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The social consequences of broken urban structures: a case study of Belfast

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  • Sterrett, Ken
  • Hackett, Mark
  • Hill, Declan

Abstract

This article explores how the design and layout of the urban environment can have significant social impacts on working class communities whose access to employment and other necessary services depends largely on public transport and safe walk-able streets. It does so by considering a case study of Belfast. Although Belfast has a distinctive recent history as the site of political violence and territorial division, it also has a spatial configuration that emerged out of a modernising roads and redevelopment programme in the 1960s and 1970s. However, an understanding of contemporary Belfast, particularly its urban structure and form, requires an analysis of how the social impacts of such ubiquitous regional and urban planning practices were not addressed. The article argues that a culture of ‘politically safe’ bureaucratic inaction developed during the ‘war years’ has been sustained in the ‘new democracy’. In turn, this has had significant consequences for the functioning of the city. Major areas of derelict land around the city core together with the impediments created by regional road infrastructure have combined to create a doughnut city that, on the one hand, facilitates a commuting middle class, while on the other, discriminates against the poorest inner city communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sterrett, Ken & Hackett, Mark & Hill, Declan, 2012. "The social consequences of broken urban structures: a case study of Belfast," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 49-61.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:21:y:2012:i:c:p:49-61
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2012.01.014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mike Morrissey & Frank Gaffikin, 2006. "Planning for Peace in Contested Space," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 873-893, December.
    2. Brendan Murtagh, 2011. "Desegregation and Place Restructuring in the New Belfast," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(6), pages 1119-1135, May.
    3. Ralf Brand, 2009. "Written and Unwritten Building Conventions in a Contested City: The Case of Belfast," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(12), pages 2669-2689, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ran Goldblatt & Itzhak Omer, 2015. "The Relationship between Spatial Configuration and Arab Minority Residential Patterns in Israeli Mixed Cities," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 106(3), pages 321-338, July.

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