The Belfast Mobility Project: Intergroup contact, segregation and the time-geography of sectarian relations in Belfast

本研究以贝尔法斯特的教派关系为个案，发展了一种新的研究群体间隔离的方法。在这样做的过程中，它提出了一个理论和方法框架，可以适用于其他历史上分裂的城市。以前的研究集中在全球居住、就业或教育机构中根深蒂固的（相对）稳定的分工模式。我们认为，如果研究将隔离视为个人在城市中旅行、使用城市的道路、设施和活动空间以及与某些人接触而避开其他人的日常活动的动态结果，则可以丰富这方面的工作。我们的项目需要密切相关的理论，方法和经验创新的工作。从理论上讲，我们将把群体间接触的心理学研究与日常行为的时间地理学研究结合起来。也就是说，我们将展示时间-地理概念（例如“时空路径”）如何解释隔离是如何通过个人的运动和活动的日复一日的时间和间隔，并通过暗示，通过时间和空间的“限制”，他们受到复制。相应地，我们将展示这些运动和活动如何表达心理过程。我们将特别关注不同形式的感知群体间威胁（例如象征性，现实和环境威胁）的作用，探索这些威胁如何与其他社会和心理因素相互作用，以维持或破坏分离的“行为生态”。在方法上，我们的研究将利用新技术来跟踪和分析个人在城市地区的活动。通过实施GPS技术，地理信息系统（GIS），访谈和标准的问卷调查技术的新组合，我们将展示如何隔离可能会出现通过日常行为的时间和间隔，以及这个过程是如何形成的社会和心理因素。从经验上讲，我们的项目将需要收集关于北贝尔法斯特教派分歧的新类型数据。最初，我们将使用“步行采访”和GIS方法相结合，以绘制天主教和新教居民如何使用和理解日常活动空间，探索他们对这些空间和途径的理解是如何在领土上组织的。然后，我们将进行一项问卷调查，有代表性的样本的人生活在北贝尔法斯特（n = 500），旨在挖掘他们的看法群体间的威胁沿着与一系列其他社会心理变量。最后，使用GPS跟踪和GIS方法相结合，我们将跟踪移动模式和活动空间的使用随着时间的推移，相同的受访者谁完成了问卷调查阶段。我们的分析将探讨居民在多大程度上使用位于不同教派组成的地区的活动空间，并通过沿着时空路径，增加或减少他们接触到其他社区。它还将探讨社会，心理和环境因素如何预测隔离和融合的结果。我们的研究将有助于开发一种新的方法来研究，证明和解释隔离，这可以转移到其他环境中的隔离问题出现。它还将为干预措施提供信息，以打击贝尔法斯特的宗派两极分化，而此时政府正大力投资于这一理想。例如，有关城市流动模式的证据可能会丰富人们对居民日常流动和路径、公共设施的可达性和公共交通的使用所受到的真实的或想象的限制的性质的了解。同样重要的是，它可以揭示正在出现的融合空间，并有助于确定正在打破接触界限的人、社会习俗和环境因素的种类。

This research develops a new approach to segregation between groups, taking sectarian relations in Belfast as a case study. In so doing, it proposes a theoretical and methodological framework that can be applied to other historically divided cities. Previous research has focused on (relatively) stable patterns of division entrenched within global institutions of residence, employment or education. We hold that such work may be enriched by research that treats segregation as the dynamic outcome of individuals' routine movements as they travel the city, using its pathways, amenities and activity spaces and coming into contact with certain kinds of people, while avoiding others. Our project entails closely related work of theoretical, methodological and empirical innovation. Theoretically, we will integrate work on the psychology of intergroup contact with work on the time-geography of everyday behaviour. That is, we will show how time-geographic concepts (e.g. 'space-time path') can explain how segregation is reproduced through the day-by-day timing and spacing of individuals' movements and activities and, by implication, through the temporal and spatial 'constraints' to which they are subject. Correspondingly, we will show how such movements and activities express psychological processes. We will focus specifically on the role of different forms of perceived intergroup threat (e.g. symbolic, realistic and environmental threat), exploring how such threats interact with other social and psychological factors in order to sustain or undermine a 'behavioural ecology' of separation. Methodologically, our research will capitalize on new techniques for tracking and analyzing individuals' movements through urban areas. By implementing a novel combination of GPS technology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), interviews, and standard questionnaire techniques, we will show how segregation may arise through the timing and spacing of everyday behaviour and how this process is shaped by social and psychological factors. Empirically, our project will entail the collection of new kinds of data on sectarian divisions in North Belfast. Initially, we will use a combination of 'walking interview' and GIS methods to map how Catholic and Protestant residents use and make sense of everyday activity spaces, exploring how their understanding of those spaces and pathways are territorially organised. Then, we will conduct a questionnaire survey with a representative sample of people living in North Belfast (n = 500), designed to tap their perceptions of intergroup threat along with a range of other social psychological variables. Finally, using a combination of GPS tracking and GIS methods, we will track the mobility patterns and activity space use over time of the same respondents who completed the questionnaire phase. Our analysis will explore the degree to which residents use activity spaces located in areas of varying sectarian compositions and pass along time-space pathways that increase or reduce their exposure to other communities. It will also explore how social, psychological and environmental factors predict resulting practices of segregation and integration.Our research will help to develop a new approach to studying, evidencing and explaining segregation, which can be transferred to other contexts in which the problem of segregation arises. It will also inform interventions to combat sectarian polarization in Belfast at a time when the government is investing heavily in this ideal. Evidence on mobility patterns in the city, for instance, may enrich knowledge about the nature of the real or imagined constraints placed on residents' routine movements and pathways, the accessibility of public facilities, and the use of public transport. As important, it may reveal emerging spaces of integration and help to identify the kinds of people, social practices and environmental factors that are breaking down boundaries to contact.