The Troubles in Northern Ireland and Theories of Social Movements

Abstract

This volume focuses on a number of research questions, drawn from social movement scholarship: How does nonviolent mobilisation emerge and persist in deeply divided societies? What are the trajectories of participation in violent groups in these societies? What is the relationship between overt mobilisation, clandestine operations and protests among political prisoners? What is the role of media coverage and identity politics? Can there be non-sectarian collective mobilisation in deeply divided societies? The answers to these questions do not merely try to explain contentious politics in Northern Ireland; instead, they inform future research on social movements beyond this case. Specifically, we argue that an actor-based approach and the contextualisation of contentious politics provide a dynamic theoretical framework to better understand the Troubles and the development of conflicts in deeply divided societies.

Restricted Access to Remembrance: Problematic Usages of Industrial Memories in Belfast's Titanic Quarter

“…Yet, when assessing grand‐scale projects like the Titanic Quarter, in which space was purposefully produced to move away from the legacies of conflict and which rejects the idea of ethnonational entities, to centre the analysis on nationalism can overlook other crucial elements. In such context, a Marxist analysis allows shedding lights on an underlying class conflict which has been present for the last 60 years in Belfast, but was overshadowed by ethnonational politics (Martin, 1982:56; Breen, 2000; Evans & Tonge, 2009; Bosi & De Fazio, 2017). As Fenton (2004:179) made clear: ‘By applying the epithet “ethnic,” it is as if the conflict were already explained.…”

What Do We Know about Power Sharing after 50 Years?

“…This begs the following question: why do cross-ethnic social movements emerge under some power-sharing systems but not others? In answering the question, the literature would greatly benefit from applying social movement theory to divided societies, something that has for a long time been neglected (Bosi and Fazio 2017). Generally, crossing the ethnic divide is a significant move.…”

Navigating Ethnicity: Collective Identities and Movement Framing in Deeply Divided Societies

“…First, the article offers novel insights into social movement scholarship, delving into the ways in which narratives and discursive strategies are used to activate social discontent and to mobilize transversal support in divided societies, and exploring the different approaches to the issue of ethnicity. The in-depth empirical perspective on BiH advances our understanding of social mobilization in deeply divided societies through social movement research (Bosi and De Fazio 2017;Nagle 2008Nagle , 2016Agarin, McCulloch, and Murtagh 2018;Murtagh 2016). Second, the analysis adds to the growing literature investigating contentious politics in the post-Yugoslav space, still an under-researched geographical area in social movement literature that so far has mainly concentrated on "stable" Western democracies (Bosi and De Fazio 2017).…”

“…The in-depth empirical perspective on BiH advances our understanding of social mobilization in deeply divided societies through social movement research (Bosi and De Fazio 2017;Nagle 2008Nagle , 2016Agarin, McCulloch, and Murtagh 2018;Murtagh 2016). Second, the analysis adds to the growing literature investigating contentious politics in the post-Yugoslav space, still an under-researched geographical area in social movement literature that so far has mainly concentrated on "stable" Western democracies (Bosi and De Fazio 2017). In fact, social movements began to play a critical role in the former Yugoslav region especially over the last decade.…”