INCORE Research: POLITICIANS AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS

This is a Northern Ireland based project exploring the perspective of Northern Ireland’s politicians on community relations.

Publications:

The full research report on the findings of this project can be downloaded here

Also available is a research summary of the key findings of the report.

Hard copies of both are available upon request

Click here to download a brochure for the PCR Project.

Funding:

The Politicians and Community Relations project has been funded by the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation within Measure 2:1, Reconciliation for Sustainable Peace, via the European Directorate of the Community Relations Council.

Methodology

The initial data collection for this project was conducted via surveys, interviews and focus groups.  Following this, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and District Councillors were invited to explore the preliminary results at a Seminar in Stormont on June 23 2004.

A major conference was held on 9 September 2004 to discuss the findings of the draft research report on Politicians and Community Relations in Northern Ireland. Leading politicians from all the main political parties participated, along with representatives of civil society in Northern Ireland

Project Aims

The aim of this project is to acquire a greater understanding of the perspectives of Northern Ireland’s politicians on Community Relations (CR) work, in order to provide a knowledge base for the formulation of a more cohesive and agreed approach to the future of such work on the part of politicians, CR practitioners and policy makers.

Reflecting a range of views - 'Community relations' means different things to different people.  This project will ask Northern Ireland's politicians, how do you define community relations?  Analysing the implications of their various responses to this question, the project will also describe the kinds of CR work that politicians are prepared to support, and outline the kinds of work that they are reluctant to participate in.

An uncertain context - How do politicians perceive the apparent lack of progress in establishing better community relations in Northern Ireland over the last decade?  Do they see a need for greater political support for the activity taking place at grassroots level?

Ways forward - Exploring a broad range of issues with public representatives, policy makers and CR practitioners, this project will present options for the future role of politicians in the challenging task of improving community relations in Northern Ireland.