Negotiating Northern Ireland
CRES 410/510 - Winter 2012
M/W 10:00-11:50
Knight 282
Prof. Shaul Cohen
scohen@uoregon.edu
Condon 107G Tel 6-4500
Office hours Tuesday 1-2 aba
This course will use Northern Ireland as a primary case to focus on social conflict, territorial disputes, and options for moving toward political accommodations. It will operate in a mixed lecture/seminar format, and touch upon a range of issues that reflect the broad impact of zero sum conflicts, including sectarian dynamics in the work place, the family, the educational system, government, popular culture, and "the street." It will explore structural elements that are part of the Catholic-Protestant/Republican-Nationalist-Unionist-Loyalist struggle, as well as the narratives that stem from and contribute to the encompassing dispute. In lecture and discussion we will move among several different scales as we incorporate the experience of the individual, the community, and the nation(s) and attempt to identify strategies that help mitigate or transform the zero sum situation that has characterized much of Northern Ireland for generations.
Requirements:
Regular attendance and participation in discussions is
essential for the success of the course. Reading material should be prepared in
advance of our meetings. You will be graded on a quiz demonstrating familiarity
with Northern Ireland's
parties and players for 10% of the final grade, a "position paper," an in-class
negotiation (as part of a working group) weeks 9 and 10 of the term, and a final
summary. Each of these will be worth 30% of the grade. Please note -
ATTENDANCE AT AN EVENING/NIGHT SESSION WEDNESDAY OF WEEK 10 IS MANDATORY! I am happy to
accommodate students with special-ed needs, please contact me at the beginning
of the term to make the necessary arrangements.
Readings:
Much of our reading material has been collated on the CAIN
website (Conflict Archive on the INternet) which can be found at
cain.ulster.ac.uk , and has an enormous
collection of original and secondary sources relating to the conflict in
Northern Ireland. Additional readings will be posted on Blackboard, and we
will have a bunch of stuff in our Facebook group CRES 410/510 2012 at
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/156447171130763/ .
You must also read the New York Times,
for which you can get a cheap M-F delivery subscription (I will provide you with
ordering info) or you can read it online. For an ongoing discussion
of current events in Northern Ireland, plus commentary on various bits and
pieces, you should browse the Slugger
O'Toole blog regularly.
Week 1
Read John Darby's introduction to the conflict on the CAIN website,
http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/peace/darby03.htm . Darby is a former
director of INCORE, the center for conflict resolution at the University of
Ulster - Magee in Derry/Londonderry.
Week 2
Read Claire Mitchell's 2003 "Protestant Identification and Political Change
in Northern Ireland," Ethnic and Racial Studies 26(4):612-631, and
her 2005 piece "Catholicism and the Construction of Communal Identity in
Northern Ireland" in Irish Journal of Sociology 14(1):110-130.
Week 3
Read
Peter Shirlow's 2003 "Ethno-sectarianism and the Reproduction of Fear in
Belfast" in Capital and Class #80:77-93, Nagle's "Divided
Belfast," and Eureka Street.
Please note, Eureka Street will only be available after Monday of this week.
Week 4
Terms Test on Monday!
Read Fealty et al.'s 2003 A Long Peace: The Future of Unionism in Northern Ireland
(not nearly as long as it looks!), and Graham and Shirlow, "An Elusive Agenda".
Week 5
Read Sheena McGrellis' "Pure and bitter spaces: Gender, identity and
territory in Northern Irish youth transitions," in Gender and Education
17(5), Harland's "Violent Youth Culture in Northern Ireland in Youth &
Society 43(2):414-432, and Gray & Neil's "Creating A Shared Society in
Nothern Ireland: Why We Need to Focus on Gender Equality" in Youth &
Society 43(2):468-487.
Week 6
Graham & Whelan, "The legacies of the dead: Commemorating the Troubles
in Northern Ireland" and Graham & Nash 2006 "A Shared Future: Territoriality, Pluralism, and
Public Policy in Northern Ireland," Political Geography 25:253-278.
Week 7
Read Cohen's "Winning while losing: The Apprentice Boys of
Derry walk their beat" in Political Geography 26(8).
Position/Character studies due on Wednesday!
Week 8
Douglas, "The politics of accommodation, social change, and conflict
resolution in Northern Ireland," Political Geography 17(2): 209-229,
1998.
Week 9
Negotiations
Week 10
Negotiations continue
SPECIAL TIME FOR WEDNESDAY'S CLASS, NOT MEETING IN
THE MORNING, WE BEGIN AT 7:00 PM AND CONTINUE UNTIL....
Finals Week
Our final meeting will be at the scheduled exam time
unless we can come up with something better!