to-notting-hill-carnival-to-party-what-i-saw-made-that-impossible/
Although having said that the Met are under instructions to be lighthanded in their policing. I think what makes the difference is the political intention of the event, or, equally importantly the PERCEIVED political intention.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-04 08:04:44 UTC

You will find a report of the economic benefits on the Orange Order web site:http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/publications#.U46v2PldX4s .

The police regularly produce figures of the costs of parading and they are frighteningly high. Even if you took away the contested parades the huge number of parades in Northern Ireland is a significant drain on public resources.

However, on a human rights basis it is always problematic to make people pay for their right to parade (see the Skokie case week 5).

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-05 11:12:30 UTC

I am studying conflict resolution and reconciliation in NI and I am very interested in the notion of 'space' and in particular the positive use of engaged theatre (some refer to it as community-based or artist-based theatre) within conflict resolution. I am currently looking at two artist-based projects, one delivered by Kabosh Theatre Co (Belfast) - Those you Pass on the Street (commissioned by Healing Through Remembering) and the other commissioned by Derry/Londonderry's Verbal Arts Centre - Crows on the Wire. Both plays aim to address subjects with are not often addressed in public, in one case - grief (dealing with the past) and in the other case, the untold stories of RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) which also has an educational (digital) component aimed at teenagers. Different topics, approaches yet same goal: create a space where people can gather, practice deep listening and namely through post-show discussions, express their thoughts, concerns and voice their own stories. I am also very interested in site-specific performances and invite you to visit Kabosh's website for some examples like The West Awakes http://www.kabosh.net/prodarchive.php?page=2

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-05 11:13:38 UTC

I think that the problem orientated policing model might inform the state and "parade" organizers with ways in which to help better manage these events. Here is an excerpt from the following link:

Problem-oriented policing can be applied at various levels of community problems and at various levels in the police organization. It can be applied to problems that affect an entire community, involving the highest level of police agency, government, and community resources. It can be applied at intermediate levels (for example, a neighborhood or a police district), involving an intermediate level of resources. Or it can be applied at a very localized level (for example, a single location or a small group of problem individuals), involving the resources of only a few police officers and other individuals.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-05 11:14:24 UTC

I understand how, particularly when we are examining how identities are formed and contested, it may not paint the most positive picture of Northern Irish society. As I am sure you are aware, the spectrum of identities here is broad and fluid. The Northern Ireland Life and Time Survey (http://www.ark.ac.uk/nilt/) provides statistical analysis about NI identity and how people self-identify, and if you want more information which may help answer some of your questions, you can check out their results. In the most recent census (2011) 40% surveyed identified as British, 25% as Irish, 21% as Northern Irish (the first time this category was given), 9% as having two or more identities, and 5% designated as other.

There is a difference, however, between how people identify when they are asked on a survey and how, or when, they enact these identities in everyday life. As we have shown, there are many identities here that are as much defined in what they are not as in what they are. I would argue this is true in most situations where you find oppositional identities as we've discussed throughout this course, individuals have multiple identities that they enact at various times of their days and lives. Ethno-national identities are very important to a large percentage of people in NI but I would argue that most people do not enact these identities throughout all parts of their days and lives. These identities, here and elsewhere around the world, are complex and diverse and as such are enacted in certain circumstances or scenarios where they are deemed to be the most important. The nature of identities performed in conflict situations is inherently contested, however, it is a much more complicated situation than we can explain, even in a six week course.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-09 07:09:54 UTC

Some parts were much worse affected than others during the Troubles. There's an interesting documentary on YouTube about the effect of the conflict on children. It's based in Creggan during 1974, and shows four and five year olds at school drawing guns, soldiers and army helicopters because that was their daily experience. At a slightly older age these kids would be out on the streets lobbing rocks at soldiers. One boy was blinded by a rubber bullet, another was killed by a bomb left on the school grounds and other children describe seeing people mutilated, beaten, arrested etc.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-09 07:11:05 UTC

Sport in Northern Ireland has been associated with cultural identity so that soccer might be perceived as Protestant/Loyalist and GAA football as Catholic/Republican.

Basketball has a neutral association and there has been a lot of good work done to encourage young people from all communities to share in the enjoyment of playing this sport affording them opportunities to meet people from different backgrounds.

One such cross community organisation is

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-09 07:12:29 UTC

I live near Exeter and although I had read a little about the Respect Festival, I will definitely go next year! There is a good write-up about the festival in the Western Morning Newshttp://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Videos-Respect-Park-celebrates-diversity-Exeter/story-19155664-detail/story.html. To avoid trouble the festival had a slight different this year, as it was alcohol free.
Another comment by Ghee Bowman, of Exeter Global Centre, said: "This is really Exeter's summer festival, where everybody gets together. This weekend, when there are English Defence League marches going on and anti-Islamic nonsense, I think something like the Exeter Respect Festival is really important at this time because we have to keep reminding everybody that this is a multicultural society, that we welcome multiculturalism and want to encourage integration and educate people about each other. That includes educating people about what English culture, British culture and Devon culture is about, as well as educating people about other cultures.”
This helps me feel proud to be British.

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-09 07:13:25 UTC

here is a synopsis from BBC The Troubles website on the Alliance Party

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-09 07:13:40 UTC

a BBC article from March 2014. "The Alliance Party has been accused of abandoning its "middle ground position" after a high-profile member (Anna Lo) declared her preference for a united Ireland

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-11 07:15:29 UTC

conflict_moocs — 2014-06-11 07:15:55 UTC

An interesting juxtaposition of clips.
I think I saw only one policeman in the whole naked bike ride film - the gathering is peaceful and appears to be supported by peaceful bystanders; the policeman I saw was managing traffic rather than trying to manage the riders.
Contrast that with the Kent State shootings (more info herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_University_shootings) - another seemingly peaceful gathering antagonised by the number and attitude of the police. Similarly the G8 protests; what I found particularly shocking there was the large number of armoured cars brought in which made it look to me like full scale warfare. Obviously the narration came from a particular viewpoint but those were some pretty inflamatory claims.
The Notting Hill clips showed a police presence but a very casual one: note the relaxed demeanor of the police and their proximity to a guy rolling a (not very legal) cigarette, and of course the dancing. In theese two clips I would say that their presence is a precautionary "we will react if there is a problem". Compare this to the Kent State situation where - to my mind - the police attitude smacks more of " we are here to stop a situation...