Towards a Problematisation of the Problematisations that Reduce Northern Ireland to a ‘Problem’

Abstract

This essay highlights but then refuses a dominant urge within extant applications of political philosophy to the Troubles: the urge to prescribe ‘solutions’ to ‘the Northern Irish problem’. The argument presented here is that this urge can be seen as constitutive of the very problem presumably most analysts seek to overcome. The aim, therefore, is to explore alternative approaches to representations of conflict drawing on aspects of the work of William Connolly, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. Ultimately, I hope to demonstrate how a deconstructive approach might open up new possibilities for critical intervention into ‘the Troubles’ in a way that avoids merely reproducing the main fissures of conflict.

Key Words:

• Northern Ireland
• deconstruction
• problems
• solutions
• interventions

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Institute of Governance at Queen’s University Belfast for hosting the workshop; John Barry, Marysia Zalewski, Cian O’Driscoll and the Editor of CRISPP for valuable comments on earlier versions of the essay; and David and Dorothy McMillan for their hospitality in Belfast.

Notes

1. I have written elsewhere on the limitations of approaches based on Habermasian discourse ethics; see Vaughan‐Williams (2005)

2. Readers seeking a definition and/or sustained engagement with ‘the liberal paradigm’ in Northern Irish politics are best pointed in the direction of Little (2004).