If you are not one of them you feel out of place: understanding divisions in a Northern Irish town

ABSTRACT

This paper examines and reflects on the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices as a method to understand and analyse young people’s everyday movement in Northern Ireland, a divided society emerging from conflict. The paper also seeks to contribute to the extensive body of literature which already exists on young people’s geographies and movements within the Northern Ireland context. We highlight how the use of GPS together with more traditional methods gives us considerable insights of movements of young people in Northern Ireland and sheds light on the communal divisions in one town in Northern Ireland, Coleraine. We argue that the use of a GPS methodology significantly adds to the understanding of young people’s movements and geographies, particularly in a post-conflict context where notions of place and territory have particular significance.

KEYWORDS:

• GPS
• Northern Ireland
• division
• young people
• conflict

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the teachers and participants of this study and Dr Julie Campbell who worked closely with the schools in the use of the GPS tracking devices. The authors are also thankful for the helpful comments of the two anonymous referees. Maps based upon Land & Property Services Intellectual Property ^© Crown Copyright (2016).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Stephen Roulston http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6043-7261

Sally Cook http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8287-4523

Paul McKenzie http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2117-8724

Additional information

Funding

The authors also thank Causeway Coast and Glens Council for funding the purchase of some of the GPS devices through the Good Relations Challenge Programme.