Belfast beyond Violence: Flagging up a Challenge to Local Government?

Abstract

length : 118 words Article length: 7,167 words [minus author details & references]

Managing contested spaces: Public managers, obscured mechanisms and the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland

“…The introduction of these features, such as additional legislation around equality and good relations, reform and redesign of policing, devolution of power to the new NI Assembly all acted as reinforcement scaffolding for the further building of peace – in a similar way to Campbell’s original ‘reinforced concrete’ metaphor (Campbell, 2004), the introduction of new elements allowed for public sector mangers to begin to innovate in ways that had not been possible before. For example in recent work about flags and symbolism, we can see how legislation round equality and good relations impacted on public managers approach to the issue of the flying of the Union (British) flag on Belfast city council buildings (Goldie and Murphy, 2015). In other sectors too, structural and explicit diffusion of knowledge impacted how public managers operated.…”

“…(Retired Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Local Government, 26 June 2013; 29 October 2013)The public sector can often predict forthcoming debates, but equally public disputes have the potential to draw them into the heat of public policy in this extreme environment. The role of new legislative frameworks to better manage and diffuse tensions around symbolism has been highlighted before, particular in relation to the incendiary Belfast City Council flag dispute of 2013 (Goldie and Murphy, 2015). Another participant recalled difficulty over the reworking of a paramilitary mural in Belfast.…”

“…As institutional agents in such an environment, public managers perform a dual role of interpreting policy and implementing it within a contested political space and place. This is a challenging endeavour, often requiring public managers who have a skilled and nuanced understanding of the exogenous political environment and the equally important administrative context of their organisation (Goldie and Murphy, 2015). Existing studies have tended to focus on the role of elite level bureaucrats in sustaining conflict-managing mechanisms and decision making processes (O’Connor, 2014).…”

Outlaw Citizenship in Artistic Cities: Local Artistic Communities and Citizen Participation

“…Low public trust can be a major hindering factor for governments working to create constructive citizen participation, especially when they are working to move past extreme conflict and other crises (Bland, 2011;Goldie & Murphy, 2015). Past citizen participation forums that, in citizens' minds, failed also erodes that trust and ultimately becomes a hindering factor (C.S.…”

“…Another major hindering factor is citizens mistrusting their governments, creating a barrier between the two, especially when mistrust has been longstanding (Choi, 2007;Goldie & Murphy, 2015;Hazell, Bourke, & Worthy, 2012;Pascaru & Ana Butiu, 2010;Pridemore, N.E. Ganapati, & Revell, 2019;Schatz, 2013;Worthy, 2010).…”