Negotiating Civic Space in Belfast or The Tricolour: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow’

What role does public civic space in Belfast city centre play in the negotiation of different political identities within the city? Focusing on key public events in this space the paper traces shifts in identity practices and focuses on negotiations over the uses of public space associated with Irish nationalism and British unionism. This, it is argued, gives a more sophisticated understanding of different types of ‘shared space’. The events probed are seen as precursors and possibly drivers of political change. It is concluded that the increased sharing of civic space has probably contributed to improved political relations within the city, though there remains the challenge of
understanding how public space might more effectively be used to influence
relationships between the city’s political identities in the longer term.

Civic Republicanism and Green Political Theory

Republicanism and in particular the civic republican tradition is not often one that one finds in discusions and debates within green political theory. It is interesting to note the relative lack of engagement between republican political theory and green political theory, unlike for example the research one can find on the relationship between green politics/political theory and liberalism, socialism and feminism. This is remarkable, given, as I hope to establish in this paper, the large areas of overlap between both, and in particular the compatibility of republican ideas and positions with key priciples and objectives of green theory, paricularly in relation to active citizenship, the centrality of recognising vulnerability and a commitment to liberty (as non-domination) and pluralism as key components of the transition to a more sustainable society.

Belfast: The Rise and Fall of a Civic Culture?

A discussion of the extent to which Belfast participated in the spirit of civic pride and commitment to urban renewal that historians have identified as a key feature of nineteenth-century British cities.

Teaching (about) Britishness? An investigation into trainee teachers' understanding of Britishness in relation to citizenship and the discourse of civic nationalism

This research was prompted by the developing political discourse proposing the teaching of Britishness and British values in the context of the United Kingdom. This discourse will be reviewed in the first part of the article, in the context of previous work which has sought to assess how Britishness and related concepts might be promoted through education. The second part will be based on questionnaire responses from a sample of students following post-graduate initial teacher training programmes in a number of higher education partnerships. It indicates that, while political discourse and educational policy have sensitised trainee teachers to the agenda, there remains a deep uncertainty and misgiving about this as an educational objective.

Catholics, Science and Civic Culture in Victorian Belfast

The connections between science and civic culture in the Victorian period have been extensively, and intensively, investigated over the past several decades. Limited attention, however, has been paid to Irish urban contexts. Roman Catholic attitudes towards science in the nineteenth century have also been neglected beyond a rather restricted set of thinkers and topics. This paper is offered as a contribution to addressing these lacunae, and examines in detail the complexities involved in Catholic engagement with science in Victorian Belfast. The political and civic geographies of Catholic involvement in scientific discussions in a divided town are uncovered through an examination of five episodes in the unfolding history of Belfast's intellectual culture. The paper stresses the importance of attending to the particularities of local politics and scientific debate for understanding the complex realities of Catholic appropriations of science in a period and urban context profoundly shaped by competing political and religious factions. It also reflects more generally on how the Belfast story supplements and challenges scholarship on the historical relations between Catholicism and science.

Impact of political violence, social trust, and depression on civic participation in Colombia

Civic participation is important for peacebuilding and democratic development; however, the role of mental health has been largely overlooked by policymakers aiming to stimulate engagement in civil society. This study investigated antecedents of civic participation in Colombia, a setting of protracted political conflict, using bootstrapped mediation in path analysis. Past exposure to violence, experience with community antisocial behavior, and perceived social trust were all significantly related to civic participation. In addition, depression mediated the impact of past exposure to political violence and perceived social trust, but not community antisocial behavior, on civic participation. In this context, findings challenged depictions of helpless victims and instead suggested that when facing greater risk (past violence exposure and community antisocial behavior), individuals responded in constructive ways, taking on agency in their communities. Social trust in one’s neighbors and community also facilitated deeper engagement in civic life. Relevant to the mediation test, interventions aiming to increase civic participation should take mental health into account. Limitations and possible future research are discussed.

Civic engagement and the arts and humanities: a UK perspective

Higher education in the UK is in a state of flux and this is having particular impact on the humanities. On the one hand the pressure to support a STEM agenda is seen by some as forcing higher education down a narrow economic agenda, while government requirements for assessing the social and economic impact of research has raised concerns about excessive utilitarianism and a downgrading of ‘disinterested enquiry’. This paper argues that these concerns may be misplaced. The research impact agenda has the potential to promote more socially engaged research and more democratic engagement in the creation and dissemination of knowledge. In the US concerns about the democratic role of higher education more often seem to focus on the student experience. By contrast, in the UK concerns about citizenship education and democratic participation more often focus on high school students, perhaps because university students are more likely to have a formal role in institutional governance. The paper concludes that the papers in this forum have a very American feel, but the issues they address resonate on a much wider scale.