Resistance, transition and exclusion: Politically motivated ex-prisoners and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland

The landscape of political imprisonment in Northern Ireland was changed due to the general release and reintegration of politically motivated prisoners as part of the Belfast Agreement. This article reflects upon the post-prison experiences of former prisoners and their families, and in particular how the move from a resistant to a transitional framework has facilitated a greater openness and willingness amongs ex-prisoners to acknowledge the personal and familial problems related to incarceration. We also explore the ways in which ex-prisoners have attempted to deal with the continued social, political and civic exclusion which arises as a result of their conflict-related 'criminal' convictions. In the final section of the article, the authors further develop the move from a resistant to a transitional characterization of incarceration and its consequences.

Capacity-building, representation and intracommunity conflict

This paper explores the nature of community capacity-building in the context of local development. It challenges some of the simplistic constructions of community as a distinctive stakeholder with a shared set of values and clear identity. Even in apparently homogeneous place-based communities such as in the Catholic Ardoyne area of North Belfast there are important differences in the way in which local people interact with the organised voluntary sector. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to reach deeper into the concerns of local people, rather than the priorities of statutory funders, as a basis for service provision and local planning.

The contours of memory in post-conflict societies: enacting public remembrance of the bomb in Omagh, Northern Ireland

Drawing on the theoretical insights of Paul Ricoeur this paper investigates the geographies of public remembrance in a post-conflict society. In Northern Ireland, where political divisions have found expression through acts of extreme violence over the past 30 years, questions of memory and an amnesty for forgetting have particular resonance both at the individual and societal level, and render Ricoeur’s framework particularly prescient. Since the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998, initiating the Peace Process through consociational structures, discovering a nomenclature and set of practices which would aid in the rapprochement of a deeply divided society has presented a complex array of issues. In this paper I examine the various practices of public remembrance of the 1998 bombing of Omagh as a means of understanding how memory-spaces evolve in a post-conflict context. In Omagh there were a variety of commemorative practices instituted and each, in turn, adopted a different contour towards achieving reconciliation with the violence and grief of the bombing. In particular the Garden of Light project is analysed as a collective monument which, with light as its metaphysical centre, invited the populace to reflect backward on the pain of the bombing while at the same time enabling the society to look forward toward a peaceful future where a politics of hope might eclipse a politics of despair.

Psychology Statistics for Dummies

The quick, easy way to master all the statistics you'll ever need The bad news first: if you want a psychology degree you'll need to know statistics. Now for the good news: Psychology Statistics For Dummies. Featuring jargon-free explanations, step-by-step instructions and dozens of real-life examples, Psychology Statistics For Dummies makes the knotty world of statistics a lot less baffling. Rather than padding the text with concepts and procedures irrelevant to the task, the authors focus only on the statistics psychology students need to know. As an alternative to typical, lead-heavy statistics texts or supplements to assigned course reading, this is one book psychology students won't want to be without. Ease into statistics – start out with an introduction to how statistics are used by psychologists, including the types of variables they use and how they measure them Get your feet wet – quickly learn the basics of descriptive statistics, such as central tendency and measures of dispersion, along with common ways of graphically depicting information Meet your new best friend – learn the ins and outs of SPSS, the most popular statistics software package among psychology students, including how to input, manipulate and analyse data Analyse this – get up to speed on statistical analysis core concepts, such as probability and inference, hypothesis testing, distributions, Z-scores and effect sizes Correlate that – get the lowdown on common procedures for defining relationships between variables, including linear regressions, associations between categorical data and more Analyse by inference – master key methods in inferential statistics, including techniques for analysing independent groups designs and repeated-measures research designs Open the book and find: Ways to describe statistical data How to use SPSS statistical software Probability theory and statistical inference Descriptive statistics basics How to test hypotheses Correlations and other relationships between variables Core concepts in statistical analysis for psychology Analysing research designs Learn to: Use SPSS to analyse data Master statistical methods and procedures using psychology-based explanations and examples Create better reports Identify key concepts and pass your course