The project consists of developing two year partnerships with five
organisations in the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to
facilitate and document how very different organisations explicitly
addresses the impact of operating in a deeply divided society at a
management level and in the delivery of services or goods.
The background to this is growing evidence over the last number of years
in Northern Ireland that there is a limit to what vulnerable community
groups, children, committed individuals and politicians (traditional
actors in building a more peaceful and just society) can do to change
old patterns of relationships. There needs to be the strategic and
targeted involvement of public, private and voluntary sector
organisations. The problem is that in the main most organisations in
these sectors have, at best, limited themselves to rhetoric and funding,
and at worst, declared that communal divisions are not their
responsibility. Those who have addressed these issues both internally
and in their relationships with the wider community have tended to keep
their practice quiet due to professional jealousy and fear of
extremists. The aim of the project is therefore to work with a number of
committed organisations in exploring how to move from avoidance to
openly addressing this very difficult area. At the end of the project
there will be five examples about how organisations are beginning to
pro-actively deal with their wider socio-political environment and the
obstalcles and challenges which this entails.
I would be interested in communicating with anyone who has an interest
or experience about the changes and learnings required for organisations
to explicitly invest both as a manager and as a corporate citizen in a
politically contested community towards a more stable and just society.
I would be interested in indicators of change and the benefits at a
management level and in the delivery of services or goods. I am also
interested in whether there is any evidence that the strategic and
targeted involvement of main stream organisations in building peace has
any positive benefits.
Karin Eyben
School of Social & Community Sciences
University of Ulster
Coleraine BT52 1SA
Northern Ireland
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