The Production of Shared Space in Northern Ireland. Part 1: Introduction: Beyond the divided city: policies and practices of shared space

摘要

The papers in this special feature address the question of 'shared space'-a concept that was introduced in urban policy discourse and practice of conflict transformation in Northern Ireland nearly a decade ago (e.g. OFMDFM 2005). Debates around the definition and use of this concept in the context of a 'post-conflict' society, though evolving over the years, have generally built upon an interest in the role of public space as a social resource that pervaded think tank, government and public agency reports in the UK during the first decade of this century (Lownsbrough and Beunderman 2007; JRF 2007). Those documents emphasised the importance of public spaces in successful regeneration policies, in the creation of sustainable and cohesive communities, and in fostering interaction and cohesion across lines of ethnic and cultural diversity. They discussed the conditions for the workability of public spaces (e.g. how well they can be made to resonate with everyday life routines and to accommodate wider definitions of community) and in doing so engaged with issues pertinent to, albeit not specifically focused upon, the practices of peace building in Northern Ireland. As the papers in this special feature suggest, however, understandings and policies for sharing space in Northern Ireland have remained rather vague, practised reductively and understood as broadly referring to the ability of people from different ethno-national communities to access and use the same physical spaces.