Titled ‘Throw a Stone, You Hit One of Your Own’: A Qualitative Exploration of Cohesion in an Inner-City Belfast Community, which was published in the Journal of Applied and Social Community Psychology. This paper presents early cross-sectional findings from Year 1 of the study, offering a baseline understanding of the community ecology.

Based on interviews with 22 adult residents, this first wave of data sheds light on how people in the Market navigate persistent socio-economic challenges, increasing substance use, and the long-standing effects of inequality and conflict. Despite these difficulties, the study uncovers a striking strength: the deep-rooted cohesion and resilience that holds the community together.

As Dr. Emma Loudon, project lead, explains:

“What we see in the Market is a community that, while facing real and enduring challenges, draws strength from its bonds. Social cohesion—connections to family, friends, and neighbours—is not just a feature of life here, it is considered by many to be the best thing about living in the area.”

The paper identifies three core themes that emerged from the data:

1. Challenges to Collective Well-Being – including issues such as intergenerational trauma, stigma, and institutional neglect.
2. Coping with Collective Adversity – highlighting everyday acts of care, informal support networks, and local knowledge as tools of survival.
3. Negotiating Boundaries – addressing the tensions between insiders and outsiders, and between maintaining tradition and adapting to change.

These themes point to a form of community resilience that is not individualistic but collective, rooted in the Market’s dense kinship ties and place-based identity. The interconnectedness of people, homes, and histories builds a powerful buffer against adversity.

As part of Queen’s Communities and Place (QCAP) involvement data has been gathered at two further time points, following the lives of residents over three years. Dr Loudon added, “With data now collected for all three time points we are able to begin the longitudinal analysis and explore how life is changing in the Market—what trajectories are unfolding, what transitions are being navigated, and crucially, how community-led partnerships like QCAP might be making a difference.”

Professor Kathryn Higgins, director of QCAP stated “This project is a central mechanism of QCAP’s work in the Market community. Aside from contributing to academic knowledge Growing up in the Market has provided evidence and insight which has been fed directly and rapidly back into community engaged research. This paper highlights the strength and solidarity that persist in the face of adversity, and reinforces why QCAP’s model—working alongside communities to understand and support their own priorities—is so important. The Market community is not just the focus of our research; they are our partners in shaping change.”

You can read the full paper at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.70102