Belfast study shows peace deals don't end violence—urban planning does
A new analysis of post-conflict Belfast reveals that violence persists not because of lingering ethnic tensions, but because of how cities are physically structured and economically divided. The finding challenges policymakers to rethink urban development as a core peacebuilding tool, not an afterthought to conflict resolution.
Originaltitel: Urban restructuring and the reproduction of spaces of violence in Belfast
<p>This paper maps the distribution of post-conflict violence in Belfast and how it has restructured socially, economically and spatially. An end to hostilities and stable transition produces and is produced by a more complex set of distinctly urban assemblages, actors, resources and places. Bringing the ideas of ‘ordering’ into relation with assemblage theory, the paper suggests that explanations for the survival, volume, type and distribution of violence cannot be understood within exclusively ethnonational frames, identarian politics or military logics. In Belfast, the data reveal a more variegated map of peace and consumption; inner-city alienation and the intensification of division; as well as the emergence of new geographies of displaced violence. The paper concludes by emphasising the need to understand how urban processes and competing ethnic orders create highly differentiated spaces that explain the resilience of violence after hostilities have formally closed.</p>