Searching for a Future for Lough Neagh: Natural Resource Management and Peace Making in Northern Ireland.
Date
2017-09-06
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University of Oregon
Abstract
The increasing recognition of the myriad ways that peace may be enacted, contested and manipulated in different places has highlighted the complexity of peace. Peace making is now understood as a process rather than an event, made and unmade in the material and non-material socio-spatial relationships that people find themselves in.
In this research I employ a qualitative case study methodology to describe how peace is made and unmade on Lough Neagh, the United Kingdom’s largest freshwater lake and the main source of Northern Ireland’s domestic water supply. I examine the everyday social relations of the users of this lake and the meanings, both material and non-material, that people have about this large water body. I ask how these local everyday practices and opinions intersect with broader politics within NI. I add to the growing body of literature within geography that recognizes that peace is made in many different ways, at different scales and in different places.
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Keywords
Natural resource management, Northern Ireland, Peacemaking, Political geography