Bringing down the walls: Is the notion of ‘promoting shared space’ commensurate with effective transformation of contested places in Belfast?

This article is a reflexive and critical examination of recent empirical research on effective practice in the management and ‘transformation’ of contested urban space at sectarian interfaces in Belfast. By considering the development of interfaces, the areas around them and policy responses to their persistence, the reality of contested space in the context of ‘peace building’ is apparent; with implications for local government as central to the statutory response. Belfast has developed an inbuilt absence of connectivity; where freedom of movement is particularly restricted and separation of contested space is the policy default position. Empirical research findings focus attention on the significance of social and economic regeneration and fall into three specific areas that reflect both long-term concerns within neighbourhoods and the need for adequate policy responses and action ‘on the ground’. Drawing on Elden and Sassen we reconfigure the analytical framework by which interfaces are defined, with implications for policy and practice in post-conflict Belfast. Past and current policy for peace-building in Northern Ireland, and transforming the most contested space, at interfaces in Belfast, is deliberately ambiguous and offers little substance having failed to advance from funding-led linguistic compliance to a sustainable peace-building methodology.