PROBLEMS

Problems
• The industrial city of Belfast has its character formed
by the history of division caused by the colonization of
Northern Ireland by the English Protestants and the
Scottish Presbyterians.
• Later the colonization of this region and the control of
it by the British was emphasized by the creation of the
border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern
Ireland (which was now part of the United Kingdom)
This was a move to allow the United Kingdom to
continue controlling the region.
• During the industrialization the Scottish who moved
into the region and started the industrialization saw
themselves as the real industrialized Belfast and saw
the Irish Catholics- who had a culture of agriculture
and living of agrarian lifestyle- as “the irish in Belfast”
the space and geography of the city was also affected
by this.
Main manufacturing sectors
• Shipbuilding
• Linen Production
• Engineering
Effect of the Crisis in 1960s
Social exclusion of Belfast
• Industrial spaces such as the train line tracks as well as the industrial and
commercial spaces played a role in the division of communities and the
roles the communities played in the industry of the city also added to how
the industrial and deindustrialized spaces shaped the city
• The conflict between these two communities also means that businesses
would look for ways to ensure safety in the city by avoiding accessibility
from certain points and allowing it from only certain points
• “social groups attempt to overcome their sense of insecurity by fortressing
behind physical boundaries that become part of their identities”
• And in turn “myths about the ‘other side’ prosper and provoke fear that
hinders the possibility of engagement
Population decline - Suburbanisation
The loss of employment and increasing problems
associated with living in a divided city, were mirrored
by a sharp decline in Belfast’s population. The
population reached its peak with 444,000
inhabitants in the late 1940s and has declined
continually since.

A large part of the population decline in the city can

be attributed to suburbanisation. The extent of
suburbanization is exceptional, even among our
research cities which shared this problem. Many
households relocated to the suburbs to escape the
divisions, insecurity and decline of the city.
Between 1951 and 1991 the City of Belfast lost
about 205,000 inhabitants, while the adjacent
suburban counties grew by about 237,000.
POTENTIALS ( METHODS )
“Land use planning has been an arduous task in Northern
Ireland over the past decades. Not only has the legitimacy of
any state intervention been questioned by a large proportion of
the Nationalist community, but the ‘Troubles’ have created a
society polarised along sectarian lines that has resulted in
specific planning related issues of social and economic
deprivation, distorted land markets, blighted space and the
duplication of many urban services.” (Boal, 1999)
Urban parks as actors of Division
• Other devices are used to divide
the city. Such as public spaces,
urban parks
• The government tried to allow
cross community interaction
through creating urban parks
between communities but the
majority of the people using the
parks see them as physical barriers
or buffer zones between
communities. Increasing the
separation between the two sides.
• “Parks are […] urban devices that
tend to decode and shape Showing relation between communities
sophisticated expressions of
identity and power relationships in and park
the city and to negotiate spatial
relationships between the
oppressor and the
oppressed”(Awan. 2008)
Dealing with
social exclusion
The figure shows the most segregated
areas in West and North Belfast
(Graham and Nash, 2006, p 267). Here,
so-called ‘Peace Lines’ form a physical
divide between Protestant and Catholic
neighbourhoods. Since the outbreak of
the violence, 17 miles of ‘Peace Lines’
have been erected (Murtagh, 2002, p
46). These security divides are usually
closed during the night and on
weekends to provide protection to
communities from possible hostilities.
Public sector investment for regeneration
Public sector investment for regeneration
The objective of Langanside was to bring social, physical and economic regeneration to the land on both sides of the river,
most of which was under public ownership, although the Laganside Corporation itself did not usually become the landowner.
The corporation had two main tasks: to tackle the environmental problems of the river and used sites and to create
residential, civic and commercial properties along the riverbank.

The Peace Process – a Catalyst for Change

Neighbourhood Renewal and Community
Cohesion
Social cohesion and community integration
Revitalisation was based on the notion of creating a ‘neutral space’. The success of this strategy was then taken further with the idea of
‘shared spaces’ (P. Elliott, interview).
Reaction through policy
• “Shareness: antithesis of socio-political
and ethnic division in the practice of
everyday.”
• “majority of planning measures in Belfast
tend to either promote desegregation
and the removal of existing physical
boundaries or manage the provision of
services across the separation lines in an
attempt to confront inequality as a
primary means of eliminating violence
conflict. The magic word “integrated”
domandinated much of the discourse and
occupied a prominent place in all political
initiatives and planning policies in the
city.”
DEVELOPMENT (EFFECT OF URBAN POLICIES)