We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Maternal situations: sectarianism and civility in a divided city.
- Authors
Smyth, Lisa; McKnight, Martina
- Abstract
This paper explores the tensions between civility and sectarianism in contemporary Belfast. Drawing on interviews with mothers engaged in raising young children in the largely working-class and divided inner city, the paper offers a situated account of the dynamics of social reproduction and change. This is pursued through an analysis of the interplay between expectations of civility and sectarianism in three situations: walking, shopping and playing. The tensions and dilemmas of maternal action as the divided inner city is navigated indicate the gendered character of civility, an important emerging norm facilitating social change in the post-conflict era. The situation of motherhood itself, both at the centre of ethno-national reproduction and at the interface of public and private life, is not insignificant in routinely drawing mothers into the everyday dynamics of post-conflict continuity and change.
- Subjects
BELFAST (Northern Ireland); MOTHERHOOD &; society; SECTARIANISM; ATTITUDE (Psychology); COURTESY; GENDER; SOCIAL interaction; CITIES &; towns; WALKING -- Social aspects; SHOPPING &; society; ANXIETY -- Social aspects; SOCIAL history
- Publication
Sociological Review, 2013, Vol 61, Issue 2, p304
- ISSN
0038-0261
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1467-954X.12019