Invitation to the Online IPW Lecture „And the Walls Remain the Same?“ Local conflict in Northern Ireland in light of Brexit, the Irish border issue and disruptive power sharing
Lecturer: Bert Preiss (IPW, University of Vienna)
Discussant: Neil Jarman (Head of Policy and Research, Peace Direct, London)
When: Friday, 15. May 2020, 18:30 - 20:00
Where: online
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88031305043?pwd=TXo2SktPN2lpTFBLR2FQc1I3dFNvdz09
Meeting ID: 880 3130 5043
Password: 7RxSgj
Abstract:
The Belfast Peace Agreement on Good Friday 1998 marked the official end to three decades of armed conflict between the Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist and Catholic/Republican/ Nationalist communities in Northern Ireland. However, as shown, the efforts to local conflict transformation have born only limited fruit so far. In Belfast and other urban areas, sectarian tensions and violence still flare between deprived working-class interface communities, who remain divided by numerous ‘peace walls’. In light of Brexit, the Irish border issue and disruptive power-sharing in Northern Ireland the progress in local peacebuilding seems to have stalled. This might even jeopardize the overall peace process. Within this context, the speaker will present the results of his largely empirical research on the nature and causes of conflicts at the interface. Moreover, an attempt is made to provide an outlook for peace in Northern Ireland, which includes recent developments related to the Corona crisis, and to highlight potential lessons for other conflict-ridden, divided societies.
Preiss, Bert. Conflict at the Interface: Local Community Divisions and Hegemonic Forces in Northern Ireland. Foreword by Neil Jarman. Vienna/Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2019.
Order: www.lit-verlag.de/publikationen/politikwissenschaft/73377/conflict-at-the-interface
Dr. Bert Preiss is Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies and International Politics at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna and Lecturer and Research Associate at the Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz. He has recently published the book Conflict at the Interface: Local Community Divisions and Hegemonic Forces in Northern Ireland (LIT 2019). Other publications include the co-edited volume Democracy in Crisis: The Dynamics of Civil Protest and Civil Resistance (LIT 2013).
Dr. Neil Jarman is the Head of Policy and Research at Peace Direct, a London based international peacebuilding charity. Previously he was the Director of the Institute for Conflict Research, Belfast. He is chair of the Expert Panel on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly at the Warsaw-based Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, part of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He holds a PhD in Anthropology and is an Honorary Professor of Practice at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Anna Preiser is a University Assistant in the field of International Politics and Development at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna. Her research focuses on resource policy and mining in Peru.
An event within the IPW Lectures, an international lecture series of the Department for Political Science, University of Vienna.
