The Globalisation, Democracy and Governance Research Group

This project consists of a number of inter-related case studies of conflict situations in the era of globalisation. To date she has received funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs (£5,000) to set up a dedicated website to collect materials and to organise workshops on conflict resolution with groups in Ireland to place the Irish conflict resolution in comparative perspective. In line with this, and in order to highlight this conflict resolution expertise at NUIM, she is also organising a conference to take place at NUIM in February ‘International Conference: Role of Civil Society in Conflict Resolution’ which will be opened by Liz O’Donnell. This will be used as the basis for an edited book on international conflict resolution.

Together with an international network of Globalisation and Governance Centres, she is preparing a bid for funding to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department for International Development (DFID) (UK). This project has received an endorsement from Mary Robinson, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights. The main thrust of this project is to develop a model of conflict resolution in the post Cold War era, centred around the variable role of civil society. She has submitted (in November, 2000) a joint research proposal to Trocaire bidding for funding for the Colombia case study. A number of case studies are envisaged for the future.

Globalisation and Waste Management
Honor Fagan

One of the most noticeable side-effects of globalisation has been the phenomenal increase of waste and Ireland is currently at crisis point on this issue. In terms of governance it poses a serious dilemma insofar as its management becomes a political issue. This is part of the post-Rio Summit global agenda on sustainable development.

So far she has been successful in kick starting research in this area with a successful funding bid (£12,000sterling) for research on an all-Ireland waste management strategy. This will result in a published report in Feb. 2001 and several academic articles in social policy journals. While this particular project is conducted in conjunction with the Department of Sociology at Queen's University, Belfast she is also in touch with a wider international inter-disciplinary group of academics, scientists and policy makers with a view to setting up further research. At present they are preparing a bid to the next Objective One ERDF scheme. It is envisaged that this collaborative venture will develop a relationship with respective Ministries of the Environment and other public bodies. She is seeking further funds to research (a) the global political economy of waste and (b) Governance in Ireland: the case of waste management.

Globalisation and Democratic Development
Honor Fagan

This is the area in which she is doing research that is purely academic based and non-funded. She is in the process of building on her publications in this area by writing a book titled Globalisation and Culture-Placing Ireland for UCD Press. She has been granted sabbatical leave in the Jan-July 2001 in order to complete this book project. This is a textbook designed for use in undergraduate Social Science/Cultural Studies/ Media Studies undergraduate courses.

Off-Route Strategies in Non-Visual Navigation
Rob Kitchin with M Blades, R G Golledge and R D Jacobson
(1999) Funded by the National Science Foundation.

Mapping the Spaces of Fear: The Socio-Spatial Processes of Violence in Northern Ireland
Rob Kitchin with J Anderson and I Shuttleworth
(1998) Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK.

Newbridge Access Project
Rob Kitchin
Ongoing. Various funding including from Kildare Network of ICPDs.

Ballymun Oral History Project
Laurence Cox

Ballymun, in west Dublin, is one of the success stories of urban community action in Ireland over the past three and a half decades. This project is designed to enable local people to explore the creation of community through social movements and everyday action, as a way of making those experiences and skills more widely available within the community.

Community facilitator Pat McBride is working with Laurence to develop effective consultation and control structures for the local community and project participants, with the goal of ensuring full community control after the first 12 months of the project.

Up to 30 local participants will be trained in oral history research methodologies and take increasing control of the project, defining themes, selecting interviewees, planning and carrying out interviews, analysing the results and deciding how to produce findings that will be useful to the rest of the community.

Future possibilities include the development of a community archive and a training for trainers programme to enable participants to pass on the skills they have developed during the project. The Oral History Project is part of a broader history of Ballymun being carried out by historical research consultants Eneclann.

Participatory Research on Social Movement Practice
Laurence Cox

This is a programme for MAs by research in sociology aimed at the needs of social movement activists and developed out of the experience of working with researchers from community development contexts at the Centre for Research on Environment and Community in Waterford IT.

In participatory research models, the researchers - often but not always participants themselves - work with other participants to set a research agenda, steer the research process and discuss the results within the movement. The aim is to achieve an ethical and democratic research process which connects academic concerns to the needs and interests of movement practitioners.

Current research projects include a participatory action research project on the possibilities for community TV in Ireland and a project on "hidden knowledge" and the possibilities for participatory research in working-class communities.

Social Movements Mailing List
Laurence Cox

The social-movements mailing list is an interactive, moderated, international forum for discussion and information about social movements (collective action, popular protests, counter-cultures etc.) from either academic or activist standpoints, oriented towards a general ("theoretical") understanding likely to be of interest to those studying or working in other movements and in other places.

Material regularly posted includes calls for papers, requests for information, conference announcements, political discussion, newspaper articles, and eyewitness reports: a particular high point was the reporting from the recent Seattle protests.

Over 200 people from 4 continents use the list, representing a variety both of academic disciplines and of activist standpoints. The list is moderated, but with a generous interpretation of its subject matter so as to encourage debate. Traffic normally runs at between 0 and 5 messages per day (a digest option is also available) over the two and a half years of its existence to date, depending on time of year and issues of interest.

Urban Redevelopment and Social Polarisation in the City (URSPIC)
Brendan Bartley

Research carried out with partners in the Universities of Oxford (England), Lille (France) Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Louvaine (Belgium), Aveiro (Portugal), Roskilde (Denmark), Aegean (Greece) and Bilbao (Basque Country) as well as the Department of Social Affairs and Employment - Policy Studies Centre (Netherlands).

This research examines the extent to which large scale urban development projects attempt to foster social integration of local communities and other citizens into the new urban landscapes. This analysis of the relationship between urban restructuring and social exclusion/integration has produced a number of recent publications by the Department of Geography. These include: Socio-Economic Crisis, Spatial Segmentation and Urban Restructuring in Dublin (B Bartley); Urban Governance, Social Exclusion and the Dynamics of Urban Regeneration in Dublin (B Bartley with K Treadwell and C Creamer); Exclusion, Urban Regeneration Policy and Governance in Dublin (B Bartley).

Social Exclusion in European Neighbourhoods: Processes, Experiences and Responses
Brendan Bartley

Research carried out with partners Department of Infrastructure and Planning (Stockholm), Centre for Research in European Urban Environments, Town and Country Planning Department (Newcastle University), National Social, Economic and Physical Research Centre (Lisbon), Centre for Applied Mathematical Studies and Planning (Paris), Institute for Land and Planning Studies (Dortmund), Department of Architecture, National Technical University (Athens), Department of Social, Economic and Spatial Analysis, Venice University Institute of Architecture (Venice), School of Built Environment, University of Westminister (London).

This study examined a neighbourhood which experiences many of the problems of poverty, multiple deprivation, disadvantage and under-privilege typically measured by standard indicators of social exclusion. It explored the experiences of, and responses to, social exclusion of people living and working in the study area. The study employed qualitative research and analysis. It sought to understand what is happening at the interface between top-down policy making and intervention practices and bottom-up actions including adaptive local responses to pressures. It also attempted to elicit the views of those who are at the receiving end of the measures and actions that contribute to shaping the lives of local people in a designated problem area. This has led to published work by B. Bartley that has contributed to the international debate on the experiences and responses to social exclusion: Planning and Poverty in North Clondalkin (B. Bartley); Exclusion, Invisibility and the Neighbourhood in the West Dublin Suburbs (B. Bartley); Social Networks in Private Housing Estates in North Clondalkin (B. Bartley); Social Exclusion in West Dublin: Processes, Experiences and Policy Responses (B. Bartley).

The INTERREG IIC Urban Planning Project
Brendan Bartley

This research involves collaboration with a wide range of partners across the educational, business, local government and community sectors in the four partnership cities, Dublin, Belfast, Brussels and Liverpool.