Ireland, Northern Ireland Conflict, Community Conflict,
The chapter explores the experience of community development as a contested site operating in a conflict zone, using the experiences in the North of Ireland as an example. It starts by describing how both the theoretical conceptualisation and the practical application of community development can be contested sites. It further describes how its linkage to ideas about power, who should have access to it and how much, can itself lead to conflict. The struggle for empowerment and the right to participate has the potential to challenge Gramscian ‘common sense' notions of society, power relations and the status quo.