Exclusionary protests in urban Ireland

Abstract

This article examines those collective protests in urban Ireland that aim at excluding some categories of people from the local area. Travellers, drug-users, asylum-seekers, undesirable services such as rehabilitation clinics or community for mentally ill patients represent the main targets of actions by local residents. The distinctive feature of exclusionary protests are analysed in terms of the issues raised, the targets of the action, the participants and the resources which protestors can mobilize. It is argued that this kind of collective activity is not adequately understood in terms of a culturalist reading of the city. Exclusionary protests emerge only in the context of the social relations which structure city life. A number of collective actions that aim at excluding people have been recorded in Ireland in the recent past. If we limit our investigation to collective actions that have taken place between the years 1995 and 2000, 33 such distinct exclusionary actions have been documented. Although this represents a relatively small proportion of recorded events, roughly 5% (33 cases out of over 700 for the years 1995-2000), it nonetheless constitutes a significant phenomenon. Although not very current, exclusionary protests have been mentioned in the literature on social movements. For instance, Snow et al. refer to the "efforts of neighbourhood organizers to mobilise citizens to oppose the relocation of the Salvation Army shelter" (Snow et al., 1986, p. 470). Many local protest actions endeavour to counter features which threaten the local quality of life in significant ways: "This tendency is just as evident today in the rash of neighbourhood movements protesting the siting of this homeless shelter, or that toxic waste dump, or any other of the myriad facilities that may arouse community concern. Commentators have dubbed these movements the NIMBY (not in my own backyard) phenomenon." (Marx and McAdam, 1994, p. 125)One should nonetheless make a clear distinction between the rejection of undesirable features (such as excessive housing development, proximate siting of a waste dump, heavy traffic, etc.) and the actual exclusion of a category of people.These exclusionary forms of action may be observed in many places, though a significant proportion of them take place in Dublin. This article endeavours to reach an understanding of social life in Dublin on the basis of this kind of collective action. A central idea guides the analysis which follows: namely, that exclusionary protest in Dublin is better understood in terms of the structure of social relations, according to which social life in the capital city is organized, rather than through a 'cultural reading' of the city.Exclusionary protests emerge around a limited range of issues and groups. They have been prompted by five main issues. First,

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