Policy and conflict transformation in the ethnocratic city

Belfast has changed remarkably in the past decade. It has gradually abandoned its ethnocratic character, where economic and political control, the allocation of resources and culture were used to assert the hegemony of the old Unionist order. However, growth in the macroeconomy, housing market and central business district mask deeper problems of sectarianism, poverty and community fatalism. These problems are correlated and concentrated, increasingly in inner- and outer-city public housing estates. This paper locates urban policy in attempts to reconstruct the politics of the region and the attempts of the peace process to undermine its ethnocratic rationale. It argues that this project has been selective and that there is a lack of a serious policy commitment to address the injustices of segregation and socio-spatial exclusion. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for integrated policy commitment to the management of segregation and diversity, if Belfast even hopes to reposition itself as a progressive European city.