In Pursuit of Civic Participation: The Early Experiences of the Northern Ireland Civic Forum, 2000–2002

Northern Ireland's Civic Forum is a key civic participation mechanism agreed as part of the Belfast Agreement and established under the Northern Ireland Act 1998. It brings together representatives from various sectors to act as a 'consultative forum' on 'social, economic, and cultural issues'. This article argues that 'civic society' has to be understood as a 'transactional reality' in the Foucauldian sense, such that the task of the Civic Forum – to allow the participation of 'civic society'– entails the continual construction of its own boundaries and remit. These are contested, not only outside the forum where political considerations have made it somewhat controversial, but also within. It is argued here that this is necessarily so, given the need for the forum to carve out a position between its constitutive outsides. Of particular concern has been the meaning of 'consultative', as competing understandings of this key term position the forum differently with respect both to the legislative Northern Ireland Assembly and to Northern Irish society as a whole. Additionally, the ethical imperative to give voice to wider society is examined, as it influences the way members of the forum articulate their role. Finally, I discuss the forum's sense of its unique identity – as given by its opportunity to enact an inclusive and diverse political space. The argument draws throughout on a qualitative sociological study that employed observation of the forum's plenary sessions over an eighteen-month period (2000–2002) and semi-structured interviews with selected members.     

Building civic infrastructure: implementing community partnership grant programmes in South Africa

This article examines recent efforts to establish Community Partnership Grant Programmes (CPG) in six South African communities. CPG programmes provide the financial and organizational infrastructure to support citizen‐initiated neighbourhood projects. We review our efforts to disseminate the CPG programme model in three different environments in South Africa—a large metropolitan area, three smaller municipalities and two tribal villages—and analyse why preliminary implementation results were positive in some communities but not others. Our findings form the basis of a model of CPG programme implementation based on the mode of implementation and the breadth of stakeholder involvement. We use this model to make recommendations to increase the likelihood of implementation success for similar programmes. The article concludes with observations about the applicability of the CPG programme idea as a way to develop civic infrastructure, and on the political lessons learned from our implementation experience in South Africa. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

B. Reviews and notes: Bibliographies and works of reference

A GREEK AND ARABIC LEXICON: MATERIALS FOR A DICTIONARY OF THE MEDIÆVAL TRANSLATIONS FROM GREEK INTO ARABIC. Edited by GERHARD ENDRESS and DIMITRI GUTAS. Fascicle 1. (Handbook of Oriental Studies, the Near and Middle East, XI. Band.) Leiden, Brill, 1992. 30*. 96pp. Hfl.40.‐

THE ROLE OF THE BOOK IN THE CIVILISATIONS OF THE NEAR EAST: PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE HELD AT THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY AND THE CHESTER BEATTY LIBRARY, DUBLIN, 29 JUNE – 1 JULY 1988 = MANUSCRIPTS OF THE MIDDLE EAST 5 (1990–1991). Leiden, Ter Lugt Press, c1993. 136pp. Hfl 210.‐

BROCADE OF THE PEN: THE ART OF ISLAMIC WRITING. Edited by CAROL GARRETT FISHER. East Lansing, Michigan State University, 1991. 100pp. B&W illustrations and Arabic calligraphy.

AFGHANISTAN. Compiled by SCHUYLER JONES. (World Bibliographical Series, 135.) Oxford, Santa Barbara & Denver, Clio Press, 1992. xxvi+281pp.     

C. Reviews and notes bibliographies and works of reference

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAMIC LIBRARY COLLECTIONS IN WESTERN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA. By STEPHAN ROMAN (Libraries and Librarianship in the Muslim World.) London, Mansell, 1990. xii, 259 pp. £40.

OPIS NA DOKUMENTITE NA ARABSKI EZIK, ZAPAZENI V ORIENTALSKIYA OTDEL NA NARODNATA BIBLIOTEKA ‘KIRIL I METODII’ V SOFIYA, XIII‐XX V. = INVENTORY OF THE DOCUMENTS IN ARABIC LANGUAGE KEPT IN THE ORIENTAL DEPARTMENT OF THE ‘CYRIL AND METHODIUS’ NATIONAL LIBRARY IN SOFIA, XIII‐XX C. Compiled by STOYANKA KENDEROVA. Sofia, Narodna Biblioteka ‘Kiril i Metodii’, 1984. 387 + 14pp.

KASHSHAF AL‐DAWRIYYAT AL‐'ARABIYYA, 1876–1984: DALIL BIBLIYUGHRAFI LI‐L‐MAQALAT WA‐AL‐DIRASAT AL‐BAHITHA FI TARIKH AL‐'ARAB WA‐TURATHIHIM AL‐FIKRI WA‐AL‐HADARI AL‐MANSHURA FI AHAMM AL‐DAWRIYYAT AL‐'ARABIYYA = INDEX ARABICUS, 1876–1984: A CLASSIFIED INDEX OF ARTICLES RELATIVE TO ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES PUBLISHED IN ARABIC SCHOLARLY PERIODICALS. Compiled by ‘ABD AL‐JABBAR ‘ABD AL‐RAHMAN (ABDUL JABBAR ABDULRAHMAN). Baghdad, Markaz al‐Tawthiq al‐I'lami li‐Duwal ai‐ Khalij al‐'Arabi, 1989. 4 vols. US$200.‐

BRITAIN IN THE MIDDLE EAST 1921–1956: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. By VINCENT PONKO. (Themes in European Expansion, 9; Garland Reference Library of Social Science, 357.) New York, Garland, 1990. 513pp. US$57.00

TURKISH LINGUISTICS TODAY. Edited by HENDRIK BOESCHOTEN and LUDO VERHOEVEN. Leiden, Brill, 1991. vii, 193pp. Hfl.95.‐

HANDBUCH DER TÜRKISCHEN SPRACHWISSENSCHAFT. TEIL I. Herausgegeben von GYORGY HAZAI. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1990. 493pp. DM188.‐     

Hate Thy Neighbor: Lessons for Neighborhood Integration for the Post‐Obama Era and Beyond

This essay explores contemporary racial harassment, hate crimes, and violence targeted at African Americans and other racial minorities who have moved to white neighborhoods in the 1990s and 2000s, as described in my book Hate Thy Neighbor: Move In Violence and the Persistence of Segregation in American Housing. The essay details the experiences of blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans who face race‐based hate crimes upon integrating white neighborhoods. This violence is not limited to a specific geographic area of the United States, and is an important factor in continuing patterns of racial segregation. Social segregation and the failure of existing law to address this violence are important factors in its survival. Analyzing the roots and causes of such violence, the essay calls for greater attention to the enforcement of legal remedies designed to address neighborhood hate crime.     

The sexual objectification of girls and aggression towards them in gang and non-gang affiliated youth

Sexual objectification is related to various negative attitudes and outcomes, including rape proclivity and reduced moral concern for the objectified, which suggests that objectification has implications for aggression. Our study examined the relationship between objectification and general aggressive behaviour in adolescents, including gang-affiliated youth. We hypothesized that (1) objectification would correlate with aggression towards girls, (2) gang affiliation would correlate with objectification and aggression towards girls, and (3) objectification and gang affiliation would interact such that strongly affiliated participants who objectified girls would be most aggressive towards them. We also hypothesized that sexual objectification would be a significant predictor of aggression above and beyond other factors, such as trait aggression. As predicted, objectification correlated with aggression towards girls and with gang affiliation, which also correlated with aggression. In addition, objectification predicted aggression towards girls, after controlling for other relevant factors. Further, we found an objectification?×?gang affiliation interaction, which differed from our original predictions. Among participants low in gang affiliation, objectification of girls predicted levels of aggression towards them. Among those high in gang affiliation, however, objectification did not predict aggression. We discussed the implications of our findings for general aggression.