Community Development Journal Advance Access originally published online on June 5, 2007
Community Development Journal 2009 44(1):22-37; doi:10.1093/cdj/bsm013
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Peace, reconciliation and a shared future: a policy shift or more of the same?
Address for correspondence: email: je.hughes{at}ulster.ac.uk
Developments in the late 1990s, including paramilitary cease-fires and the advent (albeit, short-lived) of devolved Government, offered a new dispensation from which to appraise the community relations problem in Northern Ireland and advocate policy action. This paper considers an emergent policy framework entitled A Shared Future. Drawing on the experience of delivering better relations through education in Northern Ireland, it argues that whilst A Shared Future reflects progress in how the problem of community relations is defined, many uncritical assumptions are made about the potential of suggested actions to address problems of intergroup fear, mistrust and hostility.