Participants
Please scroll down to view background information and research interests of participants.
Nancy Anderson PhD student, the Institute of Irish Studies
Paul Bower PhD student, Center for Built Environment Research
Dominic Bryan Director, the Institute of Irish Studies
Giulia Carabelli PhD student, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social work
Ahmet Coymak PhD student, School of Psychology
Therese Cullen PhD student, the Institute of Irish Studies
Peter Doak PhD student, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social work
Frank Gaffikin Director, Institute of Spatial and Environmental Planning
Neil Galway PhD student, Institute of Spatial and Environmental Planning
Rosaleen Hickey PhD student, Center for Built Environment Research
Bree Hocking PhD student, the Institute of Irish Studies
Christiaan Karelse Research Ass., Institute of Spatial and Environmental Planning
Agustina Martire Tutor, School of Planning, Architecture & Civil Engineering
Alan McCarten PhD student, Institute of Spatial and Environmental Planning
Hugh McNally Tutor, School of Planning, Architecture & Civil Engineering
Nicole Quinn PhD student, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social work
Mary-Kathryn Rallings PhD student, the Institute of Irish Studies
Aisling Shannon PhD student, Institute of Spatial and Environmental Planning
Ken Sterrett Lecturer, Institute of Spatial and Environmental Planning
Nancy Anderson
PhD Student, Institute of Irish Studies
My name is Nancy Anderson and I am currently a PhD student in the Institute of Irish Studies. The road to starting my PhD began when I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004 with my BFA in sculpture and my Masters in Arts Management. I went on to work in exhibition design and fundraising for a new museum in Washington, DC for 4 years. While working on this project I decided to re-enter education and pursue a MA in Irish Studies. During that time I attended the Irish Studies Summer School at Queen’s and became interested in how government funded policies were being implemented to address issues surrounding the use and access of public space. With my background in the arts, I chose to focus on the Re-Imaging Communities Programme.
The Re-Imaging Communities Programme was overseen and run day to day by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The Programme ran from 2006 to late 2010. It was originally funded with £3.3 million but met with more demand than they had originally anticipated so it continued to receive an influx of investment. The main goal of the Programme was to give communities an opportunity to address ‘negative’ imagery in their areas, such as murals, kerbstones, and graffiti, and replace it with ‘positive’, ‘cultural’ imagery. My work examines how this Programme seeks to redefine space through a top down approach, providing opportunities for communities but also allowing the government, through its representatives, to influence those public spaces.
Paul Bower
PhD Student, Center for the Built Environment Research
Prior to commencing his PhD Paul was an urban designer for 4 years at URBED (Urbanism, Environment & Design) a workers cooperative in Manchester. Paul studied Architecture at both degree and masters level at Sheffield School of Architecture and was nominated for the Bronze and Silver RIBA President's Medals Student Awards. With a keen interest in architectural education, Paul is an active graduate member of the visiting RIBA Validation Panel and occasionally runs design workshops in the M.Arch course at Sheffield University.
Paul started his PhD at SPACE, Queen’s University Belfast in September 2011 with the working title: The Architecture (of) Occupation : Rethinking Architectural Practice through Contested and Critical Contexts.
Objectives:
What are the challenges of conflict on society, economy and the built environment and how do they impact and affect the way we practice architecture now, in the past and in the future?
Can a rethink of doing architecture, in contested and critical contexts, provide the profession with a different way of looking at practice more widely?
How do you make architecture less peripheral to social aims and in turn more valuable to society?
Purpose:
To identify, catalogue and analyse other ways of seeing, learning and doing architecture in contested and critical contexts
To contribute and advance architectural methodologies appropriate for such contested and critical contexts
To develop new conceptual and intellectual frameworks in which architects and others can function and collaborate.
Dominic Bryan
Director, Institute of Irish Studies
Dr Bryan has developed a research agenda exploring rituals, symbols and memory as they influence identity and social space in Ireland. Much of his early research focused upon Orange parades in Northern Ireland (see Orange Parades: Ritual tradition and Control Pluto Press 2000) but the research now covers a much broader range of rituals and activities including St Patrick’s Day, The Lord Mayor’s Show and Carnival in Belfast. In addition, Dr Bryan has a major four year project looking at the popular flying of flags in Northern Ireland.
Since 2005, Dr Bryan with Dr Clifford Stevenson (University of Limerick) and Dr Gordon Gillespie (Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University), have been examining the use of flags and emblems in public spaces in Northern Ireland (funded by the First and Deputy First Ministers Office in Northern Ireland). This research includes surveys of public space in Northern Ireland examining when flags and other emblems are being displayed and when they are being taken down. In addition, attitude surveys (conducted by the Northern Ireland Life and Times) and ethnographic case studies add richness to understandings of these public practices.
From 2008, a further ESRC/IRCHSS funded project in partnership with Prof. Steve Reicher (St. Andrews University) and Prof. Orla Muldoon and Dr. Clifford Stevenson (University of Limerick) will examine St Patrick’s Day and the commemoration of the Easter Rising in Belfast and Dublin. Our research aims to examine these events to see how they work to represent the Irish national community and to transform this to shared understandings. Firstly we will examine how those organising each of the event use the symbols and images from the events to broadcast their own 'brand' of Irishness through the media. Then we will talk to people attending the events, as well as those who do not, to see how actually being present at these public occasions affects the way people think about their own Irishness.
In all this research Dr Bryan examines the policy implications of the way public space is utilised and how it influences people identity. As such, the outcomes of the research have implications for conflict resolution and understanding why violent conflict has been such a part of Northern Ireland’s recent history and why violence has diminished.
Giulia Carabelli
PhD Student, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social work
Re(ad)dressing Mostar: Architecture and/of the everyday life
As a result of the war, only a few municipalities in BiH remained ethnically diverse. Due to massive internal migrations and the high number of internal displaced persons (IDPs) the post-war configuration of urban centres in BiH is that of homogeneous territories ruled by an ethnic majority, Mostar represents one of the few post-war exceptions.
The research addresses two main problems; on the one hand it questions how the process of reconstruction has been envisioned and carried out at normative and legislative levels (urban planning policies) and on the other hand it looks at how people are living in the new Mostar and understanding/using the city (the everyday life). The main intent of this research is to approach the urban space as constructed both by political discourses and everyday practices in the attempt of combining ideological perspectives with ethnographic enquires. The method is to examine the ways in which the new urban infrastructures assimilate and reveal the spatial and social divisions of the post-war reality. This research understands the process of reconstruction not only as the positive way of building and re-building the city, but also in its negative meaning (not to build and not to re-build).
The reconstruction of the built environment and the reconstitution of urban life constitutes the main subjects of this investigation, therefore this enquiry will begin with an introductory examination of the category of space as well as the acknowledgement of the multifarious debates that construct ‘space’ as the main interlocutor for a broader interdisciplinary discourse which spans the fields of sociology as well as politics, geopolitics, architecture, urbanism and political philosophy. In particular it will critically discuss understandings of space as the lieu of different processes such as identity formation, community building, political and social interactions and negotiations and as the physical space where everyday urban practices can be performed.
About myself: I am part of the "Conflict Cities and the Contested State" research project, my area of research is Bosnia and Herzegovina and, in particular, the city of Mostar. I’m interested in the process of reconstruction of the city and using Henry Lefebvre as a theoretical framework/inspirational philosopher ... As for my academic background, I graduated from the School of Oriental Studies in Venice (Italy) studying history of Islamic Architecture, worked in the Bauhaus Foundation in a project about UN and urbanism in post-conflict areas and got a second MA from Goldsmiths College in visual cultures (research architecture). At the moment, I’m writing up my thesis as part of the CinC project, based in the School of Sociology and working as research consultant for an art platform in Mostar ( www.abart.ba).
Ahmet Coymak
PhD Student, School of Psychology
I am currently a third year PhD student at the Centre for Research in Political Psychology (CResPP), School of Psychology. Prior to coming to the Centre for Research in Political Psychology, I received a BS (Hons) in computer programming from Ege University, Izmir; a BA (Hons) in sociology from Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta; and an MSc (Hons) in Social Psychology from Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
I am involved in various kind of research in a variety of positions. These experiences in my academic journey provide me with further knowledge for appreciating the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding issues that I am interested in. For example, Negotiating Secularist and Islamist Ideologies in a Polarized Context: A Community-based Study of Youth in Turkey (New York University) in 2009, Researches Accident Prevention Options with Motorcycle Helmet (Safety Research Unit in METU) in 2008, The Association of Religious Identification, Perceived Discrimination, and Political Trust with Ethnic and Societal Identifications (Middle East Technical University) in 2008, Inter-Group Trust and Power: What is the Role of Culture? ( EFPSA ESS, European Federation of Psychology Students' Associations) in 2007 are some of those experiences that have given me a sense of interdisciplinary understanding of scientific phenomenon.
Therefore, my PhD research, founded by the Research Forum for the Child, focuses on an interdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between identity processes, perceived collective discrimination, political trust and national identit(ies)y amongst adolescents in conflicted societies. Drawing on the framework of identity theories, I am investigating this relationship in the context of Northern Ireland, a country with a long history of inter-group conflict, using quantitative techniques. I am particularly interested in how young people in this specific context negotiate their multiple identities, such as their community identity, Northern Irish identity as well as their British or Irish identity; how they construct their citizenship; and the role that trust in politicians and the government plays in these processes.
Therese Cullen
PhD Student, Institute of Irish Studies
I am a third year PhD student at the Institute of Irish Studies. Prior to Queens, I received a BA in Sociology and Theology from The University of St Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota, an MA in Theology from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago and an MPhil in Reconciliation Studies from Trinity College Dublin.
Based in anthropology my research focuses on how St Patrick is publically ritualised and memorialised on his given feast day in Downpatrick. With a background in theology, I am interested in how ritual and symbols are used by individuals and groups to exhibit identity. With regard to space, St Patrick’s parades take place in public and communal areas – how that space is managed and interpreted by various groups and how to celebrate shared events will be considered. The parade, whilst disrupting the hegemonic hold on celebrations, still has a long way to go.
Unlike Belfast, whose St Patrick’s parade only entered the city centre in 1998, Downpatrick has held a parade in the town since the early 1990s and has tended to be cross-community in nature. Last year the parade was overshadowed by the presence of an Irish Tricolour leading the procession. This highlights the challenges of having shared events in shared space. What shared space actually means for the parade has been more like a custody- sharing out of space, i.e. ‘your group can have it one day and ours the next.’ But how is space occupied and shared in shared events?
Peter Doak
PhD Student, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social work
Protestant ‘Alienation’ and ‘Reengagement’ in Derry/Londonderry as the ‘UK City of Culture’ 2013
My research is concerned with Derry’s designation as ‘UK City of Culture’ (2013) as a case for qualitatively examining channels for and levels of local Protestant engagement with their ‘post-conflict’ city. Despite rhetorical assertions to the contrary, there has thus far been an ambivalent response to the award. While some members of the city’s Protestant community are vocal in their support for the award, and are actively participating in events associated with it, others articulate a discourse of ‘alienation’ – claiming to be socially, economically, politically and culturally marginalized from both the celebrations and civic life more generally. The notion of Protestant ‘alienation’ is not peculiar to Derry; the concept pervades much Protestant discourse throughout Northern Ireland. In Derry however, perhaps due to the local Protestant community’s demographic, political and territorial minority status, ‘alienation’ is often discussed primarily with reference to specifically local issues of urban marginality and civic disengagement. One particularly controversial issue here is the Protestant community’s almost total institutional and residential withdrawal from Derry’s Cityside. This part of the city, which lies on the west bank of the River Foyle, contains the majority of the cultural amenities and venues due to be utilised in 2013. It is perhaps therefore unsurprising that some members of the local Protestant community have located the UK City of Culture award within a broader discourse of ‘alienation’. Yet, within the same community it is apparent that others are greeting the award with enthusiasm, arguably treating it as a mechanism for facilitating their civic ‘reengagement’. Seeking to understand this apparent discrepancy, my assertion is that Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital, hysteresis and doxa provide a theoretical framework for insight and illumination of the dynamics of this historically fraught relationship between a city and its community.
Frank Gaffikin
Director, Institute of Spatial & Environmental Planning
Frank is Director of Research in the Institute of Spatial and Environmental Planning (ISEP) and Course Director of the MSc programme in Spatial Regeneration.
Frank’s research interests have shifted in recent years from a focus on the labour market and social exclusion to include: planning in contested space; the university as an urban institution; and participatory integrated planning and new governance. In the past, he has been involved in major research projects on community education; regional economies; and the evaluation of European anti-poverty programmes and urban programmes. More recently, he has worked with Queen’s University colleagues on a number of major action-research projects, including ones related to Regional Development and Metropolitan Planning.
Currently, Frank is Principal Investigator in a number of research projects: Planning for Spatial Reconciliation; CU2 (Contested Cities, Urban Universities); Shared Space for a Shared Future; and a Research Council project on Sustainable Communities. In addition, he is co-Principal Investigator with Prof. Tony Gallagher in the Community Builders action-research project. Taken together, these form a coherent engaged interdisciplinary research programme with colleagues Dr Ken Sterrett, Prof. Malachy McEldowney and Gavan Rafferty, supported by nearly £1 mn of funding. They operate in collaboration with a range of urban agencies, and with colleagues in the University of Warwick, University of Manchester; Columbia University, New York; and especially with Prof. David Perry in the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Neil Galway
PhD Student, Institute of Spatial & Environmental Planning
Heritage interventions and post-conflict nation narration
In ‘The Book of Laughter and Forgetting’, Milan Kundera stated famously that “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting” (1996: p4). In Belfast and Northern Ireland generally, the physical traces of ‘the Troubles’ such as military installations and paramilitary murals are being removed at an unprecedented rate. The peace dividend and the future tourist utilisation of sites such as the Maze prison will raise the issue of how such remaining contested sites are narrated and by whom. Pierre Nora stated that “Memory attaches itself to sites, whereas history attaches itself to events” (cited in Dear, M. J. 2000); but how significant is the materiality of the trace as a touchstone for collective and individual memories? In order to attempt to answer these inherently problematic and political questions, my research is critically examining case studies on the role of memory and the changing nature of place meaning in post-conflict societies. The project focuses on how through interventions in their built fabric, nations narrate their histories by re-constructing, conserving, neglecting and destroying their contested built heritage. Before focusing explicitly on conservation policy and practice in Northern Ireland, my research will investigate case studies on the treatment of the heritage of the ‘other’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo. This research will investigate the potential for the utilisation of built heritage as a ‘Ferment of Reconciliation’.
Rosaleen Hickey
PhD Student, Center for the Built Environment Research
I graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2010 with a First Class MA (Hons) degree in Architectural History. Upon returning to Belfast, I furthered my understanding and appreciation of my home city, leading architectural tours within Belfast on behalf of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, Place NI and Belfast City Council. I also devised a tour which ran daily throughout the Cathedral Quarter Festival 2011; ‘Cathedral Quarter: Birthplace of a City’ explored the origins and early development of the city and examined key buildings within the ‘quarter’. Overall, I am motivated by a desire to raise awareness of the importance of our built environment. Throughout my research, I have been fascinated by the intrinsic and instrumental value of the built environment and its potential to transform and enrich.
I began a PhD studentship at QUB in October 2011. My current research intends to assess the role of architecture, urban design and urban planning in healing divided cities. A comparative analysis between Belfast and Nicosia will be conducted in order to establish the role of the three disciplines in dealing with current spatial development and social issues and the extent to which they can contribute to the shaping of the future of these two wounded cities. Following a desire to be practically relevant, I envisage that my study will transcend theory, and produce solid recommendations for built environment professionals when dealing with cities in conflict. Although informed by case studies within Belfast and Nicosia, the recommendations should have a wide applicability, and prove to be of relevance to the growing number of conflicted cities.
Bree Hocking
PhD Student, Institute of Irish Studies
After nearly a decade of academic and professional life in Washington, D.C., where I earned a bachelor's in international politics from Georgetown and worked as a reporter for the Congressional newspaper Roll Call, I am currently a third-year PhD candidate in Irish Studies. My work looks at the organization of public space through art in the post-conflict urban landscapes of Belfast and Derry/Londonderry. It focuses on the ways elites use symbols as embodied in art to inject civic authority and peace process values into a variety of post-conflict public spaces in the process of 'becoming', whilst simultaneously acknowledging that the power relationships which produce the art vary by space and are in a constant state of flux. As such, it draws on a theoretical approach which sees the social and political production of 'landscape' as illustrative of broader struggles over identity and power in urban space (Cosgrove 1998; Atkinson and Cosgrove 1998; Schein 1997). Using the public art process as a prism, my dissertation seeks to attain a more nuanced understanding of the state's relationship to post-conflict (or at least post-Agreement) urban space, and to consider the role of public art in the definition, creation and perception of symbolic landscapes. The research employs ethnographic methods consisting mainly of participant observation, semi-structured and intercept interviews, and archival research to demonstrate how shifts in the symbolic landscape are indicative of broader aspirations to create new civic identities for Belfast and Derry, and provide one means of exploring how the dominant narratives of the post-conflict public sphere are both spatialized and contested.
Christiaan Karelse
Research Assistant, Institute of Spatial & Environmental Planning
My name is Chris Karelse and I have recently been appointed the role of research assistant working on the research project “Planning for Spatial Reconciliation”. In this role I will be collaborating with Frank Gaffikin and Ken Sterrett (principal investigators), and with Aisling (PhD student).
I graduated from the Delft University of Technology, School of Architecture, Urbanism and Building Engineering in spring 2010. As a research-minded architect, my background lies primarily in the field of urban analysis and spatial design. In addition, I have a strong affinity with urban planning and urban policy. Both these disciplines I further elaborated on during my graduation project “Urban Asymmetries”, which is a design studio that aims at the understanding of the processes and conditions that produce uneven - or asymmetrical - development in contemporary urban environments. In particular, I analysed the socio-spatial consequences of the advancement of neoliberal planning policies and practices in the U.S. context.
The research project “Planning for Spatial Reconciliation” takes the transfer of planning powers from central to local government, projected to be completed under the current Conservative/LibDem administration, as a starting point. The main objective will be to investigate how these proposed changes can crystallise into a more comprehensive and inclusive planning model. Within the process of rethinking and reorganising the current planning system the focus will be on addressing the issue of spatial division between the two communities, an issue that still persists in contemporary Northern Ireland society, in a more pro-active and collaborative way, thereby promoting the notion of ‘shared society’ as a central feature of the new planning model.
Agustina Martire
Tutor, School of Planning, Architecture & Civil Engineering
I am a lecturer in Architecture at QUB since September 2010 and I specialise in urban history and theory, and teach these at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
I studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires, where I specialised in history and theory and worked as an assistant in teaching and research. I graduated as an architect in 2001 with a design thesis and a funded research thesis.
After working as an architect on landscape and architecture competitions during 2 years I moved to the Netherlands, where I worked for some months at NOX, as a model maker.
In 2005 I was accepted as a Doctoral candidate at Delft University of Technology, where I carried out research on waterfront cities. I defended my thesis: "Leisure Coast City. A Comparative History of the Urban Leisure Waterfront. Barcelona. Chicago. Buenos Aires. 1870.1930" in May 2008. I then worked on a project with MSc students in Delft for a guidebook of Buenos Aires, and I taught courses on tourism policies at the European University in Barcelona. During 2009 and 2010 I worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the project on the cultural significance of historic urban landscapes based at University College Dublin and funded by the OPW.
My main interest lies in the history and theory of built space, focusing on urban waterfronts and historic urban landscapes. I am now especially interested in the spatial and social impacts of infrastructure in the urban fabric, working on a series of projects involving railway stations and streetscapes in current and historical perspectives.
Alan McCarten
PhD Student, Institute of Spatial & Environmental Planning
Following degrees in Environmental Planning and Spatial Regeneration, I gained employment in the Planning Service of Northern Ireland, before moving to Building Control in Belfast City Council, and studying two years part-time for a qualification related to Construction. In 2010 I entered into a career break with the Council, having received a PhD studentship with the School of Planning Architecture and Civil Engineering. I conducted previous research which sought to evaluate the effectiveness of planning enforcement in Northern Ireland - reflecting a broad interest in planning practice and procedure, which continued throughout my stages of employment. Whilst in the Planning Service, I had the opportunity to attend a number of appeals and public inquiries, and with the Council, opportunities emerged to attend committee meetings concerned with the resolution of licensing disputes and court hearings dealing with liquor licensing matters. In watching the activities of these forums, I developed an interest in the presentation of arguments and the ways in which decisions are made, especially where arguments concerning the wording of policy arose. This inspired me to consider different ways of reaching decisions and in drawing on my previous research, I developed a research proposal to investigate the effective use of mediation in planning enforcement disputes and its impact on achieving compliance with regulations. However, since this proposal, the core focus of my research has evolved through consideration of the literature, and it is now concerned with investigating how the parameters of mediation can fulfil the collaborative ideal in planning. I’m attempting to develop a theoretical framework based on Forester’s Critical Pragmatism, and the case studies chosen for my research are compounded by issues of division. A more explicit focus on ‘contested cities,’ has provided an opportunity to consider how mediation can fit within the new era of governance and planning.
Hugh McNally
Tutor, School of Planning, Architecture & Civil Engineering
I am a director in a small architectural practice based in Belfast. I studied architecture to undergraduate Level at QUB and completed my postgraduate studies at the Mackintosh School of Architecture In Glasgow. In between times I gained some practical experience working in architecture and construction in Los Angeles. I have always been interested in the idea of architecture as a political tool and in the role of architect as advocate. I have been working as an architect in Belfast since 2000 and have tried where possible to engineer positions in practices where I could be involved in regeneration work in urban areas of social deprivation. This led ultimately to two years working for Community Technical Aid (Now Community Places) between 2005-2007. Following this I set up my own practice and have maintained connections with many clients in the voluntary and community sectors. Since 2006 I have also been a part time University Tutor in the undergraduate course in architecture at QUB, teaching in a number of modules including; Principles of Design; Communication and Design; Integrative Design; Professional Skills and Architectural Skills.
After several years of working as an architect for community groups and teaching design, largely in the context of the City of Belfast, I am now trying to develop a deeper understanding of what community means and what role an architect can play in supporting and enhancing the idea of community. To this end I am currently pursuing the taught Masters programme in Irish Studies part-time. I have not yet fully defined my research topic, but broadly speaking it will be concerned with the relationship between community identity and the built environment in Belfast.
Nicole Quinn
PhD Student, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social work
“Identity and work in the context of intra-European migration; the case of international call-centre workers in Belfast”
My project is a mixed-method case study looking at occupational identity and social capital in a context of intra-European migration -namely, international call-centre workers in Belfast. The unit of analysis has been chosen as representative of a particular group of migrants, usually highly-skilled and educated, but working in a low-to-medium skill job. In addition to this, such group represents a new phenomenon for a city such as Belfast, which had not seen a high influx of migrants until recent times due to the former social and political turmoil.
My project looks at these migrants’ social identities (national, educational, occupational), the interplay of these identities in their statuses of migrants and of call-centre employees, and the social capital at work both in the office and everyday life.
In particular, I am looking at these migrants’ networks of social interaction, the ethnic composition of such networks and the places of socialization in the city. I want therefore to examine migrants' understanding of the situation of 'divided space' in Belfast and their related behaviours according to perceptions of safety or risk.
Mary-Kathryn Rallings
PhD Student, Institute of Irish Studies
I completed my undergraduate dissertation on the Re-imaging Communities Initiative and conducted ethnographic research, primarily in West Belfast, under a Global Initiatives grant. After I completed my BA in Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I decided to continue on to postgraduate study and to pursue my MA in the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s. The research for my dissertation highlighted the Royal Irish Regiment homecoming parade in November of 2008 as an example of the complexities associated with contested events in ‘shared’ spaces.
This research interest in shared space in Belfast, and, more broadly, the anthropology of space and place inspired my current doctoral research. My PhD thesis, whilst rooted firmly in my anthropological training in terms of methods, employs literature from various disciplines in order to explore the challenges associated with the production of shared space in Belfast. On the premise that space is socially constructed, I argue that ‘shared space’ is contested not only in practice, but also in meaning and in experience. Thus, planning in urban space, discourse and cultural narrative around that space, and the embodied experiences of that space are all vital elements. Ultimately, my thesis uses ethnographic case studies and good practice examples to illustrate not only the challenges, but also the ways in which shared space is being successfully produced and maintained in Belfast.
Aisling Shannon
PhD Student, Institute of Spatial & Environmental Planning
Having studied and practiced architecture for nine years in England, Scotland and Wales, I have returned home to Belfast in January 2012 to start a PhD studentship as part of the research project, ‘Planning for Spatial Reconciliation’, led by Prof. Frank Gaffikin and Dr. Ken Sterrett. Throughout my architectural training I have been motivated by a building or space’s ability to affect people’s feelings and behaviour. Spaces can be designed to influence how safe one feels, how inclined to interact, how much and in what way one feels ownership. Equally, the design of a space can marginalise, segregate, threaten and reinforce prejudices. My interest in this inspired my M.Arch thesis at Cardiff University in 2010, which focussed on the spatial implications of conflict in Belfast, looking in particular at peace walls and interfaces. This research forms the framework for the proposal with which I have embarked upon my studentship. My theoretical framework draws from semiotic and memory theory, particularly the notion that the past is always embedded in the present, and that of a collective memory sustained by objects and social interaction (Halbwachs, Nora, Huyssen, Assman). I feel that it is essential to acknowledge the relationship between memory and place in order to maximise a space’s capacity to contribute to peace. At this very early stage in my research journey, I do not know in what direction this proposal will ultimately lead me, but I seek to inspire creative responses towards countering the ‘irreversible ratchet effect’ (Boal 1995) of segregation in Belfast.
Ken Sterrett
Lecturer, Institute of Spatial & Environmental Planning
Ken has been a lecturer in the School since 1994. He previously worked in professional practice as a senior planner and was an advisor to the Belfast Action Teams on a number of peace-line projects. Ken is a member of the Wales Spatial Plan Management Board and is also a planning advisor to Down District Council. He is also active in a number of community based regeneration groups in Belfast, including: the Donegall Pass Development Company; South Belfast Regeneration Steering Group and the West Belfast Partnership Board. Currently Ken is an external examiner at Liverpool John Moore’s University.
Ken was previously Head of the School of Environmental Planning before it was amalgamated with the Schools of Architecture and Civil Engineering to form SPACE. He is currently the Director of the MSc programme in Urban and Rural Design.
Ken’s research interests include participatory planning, community planning and the potential of integrated spatial planning. In recent years he has worked with colleagues on a number of major action-research projects including two European funded research projects and an ESRC project all of which explore aspects of the themes outlined above. Ken also has an ongoing interest in urban and rural design and is particularly interested in the social shaping of aesthetic perceptions. He is the Track Co-ordinator and ‘discussion chair’ for the theme: Urban and rural design and the built heritage at the Sustainability, Space and Social Justice conference in March 2008. Ken has co-authored a number of journal articles with colleagues at Queen’s on the theme of participatory planning as well as book chapters on the social shaping of rural design. He is currently preparing articles on community planning and community perceptions of designed environments.
