JON VAN TIL

Derry City Chair of Learning on Community Innovation

3 June 2004, The Guildhall, Derry

It is a great honor to serve as Derry City Chair of Learning on Community Innovation, and a delight to have lived in this remarkable city these past three months. This paper reflects my experience both as one who has worked with community groups for many years, and one who has experienced Derry from my front windows this Spring in residency on London Street.

In this paper, I will attempt to say some things that may be helpful in thinking about the big questions in Northern Ireland, questions that have most recently occupied two major explorations under the rubric of Northern Ireland’s Office of the First Minister/Office of the Deputy Minister as well several other books, monographs, and pamphlets. I will seek to approach these questions from the community point of view, or as we tend to say in the States, from a grassroots perspective.

In addressing issues that are frequently and passionately engaged in Northern Ireland, it is not my intention to tell anyone what she or he ought to do. I intend my comments tonight to be faithful to the observation of Downpatrick-born writer Lynn Doyle, writing in 1926:

As an American aware of the bitterness my countrymen are creating in certain corners of the world, an effort to hector this audience would be particularly improper. Indeed, my country may be even more bitterly divided at this point than Northern Ireland—especially as regards social class and political preference. There are indeed "two Americas", as Sen. John Edwards has observed, as far as power and privilege are concerned, and the divisions between our "red" or "Bush" electoral districts, and our "blue" or "Anybody but Bush" areas often seem as deep as those that separate Northern Ireland’s interface areas.

While it would be inappropriate for me, as the holder of a Fulbright research award, to step beyond the bounds of the diplomatic courtesies appropriate to my role as a friend and visitor, to share my personal views on these divisions in this milieu, it is important that I be clear about my role. Holders of Fulbright awards to the U.K. are told that their responsibilities as grantees include the following:

• Excel academically in every respect.
• Be a good ambassador for the U..S., for your subject and for the
  Fulbright Programme as a whole.
• Come with an 'open mind' and experience what the UK has to
  offer.
• Give an informed personal opinion which may differ from people
  around you.
• Demonstrate leadership qualities and initiate contact with your
  local community outside the academic setting.

Those sound like things worth trying to do tonight, so let me tell about how it is that I view the issue of community innovation. My newest book is titled GROWING CIVIL SOCIETY. This title challenges us to think about how it is we "grow" anything. We talk about growing a garden. We talk about growing families. And a recent American President much beloved on these shores, Bill Clinton, used to talk a lot to about the importance of growing the economy.

All these ideas share a common characteristic: They have to do with intentional acts aimed at making something good bigger and better. The gardener wants to grow food that is tasty, nutritious, and bountiful. The parent wants a family composed of children who are happy, healthy, and able to take on the world. The president wants an economic order that is productive and expanding in its size.

And so it is with community innovation. The reason we want to "grow" it, to see it develop and flourish, is that we are interested in what it will provide for us—both as individuals and as a society. Community innovation is important, that is to say, if it helps produce what the founders of my country, many of whom sailed from this very port, called a "more perfect union". Or, as social scientists tend to call it these days, a "more civil society".

I hope that the reader will agree with me that it is important to grow civil society wherever we may be—in Derry (where this paper was first delivered), in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland (where most of those who first heard this paper live), in Ireland as a whole (where many of those attenders proudly hold citizenship), in the United Kingdom (the political configuration that holds sovereignty over Derry, as we are learning to use the term in the Iraq imbroglio), or even in Camden, New Jersey (where I continue to be based at Rutgers University), or in Philadelphia (where I live), and in the global society we share with some 6 billion other folks who weren’t in the lovely and historic Guildhall of Derry the night this paper was first delivered.

Now what precisely do I mean by civil society? How might we recognize it if we actually came across it? The more I worked with the idea the more I came to find it invaluable in understanding not only what citizens can do to make society work, but how we can come to understand the structure of the good society. A civil society, after all, is one in which the lives of its individual residents and citizens are enriched by the right workings of the major institutions and organizations of that society.

Studies and experience in many nations indicate that civil society works best where citizens have learned the lessons of communitarianism, where the organizations of their communities have learned to partner with others, and where they are not afraid to take risks toward the improvement of the life of their neighborhoods, town, region, country and world.

The lessons of communitarianism? As sociologist Amitai Etzioni has shown clearly, both rights and responsibilities are important in the modern world, and need to be balanced with each other. Too much focus on rights and not enough on responsibilities leads to contention and endless dispute. Too much focus on responsibilities and not enough on rights leads to paternalism and apathy. A leading spokesperson of this view is of course Prime Minister Tony Blair, with his ideas of the "third way".

Partnership? In the modern organizational world, where even in a small city there may be thousands of differing organizations of all stripes, it is critical to build bridges among and between groups of varying sorts. Often the most successful communities are those which have the capacity of linking with a wide range of organizations in other communities, city-wide, and nationally as well.

Risk-taking? The literature on community development and voluntary action is full of the concept of social entrepreneurship, which really means organizing risk in response to the meeting of a social need. Social enterprises, it is asserted, may be more capable than traditional voluntary efforts to sustain their work in a time of increasing privatization and declining levels of statutory or governmental support. They may also be more attentive to the needs for expanding employment and meeting a variety of economic needs within communities in a cooperative structure and process.

I had begun in my own work, particularly in a book published in 1988 and titled MAPPING THE THIRD SECTOR, to look at society as composed of four basic institutions: the economy, government, the third sector, and the "informal sector"--the last being the home of family, kin, and neighborhood. As it seemed to me, the good society was more of a four-wheel drive vehicle than a humble stool. And like any four-wheel driven vehicle, it needed to be firing on all its cylinders, and supported by a sturdy set of wheels and tires.

I'll hold to that position even now. Contemporary society provides us with four major sets of institutions to solve our common problems: families and other basic institutions like churches and schools that represent our "core culture", voluntary organizations and other nonprofit organizations that bring us together to address our common problems, governmental structures that embody our democratic aspirations and institutions, and a myriad of corporations and businesses that build our common wealth and foster most of our employment.

I developed a somewhat flaky way of remembering these four institutions, which I call the "PECTS" schema: P for Politics, E for Economics, C for core Culture (the family, kin, neighborhood, and much of education and religion), and TS for the Third Sector. Out of that schema comes a formula for building a good society, or, if one perfers, growing civil society:

If we apply these ideas to Derry, we may be able to assess where we stand in the quest for civil society. Using the PECTS schema, we may agree that some areas need more attention than others. May I invite to reader to think now about the strengths, and the areas that require attention and consideration, regarding political life, economic vitality, cultural expression, and community capacity.

I might prime the pump, as we Americans quaintly put things, by sharing a few observations of my own. These are vignettes, things that I have seen here in Derry that I struggle to understand.

The first I call the "Brendan/Brandon" story. When my own two children, Ross and Claire (now young adults) came to visit in Derry, I met them in Belfast and we came here by train. We shared the middle car on that little blue train with what at first glance appeared to be a young family—a man, a woman, a boy of about six, and a somewhat younger girl. The boy spent the entire passage from Coleraine to Derry racing up and back the carriage, sometimes banging into the benches or slipping along the floor. His mother occasionally looked away from her partner, who took no interest at all in the children, and uttered but one word. Increasingly sharply and to no apparent effect: "Brendan!" (or perhaps "Brandon!"). The last we saw of the group was in front of the Derry train station: the little boy was jumping down off the wall there and appeared to have fallen to a minor injury.

A second image may be titled "The Cathedral", referring to the magnificent structure I have been privileged to view from my windows on London Street these past three months. The image is of a shattered window covered in plywood. My attention had been directed to that sad sight by a neighbor, who, noting that the damage was apparently done during the recent visit by President McAleese, also let me know that I should not at all conclude that the damage had been done by someone from outside the Protestant community.

Now, what lessons may be drawn from these vignettes and other such observations about the state of civil society in Derry? I would draw the following:

--Derry has a great and significant historical tradition, represented by its walls, buildings, and churches. But there is work to be done to secure the respectful use of these facilities.

--Derry has a precious resource in its youth, many of whom excel in school and participate in such remarkable programs as Youth Action and the Derry City Shadow Youth Council. But there is work to be done to strengthen and develop that resource, for too many of Derry’s youth succumb to the lure of drink, drug, and disillusion at far too early an age. Like many of their peers in other lands, Derry’s youth are caught in a global transition where bonds of faith, community, and nation wane, while those of mass culture, mall, and the ever-lengthening "happy hour" wax ever larger.

--Derry’s voluntary and community organizations provide a rich lode of talent, sensitivity, and wisdom on which its communities may draw in meeting the challenges that await in the years ahead. But there is work to be done to assure a complementarity and linkage (Cf. Boyle, in Fingerpost, 2004: 29) among the aims toward which these organizations direct their effort.

--Derry’s governing structures allow for a spirited exercise of the individual ballot and the collective expression of contesting political parties. But there is work to be done to assure that the governing process yields a coordination among its leadership and a mobilization of effective citizen support for adopted policies.

Now how might these aims of strengthening the city’s core, developing its youth, enhancing its community and voluntary organizations, and empowering its government be achieved? As is often the case in human affairs, many of the answers to these questions are found in home-grown considerations, and the current situation in Northern Ireland is no exception. May I point to several remarkable sources, all published in the last two years by Northern Irish contributors, that show a way forward toward resolving the issues I have identified.

For this presentation I have reviewed seven recent statements. Three come from governmental sources, with varying degrees of citizen and organizational impact. Three are recently published books . And the final one represents a collective contribution of a number of talented and articulate Derry citizens.

Let me begin with one of the governmental documents, the Review of Community Relations Policy, as reported by its Review Team in January 2002. (I understand that this report is sometimes referred to as the "Harbison Report", in that its principal author was Jeremy Harbison, a long-time leader within the Northern Irish civil service.) This document impresses me with its ability to present issues and choices in clear definition. For example, it presents a "vision as articulated in the Programme for Government" : "that Northern Ireland should become a peaceful, inclusive, prosperous, stable and fair society, firmly founded on the achievement of reconciliation, tolerance and mutual trust with the protection and vindication of human rights for all." (Review of Community Relations Policy, 6).

A second report takes the form of an ongoing review commissioned by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office. This process goes by the name "A Shared Future: Improving Relations in Northern Ireland". This report covers much of the same ground as the first, to which it holds an apparently organic connection, but addresses itself most centrally to the elicitation of citizen response to a serious of questions. It is perhaps most remarkable for the breadth and depth of those responses, as summarized in a long and fascinating consultation paper by two academics, John Darby of the University of Notre Dame, and Colin Knox of the University of Ulster.

The third recent document is a remarkable book, authored by Norman Porter under the title The Elusive Quest: Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. This book, I should warn you, will not be a best seller. It is far too complex in its structure and argument to appeal to the average reader, and I have not been surprised that few, even among my academic colleagues, appear to be familiar with this book. But this densely argued work, careful to the last detail, is worth the hard work it demands of its reader. Developed by the author while in residence at Derry’s own INCORE, Porter makes a strong case that it is only by developing a "thick" (rather than "thin") approach to reconciliation that the commitment of both unionists and nationalists can be willingly brought to the task of living well amongst each other.

Fourth, I have been working my way through a remarkable recent history written by Marianne Elliott of the University of Liverpool. Her book is titled The Catholics of Ulster (2000), and I found its descriptions of Derry life and social structure through the centuries to be particularly fascinating and personally useful in helping me understand my own "second city".

Fifth, I have found the distillation of years of cross-community work by Joseph Liechty and Cecelia Clegg a valuable source, as presented in their book Moving Beyond Sectarianism (2001). The authors have worked with churches and other faith-based groups in Northern Ireland for many years, and outline a strategy to create reconciliation that is based on the building of a clear vision, acting on that vision, naming sectarian dynamics, and "taking risks to break the cycle of antagonised division" (p 345).

Sixth, I took a look at a very different kind of document--the glossy, picture-laden Take a Closer Look pamphlet recently issued by the OFM/ODM. This document is apparently aimed at bringing more people from outside Northern Ireland here as visitors. It seeks to balance the strengths of the land and its people with an honest recognition of the damaged reputation that keeps so many potential visitors away from Northern Ireland. "Change", "rebirth", and "regeneration" are central themes in this appealing document. I suspect it also represents the official distillation of the mash created by the Shared Future process.

Finally, how could I neglect to put among the company of these other works the collective product of so many of Derry’s most articulate and provocative thinkers, the authors of Fingerpost’s Spring 2004 edition, "City of Culture?" In this issue, important questions are clarified and addressed. Derry Councillor Gerry O’Hara asks what is perhaps the most fundamental question (73): "How do we balance the desire for personal and communal identity in a world where global economic uniformity is the objective of those who hold power?" Maureen Hetherington provides a partial answer to O’Hara’s query: "If there is to be a genuine move toward conflict resolution in Northern Ireland, we must be honest with ourselves and others are recognize that we—through our culture and traditions—have been part of the problem." As Danny Kelly’s insightful Channel 9 program, "Agenda", puts it: "Questions answered; answers questioned."

These seven recent statements from Northern Ireland issue forth from different auspices, are aimed at different audiences, and address different aims. Might it be possible to identify common themes in these works, or at least to examine for them? That is a task to which I have recently applied myself, beginning by noting that all societies have needs that must be met. If we follow the famous system of the social psychologist Abraham Maslow, these needs include physiological assurance, safety and security, belongingness and love, and esteem. Interestingly, these reports address each of these needs, which I have organized in the following table:

This section documents from the seven reports cited in the paper arguments pertaining to the fourteen areas of apparent agreement among these various sources, organized as presented in Table 1.

Maslow, when he developed his influential listing of human needs, made it clear that physiological and security needs come first. And, since we are thinking beings, it surely makes sense to think first about these needs when going about the task of societal reconstruction. That, in any case, is a point on which all seven reports appear to agree. They begin with the recognition that a problem exists, and requires thought and action.

1. ACKNOWLEDGE THAT A PROBLEM EXISTS

This is a point that receives strong support from each report. The Shared Future report establishes "Acknowledgment of the Problem" as its first "fundamental principle":

This wording draws on a similar statement by Harbison, though eschewing the latter’s characterization of the relations between communities as being "dysfunctional" (Review Team, 45). Porter (31) disagrees strongly with his critics who urge accepting unionists and nationalists "as they are":

Even the public relations pamphlet introduces the theme of acknowledgement when it notes the reality of such forces as community division, fear, mistrust, violence, and murder (OFM/DFM, pp. 22-23). And, in the Fingerpost issue (p. 82), as noted above, Maureen Hetherington puts it clearly:

2. STRIVE TO UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM

Acknowledging that a problem exists is, of course, only the first step in a process of social reconstruction. As Vladimir Lenin put it forcefully, it immediately raises the question "What is to be done?" Maureen Hetherington continues along these lines:

Harbison (46) notes that the first step is to accept and endorse "a clear vision, associated with clearly articulated aims." The Shared Future process, as interpreted by Darby and Knox, indicates that, to critical readers of that report, clarity begins at home. Slippery language and questionable theory within that report itself may require better definition. Darby and Knox comment (p. 14): "There cannot be good relations, critics argued, until there is equality of opportunity and outcome and full protection of human rights for all in society."

Porter identifies the task of reconciliation as one that requires great "delicacy" in action (p. 19): Like the critics of Shared Future quoted above, he observes that the language of capitalism provides obstacles to social reconstruction: "Quite simply, a political language that has been stripped to fit market rationality is deprived of the resources to meet citizens’ deeper needs" (p. 20). Leaving "the other" in peace may be necessary, but not sufficient for the development of a "thick" or "sticky" solution to the problems facing Northern Ireland. It may be, as several political traditions in Northern Ireland have long claimed, that social relations may not be properly resolved until resolution is achieved to problems of economic opportunity, equality, and related concerns involving social justice.

3. ASSURE MAXIMUM FEASIBLE PERSONAL SAFETY AND PUBLIC ORDER

• In terms of various paramilitary activities (deaths, shootings, bombing and incendiaries) incidents dropped to their minimum in the year after the ceasefire but have since then shown a progressive and continuing increase;
• Paramilitary policing of their own areas (manifesting itself in punishment attacks) has increased since the ceasefire and is now at higher levels than at the start of the 1990s;
• The last five years has seen a dramatic increase in the reporting of racist incidents to the policy (up almost 8 fold from 1996 to 2000).

And Porter observes that peace may be valued "if for no other reason than that violence and the security measures necessary to counteract it are irritating inconveniences" (p. 40.) Further, since this violence has customarily been confined within certain neighborhoods and rather carefully targeted toward members of contending gangs, Porter notes that it has only minimally affects the lives of what has been referred to as the "contented classes". (Here I would note that an exception may be found among those who have stood forward for political leadership, especially in the more moderate parties who find themselves newly in minority standing after the recent elections.)

The PR document presents a statement that deserves careful attention. Under the heading "Healing Divisions", a paragraph reads (p. 23):

Looking carefully at this paragraph, this observer is struck by the absence of any reference to the role of police, courts, and correctional institutions in dealing with problems as serious as those involved in "violence and murder".

3. SEEK TO ENHANCE RESPECT AMONG INDIVIDUALS

The first article I ever published was in a journal of education, and was titled "People are People". I was 16 years old, and had just returned from a three-month stay in Europe with my family. As can be seen, I come from the "contented class" as well. When the similarities among, rather than the differences between, people are what impress one, it is easy to dismiss those who wear their identities on their sleeves. Like the sociologist and novelist Richard Sennett (1996), one is tempted to be just a bit smug when dealing with those who wrap themselves in "purified identities".

Spend some time in sensitive listening with many in Northern Ireland, though, and the difficulties involved in respecting those who associate with persons who have injured or killed family and friends emerges as a most serious human problem. I have seen the families approach the pictures at the Ulster Museum of the several hundred RUC officers killed during the Troubles. They approach slowly, and point to the image of their father; their children come as close as they will to the face of a grandparent they will never know. Or look at the interpretive photos and read the poems created by children who have lost their fathers to internecine killing at that same exhibit on "Violence in Ireland", and try to imagine what it would be like to be assigned, no fault of your own, to that "discontented class" of human beings.

One of my students describes the process of coming to recognition of this reality:

The answers that come from the reports at hand include the following, all of which seem to me to be worth serious effort:

• Put in place improved practical support and help to victims and survivors of the conflict and …provide them with recognition, acknowledgement and help to rebuild their lives (OFM/ODM, 23)
• Promote respect, encouragement and celebration of different cultures, faiths and traditions (Shared Future)
• Reduce prejudice and increase tolerance; decrease sectarianism and racism (Harbison, 89)
• Embrace and engage "others who are different from us in a spirit of openness and with a view to expanding our horizons, healing our divisions and articulating common purposes" (Porter 8).
• "When there isn’t the opportunity for argument, dissent, opposition, outrage—we haven’t too much to say. And in this vacuum bureauspeak is blocking an evolution that we have to make—whether it takes ten or fifty years" (Darinagh Boyle, in Fingerpost, 29).

A second set of recommendations that follow from the seven reports involve being moral, acting ethically, and basically treating others as one would want others to treat ourselves. Maslow tells us that this kind of behavior comes most naturally to individuals once their basic needs are met, and when they are not paralyzed by fear or insecurity.

3. ASSURE GOOD RELATIONS/TRUST

When the Shared Future report was presented, it was prefaced by comments of Des Browne, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office. His first sentence reads "Building trust and confidence between and within communities and tackling sectarianism are key priorities for the Government." Browne speaks of the need to "improve relationships within our society", echoing themes in the Harbison report that note how Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 requires public authorities "to have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group" (p. 46). Take a Closer Look adds that "Building dialogue, mutual understanding and trust and tackling sectarianism and racism are key priorities" (p. 22).

The idea of "good relations" received some critical comments from the citizen review process engendered by Shared Future, and is presented in a somewhat different light, as "fair interactions", by Porter. Fair interactions exist, Porter explains, when

interlocutors are given their due, that is, are allowed to speak in their own voice, are given opportunities to present their views, are permitted to tell their own stories, and are listened to with respect. If the interactions are designed to reach conclusions or agreements on some matter at hand, the expectation is that the deliberations and outcomes will be reasonable, and not simply reflections of manipulation, majority interest, or whatever (p. 95).

Good relations may also involve achieving a certain standard for the content of the interaction, as Declan McGonagle notes in Fingerpost:

The consumerist model of society one-dimensionalises human experience and removes challenge. I believe the only way it can be counterbalanced—because it cannot be rolled back—is through the development and nourishment of cultural processes designed to bridge difference rather than bond sameness, within communities, between communities, between neighborhoods and the city, between the city and the world (p. 8).

The task requires some enthusiastic pushing, as Jim Crothers notes: "The concept of peace and reconciliation must be brought to the very sitting rooms and corner shops of all our communities and to every citizen in our city" (Fingerpost, p. 24). Just how and who to make this happen needs yet to be identified.

4. LIVE PEACEFULLY, TOGETHER OR APART

The next recommendation from the reports addresses a real conundrum: Do peace and reconciliation require integration? Or, alternatively, is some considerable degree of separation, most often seen as involving residential patterns, capable of being woven into the fabric of a healthy and pluralistic society?

Shared Future seeks to make its position clear. The goal is a society that is both "shared" and "pluralist". "Integrated/shared communities" are places "where people wish to learn, live, work and play together" (Introduction, p. 3), and pluralism is defined as involving "respect and tolerance for cultural diversity". This view goes a way beyond the Harbison recognition that the distinction (introduced by Robert Putnam) between bonding and bridging social capital is "increasingly being recognized" (59). Harbison warns, nonetheless, that "Current ‘single identity’ work has the danger of promoting bonding social capital which can reinforce exclusivity and may interfere with the opportunities for bridging or integration" (60). Take a Closer Look comes down rather strongly in the integrationist camp, asserting that "Integrated education, housing schemes and leisure facilities also play a vital role in creating greater mutual understanding and respect for other cultures" (23).

Porter values what he calls the establishment of "common ground", but sees this goal much more in terms of mutual respect of a shared humanity than by the achievement of diverse neighborhoods or schools. A "thick" conception of commonality will exist, he writes, when three elements of "citizen dignity" interrelate—the individual, the cultural and the political. Nonetheless, "a society in which many disaffiliated citizens are concentrated in tightly knit, relatively enclosed enclaves, and are organized in opposition to the state to the point of trying to subvert it by any means possible, is a society in serious crisis" (175). But the path toward common ground lies more in the form of political reconciliation, I read him as contending, than by means of engineered residential or educational integration.

So the problem is as recognized by Gary McKeone: "We still socialize, in the main, with our co-religionists; we still choose to segregate our children’s education; we still live, for the most part on opposite sides of the river. Polite partition seems to be all we’ve achieved" (Fingerpost, 27). One way out of the dilemma is to follow a path presented to Darby and Knox: "It was suggested that the two aims of Shared Future should be sequential: start with the present reality of divisions, find intermediate methods to accommodate them in a pluralist setting, but seek a long-term aim to move towards a shared society" (17).

5. TREAT THE CHILDREN WELL

The role of youth in shaping the future of Northern Ireland is difficult to overestimate. Generations succeed each other inexorably, and this unceasing process, especially in a time as uncertain as our own, contains the clear potential of dramatically rearranging the social landscape of any country.

The respondents to the Shared Future report expressed, as Darby and Knox (p. 35) note, "considerable concern about the role of youth. Young people were presented (sometimes by the same respondents) as both trouble-makers and potential peace-makers. There were issues about their disruptive ability and the need to police it." Optimists among the respondents noted that "A shared future will be achieved by the children," urging that "Young people should be acknowledged as assets within a Shared Future consultation" (Darby and Knox, 36).

The youth of Derry, like others in our emerging global society, face a future that may seem both uncertain and terrifying. Loosed in many cases from the traditional controls of parental discipline, religious authority, and neighborhood observation, they may turn, as can be observed in Derry, to the release involved in the binge consumption of alcohol and other drugs early in their teenage years (Cf. Doherty and McCormack, 2004). On Derry’s walls, large groups of very young drinkers have confronted this visitor, his family and students in a vaguely threatening but not altogether ill-humoured manner. They seem untroubled, as well, to the further release involved in public urination and even vomiting on the same historic venue. Recent statements by Prime Minister Blair and anecdotal evidence regarding my own visiting students further confirm the spread of this "Guinness culture" throughout Britain and the United States as well.

Also of concern are observations reported to me in interviews I have conducted in Derry this Spring to the effect that young recruits may be turning in some numbers to active membership in paramilitary and criminal organizations. Furthermore, it is reported that groups of young men appear to relish, usually on an evening near or on the weekend, the process of spoiling for violent group contest with peers across a series of interface boundaries.

6. PARTICIPATE IN DIALOGUE

The same conversations alluded to above regarding youthful proclivity toward alcoholic excess and sectarian violence have also involved the observation that these aggressive youths seem unwilling to engage in dialogue with what the sociologist Elijah Anderson refers to as "older heads" within their own communities. Youth and peace workers who grew up with the violence of the Troubles express dismay that contemporary youth would enter with such bravado into direct confrontation not only with collectivities of their peers in the opposite community, but also with both police and military forces.

This challenge to dialogue confronts a global movement that seeks to develop peaceful and reconciled relations across the lines of community conflict through such methodologies as "public deliberation" and "sustained dialogue" (Cf. Saunders, 1999). Never an easy process to engender, Saunders and his associates have nonetheless reported successes in this approach in such diverse milieux as Israeli-Egyptian discussions between Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat, among groups of Soviet and American citizen influentials during the Cold War, between opposing factions in Tajikistan, and across racial lines in the American South.

It can, of course, be asserted that sustained dialogue has already been employed to some considerable advantage in Northern Ireland. The lengthy conversations between John Hume and Gerry Adams in the early 1990s, the various "back channel" discussions that led to the ceasefire of 1994, and the Belfast agreement process itself, so tedious and yet so patiently led by George Mitchell—all involved the five stages outlined by Saunders.

Norman Porter (pp. 9-10) is perhaps the most perceptive analyst of dialogue’s ongoing potential in Northern Ireland: "(M)any of us believe that engaging in discussions with those who are culturally and politically different from us is not necessarily a futile exercise, and we are all committed to varying degrees to acknowledging that there are important things we share in common whatever our differences." These commonalities notwithstanding, Porter continues, a "language of violence" often trumps dialogue, from both the republican and unionist perspectives.

From the republican side, Porter continues, unionists are often "marginalized", appearing "as little more than lackeys of Ireland’s colonial oppressors" and not worth "being taken seriously on their own terms" (115). And from the unionist side, the barrier to dialogue often seems even higher, because dialogue itself is seen as a minor process: "(W)hat counts most (to them) is the instrumental function of words, namely that they serve as useful tools for achieving a given set of purposes" (119). From this perspective, problems can best be resolved without dialogue or even direct contact, but rather from the exercise of direct confrontation and assertion. Unionists often assume the role of "prophetic witnesses", for whom the "use of strong language against republicans (is seen as) a matter of duty, irrespective of its consequences" (126).

Resolving relations that are poisoned by such negative images will require, Porter asserts, the cultivation of "fair interactions", the searching out of "common ground", and the development of "intertraditional cooperation" (p. 268). As Joseph Liechty and Cecilia Clegg put it, it would be helpful to "broaden" relations in the direction of consultation, communication, practical co-operation, mutual respect, and dialogue" (p. 341).

BUILD A STRONGER SOCIETY (Actualize)

The sources I have been drawing on in this paper identify a number of specific steps that might be taken to strengthen the PECTS of the six counties of Northern Ireland. I will review briefly these recommendations and then proceed toward suggesting a number of innovative directions in which community-based organizations might direct their work and attention.

7. ASSERT GOVERNMENTAL LEADERSHIP

The Shared Future report puts it directly: "Leadership is fundamental to change. Action to promote good relations will require leadership from Government, elected and community representatives" (Principles, p. 1). Calls for governmental leadership echo throughout the comments organized by Darby and Knox (pp. 7, 27, 31, 43, 60). One of these comments was particularly pointed (p. 27): "(W)e have a non-existent political leadership and a society that is democratically immature. Political leaders are mainstreaming sectarianism and blocking democracy at the highest levels." Influential media presentations, such as "The Folks on the Hill", depict Northern Ireland’s political leaders as amiable but essentially ineffective objects of public entertainment.

The problem may be identified as that of "weak governmental infrastructure", and has long plagued Northern Ireland. Birrell and Williamson have noted that voluntary and community organizations have fulfilled many of the usual functions of statutory government during the period 1970-2000. Cf. Derek Birrell and Arthur Williamson (2001), "The Voluntary and Community Sector in Northern Ireland: Political Development and New Forms of Governance, 1970-2000, in Voluntas, International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 12, 3, September.

8. LEARN FROM WORKPLACE SUCCESSES

One respondent to Shared Future noted that "The workplace has been reasonably free of sectarianism in recent years. And when incidents do arise, they are normally brought under control quickly and without rancour through the co-operation of unions and management" (Darby and Knox, 24)." Applying these learnings to other institutional sectors would appear an obvious challenge in the days ahead.

One threat to the workplace, however, is found in the area of employment. Derry is one of many world cities under siege in the provision of jobs by the twin forces of global economic reconstruction and the impact of the microchip. Economist and policy anaylyst Jeremy Rifkin speaks importantly about these problems in his useful book, The End of Work, which details the impact of the new technology revolution brought by automation and microchip-based information processing. This revolution offers a choice between liberation from long work hours, on the one hand, and an increasing social division between the over- and the under-employed, on the other.

Rifkin believes that we are in the process of making the wrong choice, and that future generations will be faced with dwindling prospects for steady employment of any sort. While fortunes are being made by those who own the patents on technological innovations, most members of the middle classes are on their way to dwindling incomes, threats to whatever jobs they are able to secure, and an inadequate financial base to assure a comfortable retirement.

So where does this leave us? Rifkin, having painted us into a corner, is not without hope. He sees two ways of dealing with the potential crisis of uneven employment: 1) by developing public policies that share the available work by shortening the workweek and thereby redistributing income; and 2) by developing governmental programs "to provide alternative employment in the third sector—the social economy—for those whose labor is no longer required in the marketplace."

 

9. ASSURE OWNERSHIP/ENGAGEMENT THROUGHOUT CIVIL SOCIETY (INCLUDING THE MEDIA)

The Review of Community Relations Policy (p. 47) calls directly for the activation of the entire PECTS of Northern Ireland: "Action to promote better relations must engage and be owned by all sectors of Northern Ireland society—the voluntary and community, and the private and business sectors alongside the public sector."

Development of Northern Ireland’s social economy is one way individuals have of pooling their producing and buying power in a voluntary way. By developing voluntary work-sharing schemes, cooperative economic enterprises, and expanding community credit institutions, productive communities might be enhanced, even in the face of the migration of jobs and the rise of the microchip. The ideas of social economy, pioneered in Derry by Paddy Doherty and John Hume, suggest the importance of developing social institutions to meet the basic human needs of economic security, support, and productivity.

10. TARGET COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT EFFECTIVELY

For some years now, the question has troubled policymakers in Northern Ireland as to precisely how funding and support might be appropriately directed toward communities that have not demonstrated an easy ability to develop programs supportive of civic advancement (Cf. Van Til and Williamson, 2004).

The Review of Community Relations Policy recommends that "current programmes that are working to develop community infrastructure should explicitly support infrastructures required to promote better relations within and between communities" (p. 61), while Shared Future calls for a targeting on areas that evince "poor relations" as well as those that have "developed and maintained good relations" (Principles, p. 1). Taken together, these recommendations would appear to direct support to all communities, thereby failing to advance the goal of targeting funding and support by any priority.

The dilemmas confronting public policy as to just how to assist those particular communities that appear to lag in developing effective community organization (usually seen to be working-class and Protestant/Unionist in standing) give rise to many comments in the Darby and Knox review (Cf. pp. 34-35, 37-38, and 60). One respondent noted: "Protestants in Derry do not experience the shared hands image…on the document cover" (p. 37). And another concluded: "Building cohesion within the Protestant working class communities is essential. The division has swung. It is the Protestants that are now isolated" (p. 37).

11. RESOLVE INTERFACE CONFLICTS

A similar set of policy dilemmas face those who live and/or seek to reduce conflict along the many interface areas in Northern Ireland. Shared Future urges a "focus on areas with a high incidence or history of poor relations and conflict and deprivation, especially at interfaces between communities" (Principles, 1). But, as Darby and Knox note: "Although there was clear support (among the comments on Shared Future) for targeting interface areas because of the attendant violence and community tension, there were views that funding should not reward ‘the bad behaviour syndrome’. There are many non-violent interfaces which deserve attention" (p. 4).

A paragraph in the recent report of the Independent Monitoring Commission created concern among single identity groups in both communities as well as organizations seeking to bridge the divide between them when it urged all groups to monitor their membership rolls for those affiliated with paramilitary organizations. The specter of "vetting" thereby aroused gave rise to calls warning of "McCarthyism" as well as more measured organizational responses from organizations seeking to advance interface peace to the effect that one cannot be effective on the interface without being in communication with those whose community action involves affiliation with the several and long-established paramilitary traditions in the six counties of Northern Ireland.

14. PLAN FOR NEW REALITIES BY CREATING "WIN-WIN" GAMES WHEREVER POSSIBLE

Human affairs are profoundly affected by the past as well as what is aspired to in the future. But it is lived in an ever-shifting present, which often confounds the future and misinterprets the past. In few parts of the world do the traumas of the past more profoundly influence future options than in Northern Ireland. As John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary, among so many others, have noted, the impact of violence and distrust has been massive in its personal effect on personal, family, and community life in Northern Ireland.

But simply trying to get by, to put the worst behind, will not lead to a productive reconstruction of Northern Ireland. Or so agree the authors I have been reading. Porter calls for a full pursuit of the difficult and "elusive quest" of reconciliation, a process far more complex and involved than the simple achievement of "peace". Liechty and Clegg detail a set of "daunting" and "risky" steps required "to break the cycle of antagonized division" (p. 345). Shared Future notes that the development of specific actions "must be balanced by a recognition that division exists throughout Northern Ireland. Targeted action should be complemented by action to promote good relations in society as a whole" (Principles, p. 1).

Shared Future gave rise to a response, as Darby and Knox note, that its two aims of pluralism and sharing might be seen as "sequential: start with the present reality of divisions, find intermediate methods to accommodate them in a pluralist setting, but seek a long-term aim to move towards a shared society" (p. 17). That may seem too mechanistic a solution to deal with the complexities of the situation, but it at least indicates that the struggle will be one requiring both patience and persistence. But it is an answer that does not respond to O’Hara’s question of how to balance identity with global economic competency. Perhaps a beginning answer to that question may be found in Porter’s challenge to the assumptions that lie behind the concept of globalization: "that it is always irrational not to prioritise interests of economic and political efficiency, that the culture of modernity is neutral, and that a cosmopolitan identity is all that modern citizens require for anything other than private purposes" (p. 49). What may best be shared in the future of this fascinating part of world might be the expanded appreciation of its several and ever-changing traditions and the continuing efforts of its creative people to make sense of the world that they inhabit.

The Harbison Review summarizes a set of options for Northern Irish development as presented in an attached paper authored by INCORE. Four options are presented : Homogenization, Separate Development, Co-existence, and Pluralism. The Review Team comments: "The review believes that acceptance and/or support for either ‘separate development’ or ‘co-existence’ is inherently unstable, undesirable, inefficient and not an outcome implied or desired in the Programme for Government. The review team conclude that Policy should commit to an over-arching goal of a cohesive but pluralist society," and adds that this view is "underpinned" by principles of "Equity, Diversity and Inter-dependence" (Review, p. 49). I find their argument persuasive, and commend it to colleagues and friends in Northern Ireland.

The long road I have taken to summarize these recent statements addressing the future of Northern Ireland comes now to the matter of community innovation, the topic of my assignment as Derry Chair. In this paper, I have put forth the view that we can grow civil society in our own communities, asserting that both experience and research show the importance of communitarianism, full partnership, and social risk-taking. Community innovation is embedded in the structures of sovereignty, a not fully settled issue in Northern Ireland. But the realities of the PECTS must be acknowledged, and Northern Ireland is fortunate to have had its key issues and dilemmas examined in a series of thoughtful and searching books and reports in recent years. I have sought to review and organize some areas of understanding and agreement among these works.

Now the task becomes application—bringing these thoughts to bear upon the community projects and schemes that might advance peace and prosperity in Derry in the years ahead. Several ideas come to mind, all of which are as appropriate to the city in which I work in New Jersey as they are to this part of the world:

1. REPOPULATE THE CENTRAL CITY

The vast empty spaces in Derry’s center fly in the face of central city regeneration all over the world. The areas between the walls are prime spaces for exciting urban re-creation. Eamonn Deane’s proposal to explore the creation of an "Intentional Community" within the walls is a valuable one. Combined with attention to the development of the various quarters of the old city (Cathedral, Bishop’s) and its existing role as a cultural center, I fully expect Derry’s core to be repopulated with creative individuals within the next five years.

Derry, and indeed the entire North West of this island, contains numerous physical sites that call out for imaginative restoration. The Playhouse is a prime site whose support in the upcoming national competition seems strongly merited. And in Sion Mills, where I and my students have studied the past two years, a remarkable effort is underway, spearheaded by Celia Ferguson and her colleagues, to find 21^st century uses for now obsolescent 19^th century industrial facilities.

2. ENCOURAGE COMMUNITY EDUCATION

The "community school" movement in the U.S. was developed by students of John Dewey and remains lively among a wide range of urban universities. The key concept here is to provide opportunities for community-based organizations and residents of communities surrounding universities to use the campus for purposes of recreation, adult further and continuing education, and the provision of a venue for community meetings.

School facilities are among society’s most imposing spaces, and yet they lie dormant most evenings, weekends, and for long periods during vacation periods. And I refer here to schools at all levels, from primary schools through universities.

In my own country, even the most "elite" universities are beginning to rebalance their mission to include community service as a priority along with teaching and research. The rediscovery of this "land grant" mission has been identified as consistent with the educational philosophy of Benjamin Franklin, founder of the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania.

Involvement of educational institutions at every level in processes of community organization, education, and enhancement might strengthen the resources available to the widest range of Derry’s citizens. In particular, the reinvigoration of a service mission by the University of Ulster, as is so brilliantly being pioneered at present by INCORE, would allow a salutary liberation from what many outside academics would perceive to be an outdated primacy placed on published research in the British university tradition.

 

3. HELP THE CHURCHES FIND THEIR PLACE

Recent social policy in the U.S. emphasizes the role churches and other faith-based organizations can play in the provision of social services and the rebuilding of social trust in the troubled American city. In Northern Ireland, the pioneering research of Derek Bacon of the Centre for Voluntary Action Studies at the University of Ulster illustrates the important role faith-based organizations have been playing on these shores.

While some religious officials will be reluctant to play a productive civic role, it is clear that this is a responsibility that is increasingly being accepted by ministers, priests and lay leaders both here and abroad. Community-based organizations might do well to invite selected church leaders into a wide variety of partnership activities, ranging from economic development of areas surrounding churches to youth development to the steadying of communities troubled by sectarian conflict or economic deprivation.

4. TURN POLICING INTO A COMMUNITY-BASED OPPORTUNITY

Derry is unique among cities of the industrialized world in the fact that large areas of the city are policed by informal sector organizations, community-based rather than statutory. The reorganization of the PSNI opens the possibility for what we call in the States "community policing", where officers relate closely to Town Watch organizations, patrol on foot rather than in armored cars, and maintain locally-based storefront desks and offices. Derry could pioneer in the development of a genuinely community-based police presence by means of new partnerships carefully built between the PSNI and appropriate community-based committees and organizations.

You may recall that similar proposals were made in Northern Ireland in 1922 as part of the Craig-Collins pact, which, as Elliott notes (376-377), called for "mixed Catholic-Protestant patrols operating in mixed areas (of Belfast) and Catholic ones in Catholic areas." Moreover, a "Catholic police advisory committee would recommend recruits, a joint Catholic-Protestant conciliation Committee would investigate outrages and try to prevent melodramatic reports to the press." Elliott comments: "Even the Belfast IRA seemed disposed to give the pact a trial. But the opportunities offered…were lost, for the extremes on both sides soon made it unworkable."

New opportunities for constructive community policing arise regularly in any society, and Northern Ireland is no exception to this rule. I am told that a variety of "early warning systems" already exist across flashpoints in Northern Ireland, or are in the process of being developed. Some of these networks link residents or community workers by cellphones; others might well connect those whose lives and livelihoods bridge the interfaces of Derry life (Taxi drivers, firefighters, ambulance and hospital staff appear to be other helping professionals inexplicably, at least to this observer, subject to siege conditions). I would imagine, though without evidence, that official agencies do participate in such dialogue, at least on informal levels, but that surmise takes me into levels of understanding about this society that are well beyond my ken.

During my stay in Derry, I have benefited from attending a number of meetings co-sponsored by the Local International Learning Project at INCORE. From these observations, I would take it as a sign of advance should government not remove itself (might I say "vet" itself?) from productive processes of community problem solving, nor too heavily limit participation and linkage to those whose protest has never been deemed to lie beyond the law. From the community side, the ubiquity of CCTV throughout Derry suggests that citizens have accepted the watchful eye of organizations both statutory and proprietary over their actions in public space, and can surely also expand their range of comfort with more human ways of facilitating the responsibilities of mutual respect in community life.

5. DEVELOP YOUTH, TIME AND TIME AGAIN

It cannot be said enough. Many of Derry’s youth are apparently beyond the guidance and control of parents, church, and possibly school as well. Re-establishing their place as tomorrow’s promise must be a top priority of every organization in the city. The development of "community schools" and the appropriate use of "faith-based" spaces on extended hours and with additional activities, on cross-community bases wherever possible, might make a particularly salutary contribution in this regard.

In an early trip to Derry with my students, I learned to appreciate the dedication and creativity of youth workers like Karen Johnston, and later exploration of the applicability of "Youth as Resources" programs to the Northern Irish situation convinced me that young people, here as elsewhere in the world, can take assume decision-making roles regarding community service and development. These links between Derry and proven international models of youth development might productively be strengthened in the years ahead.

6. EXPAND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP, AND FACILITATE DIALOGUE AMONG LEADERS

Effective action in human organizations, whether corporate, community-based, political, or within families, is increasingly seen by social scientists these days to involve what a venerable tradition in my own society, associated with Protestant ministers like Norman Vincent Peale and Jesse Jackson, names "the power of positive thinking." Increasingly, organizational developers and counselors at all levels are coming to the view that community development should be based on articulating "community assets" (McKnight), that it should advance "appreciative inquiry" (Cooperrider), should focus on both "bridging" and "bonding" social processes (Putnam). "Appreciating diversity" and assuring "affirmative action" have become signposts of the modern organization.

The self-centered, and often whinging style of political leadership increasingly ridiculed in the media and popular culture of Northern Ireland, might well find benefit in valuing difference and stretching toward reconciliation. The electorate of Northern Ireland, likely as elsewhere to be increasingly composed of independent voters, will surely respond more positively to a style of leadership that is more universal, welcoming, and upbeat in both tone and message in the years ahead. And leaders in this society as any other--whether political, voluntary, governmental, business, educational, religious, or neighborhood-based—will likely find benefit from a variety of joint enterprises in which productive action results from sustained and effective dialogue.

The voluntary and community sector, along with educational institutions, may find important roles in the months and years ahead in helping party leaders and candidates present themselves and their messages in a more productive and effective light. Along these lines, I would point to the exciting work being done by the Myth Workshop Group in bringing cross-community and cross-border leaders together to examine the deeper meanings inherent in such powerful Irish myths as the Tain.

 

7. CONFRONT THE CHANGING WORLD OF WORK

Recent plant closings in the North West of Ireland have given notice to Derry that the changing winds of the global economy can be both bitter and severe. The mercurial locational preferences of corporate enterprises, joined with the microchip’s capacity to reduce the need for human labor, apply a double blow. In addition, forecasts of the ability and willingness of both London and Brussels to maintain generous levels of intergovernmental support for a variety of social enterprises, as well as unemployment and welfare benefits, are hardly encouraging in light of global forces toward governmental retrenchment and changing priorities within an expanded European Union.

There are no quick fixes to the economic problems created by these imposing economic forces. "Start your own business" is hardly a prescription for mass unemployment, despite its attractiveness to the occasional trade show or associational entrepreneur. In the middle to long run, the only resolution to the global shift in work involves learning how to redistribute work as well as income (Rifkin, 1995). Present global trends, which confine "good work" to no more than 20% of the workforce, though often at the cost of long hours, must be reshaped to the new dimensions of the 30-hour workweek, or even shorter. In Derry, where too many adults of working age are already underemployed, the challenges involved in such a shift will be many, but cannot be ignored.

8. MAP DERRY’S FUTURE

During my stay, I have reviewed the many visions of Derry’s future that have been developed by such groups as the Inner City Trust, the Holywell Trust, the North West Development Centre, the North West Chambers of Commerce, the Civic Regeneration Forum for the Derry City Council Area, and ILEX-The Urban Regeneration Company. These are exciting visions, filled with brilliant depictions of new bridges, augmented access to parks and the waterfront, a control of the automobile’s dominance of central Derry, and a reclamation of the Walled City for all of Derry’s citizens and visitors.

To be sure, Derry has undergone substantial population transfers over the past decade, and there is little sign that these shifts, both on the individual and community levels, have come to an end. The voluntary and community sector can play an important role in helping to assure that Derry’s social maps inform, and articulate with, the elegant plans now being spun throughout the Derry civic structure.

My concluding hope is that citizens of Northern Ireland hold tight, throughout the various processes of community innovation that lie ahead, to the great gift of keeping things in perspective, taking things in stride, never failing to observe that the rain will soon let up and the almost-warm-enough sun will always return.

And so I think of young Brendan (or was it Brandon?) on the train that day. Where will he be in ten years? Drinking on the walls, or working on a mural, like the magnificent depictions of this city I recently viewed at the Cathedral Youth Club? And in twenty years? Among the ranks of the disaffected, looking for someone to hate and to hurt? Or gainfully employed and finding his way in a society of hope and reconciliation?

In the final analysis, what really makes the difference in any society is the informed, voluntary, and self-actualizing activity of individuals, joined with others in a search to build a better, fairer, and more productive society. Organizations and institutions often, but certainly not always, provide for such worthy endeavors. But the test of a society does not ultimately inhere in its particular form or structure. Rather, its worth should be judged by the content of the actions and outcomes these structures generate and assure.

How successful are we at the turn of the millennium? How vital is our democracy? How much in control are we of our economic future? How optimistic should we be for our children’s lives? How productive will our communities be in generating solutions to the problems that weigh upon us? Signs responsive to these imponderables may be found by examining the actions of community organizations, the voting rates among the various class and ethno-national categories of citizens in upcoming elections; the willingness of leaders to join together in reconstructing governance, and the demeanor of the young folks on the streets of Derry. Assess these acts and spaces, and others within your ken. The future will begin to emerge in clearer view.

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John Darby and Colin Knox, "’A Shared Future’: A Consultation Paper on Improving Relations in Northern Ireland . Belfast: Office of the First Minister/Office of the Deputy Minister.

www.asharedfutureni.gov.uk/knox.doc as of 31/05/04

Doherty, Elaine, and John McCormack. "Underage Drinking: 13-17 Year Olds in Derry City Council Area." Derry: Foyle Underage Drinking Initiative, 2004.

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Elliott, Marianne. The Catholics of Ulster: A History. London, Penguin, 2000.

Liechty, Joseph and Cecelia Clegg. Moving Beyond Sectarianism: Religion, Conflict, and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Dublin: The Columba Press, 2001.

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Porter, Norman. The Elusive Quest: Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2003.

"Review of Community Relations Policy" Belfast: Office of the First Minister/Office of the Deputy Minister.

http://www.ofmdfmni.gov.uk/communityrelationsunit/harbisonreportannex.pdf as of 31/05/04

Rifkin, Jeremy. The End of Work. New York: Tarcher, 1995.

Saunders, Harold. A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts. New York: Palgrave, 1999.

Sennett, Richard. The Uses of Disorder. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.

Van Til, Jon. Growing Civil Society: From Nonprofit Sector to Third Space. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2000.

Van Til, Jon. Mapping the Third Sector: Voluntarism in a Changing Social Economy. New York: The Foundation Center, 1988.