Life in a Northern Town

Abstract

The previous chapters have examined segregation at the micro-spatial scale. This chapter looks at how issues of segregation are treated at the macro-spatial level by examining the nature of change in Derry/Londonderry. It examines how the issue of ethnicity was integrated into the attempt to define a broad-ranging vision for the city that promoted inclusivity and sharing as its underlying principles. In the 1980s, City Visioning and place marketing were vital elements in the strategies of post-industrial cities aiming to redefine their role, make them more competitive and help them to attract global investors and tourists. By the early 1990s, the questionable effects of trickle-down economics on deprived housing estates and the rediscovery of the ‘community’ as a social partner, shifted both the substance and process of vision exercises. This chapter examines the experience of building an input into a City Vision that aimed to address social and ethno-religious segregation in Derry/Londonderry. Designing a consensus statement for a city that cannot agree its name, was wrecked by bloody violence and has its hinterland fractured by a contested international border is a difficult and delicate process. The city had a population of 71,000 people in 1991 but is divided by the river Foyle between the mainly Catholic Cityside (to the North and West) and the mainly Protestant Waterside (to the South and East).