Robert MillerSchool of Sociology, Social Policy & Social Work

Queens University, Belfastr.miller@qub.ac.uk

ARK is a Joint Project betweenThe Queen’s University of Belfast

and the University of UlsterSupported by ESRC Large Grants

Programme

Rough Guide to ARK

A joint initiative of staff at Queens University, Belfast & University of Ulster

Mission: To make material on the social and political life of Northern Ireland available to the widest possible audience

Provides Access, Research, Knowledge

History

Established in 2000Brought together 2 independent

resources:Northern Ireland Life and Times

Survey (NILT)Conflict Archive on the INternet

(CAIN)

SurveysNorthern Ireland Life & Times Survey of adults

[NILT]Young Life & Times Survey of 16 year-olds [YLT]A new development - Kids Life & Times Survey

of 11 year-olds [KLT]Facilitates uptake of Northern Ireland

Household Panel SurveySurveys Online (SOL) gives access to

information from other major non-government surveys

International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)

Online Research Bank (ORB)Online searchable Bibliography of social

policy researchAbstracts & links to research reportsSearch by:

Subject GroupYearAuthor(s) SurnameTitle of Document or Keywords

Elections

Online election results since 1973 (and before)

Definitive source for European, Westminster, Assembly, Referenda, local government by area

Prediction contests

ARK Research Centre

Technical and statistical support; including ‘high end’ and ‘low end’ training

Large scale projects involving all aspects of the research process

Small projects needing minimal research support and advice

Secondary analysis

Other outreach & dissemination activities

Seminar series, including a new critical social policy series

Lay-friendly Research Updates, occasional papers & fact sheets

‘ARK in schools’ educational support material

ARK Social Policy UnitNew development sparked by post-conflict

‘civil society culture’Limited to Northern Ireland, but with British

Isles comparative slantQuantitative and Qualitative research ‘State of the province’ publication in

collaboration with government research bodiesIndependent policy briefing documentsPlanning a regular series of policy

seminars/debates

CAIN – Conflict Archive on the INternetBegin in 1996

The definitive source for information and material on ‘the Troubles’ since 1968

Very eclectic mix of material: chronologies; victims’ database; info on key issues & events; abstracts of organisations and ‘players’; political biographies; visual material; full text of documents; bibliography of the conflict; etc. etc.

For example . . .

Hume, John (Nobel Laureate) (b. 18 January 1937)Politician; Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) 1979-2001; SDLP MP 1983-present; SDLP MEP 1979-present

Born in Derry and educated at St Columb's College, Derry, and St Patrick's College, Maynooth, from which he graduated with a BA. honours degree before beginning work as a teacher. Before he became involved in active politics at the end of the 1960s, Hume's profile in his native city of Derry had been raised by his participation in a number of community initiatives. For instance he had involved himself in the local Credit Union movement and had been one of the most prominent figures in the unsuccessful campaign aimed at ensuring the city became the site of Northern Ireland's second university. Frustrated and increasingly disillusioned with the apparent unwillingness of the Unionist government at Stormont to adequately address the growing calls from the minority community in Northern Ireland for a thorough programme of economic, political and social reform, Hume chose to participate in the civil rights campaign. Following violence at a civil rights march in Derry on 5 October 1968 he was elected on to the Derry Citizens' Action Committee as Vice-Chairman and attempted to try to ensure that future protests remained peaceful. This role allowed him to challenge and win a parliamentary seat, representing the Foyle constituency in the city (1969-72) in theStormont election of February 1969.

Conflict Archive on the Internet

An online catalogue of material (interview transcripts, audio &

video, photos etc.) of relevance to qualitative researchers

Two types1. Academic material generated by social

science researchers2. ‘Lay’ material:

o Large-scale ‘institutional’ archive material (e.g., BBC & UTV, Linenhall Library)

o Material ‘accumulated’ by private individuals

Developments in recent years have transformed the political situation from its previous stalemate of non-democratic Direct Rule from London and ‘an acceptable level of violence’ to a hopeful situation of developing civil society institutions and the coming to adulthood of a generation that has no direct memory of the worst violence of ‘the Troubles’. Laudable as these development are, they do mean that there is a real danger that the experiences of the decades of violence will be lost from memory. Sectarian divisions and tensions still lurk beneath the surface in Northern Ireland and it would unfortunate to lose the hard-gained wisdom of the recent past. The N.I. Qualitative Archive is a catalogue of secondary sources and potential sources of material for qualitative analysis of the N.I. Conflict.

In keeping with the philosophy of the ARK Project, the completed catalogue is unrestrictedly available to the public at no charge through ARK and takes the form of an online searchable database.

Context

3

Accessing the NI Conflict Archive

As part of ARK, the Northern Ireland Conflict Archive can be accessed by going to the ARK website – www.ark.ac.uk and selecting NIQA from the ‘Explore ARK’ menu. Alternatively, the Conflict Archive can be entered directly by going to www.ark.ac.uk/qual/conflict. Both routes link to the searchable database.

A example of the search web page is given below. The database provides for searches on four criteria: author/investigator; words in the title or abstract; a set of topic categories; year of research.

Searching the database

A list of all holdings in the database that match the search criteria will be given. Here, the search has produced five entries.

Search results

Below is a listing of record references that match your query. You can view a detailed overview of each of the listings by clicking on the title where it appears highlighted in blue or by clicking on the icon at the end of the row.

You searched for: Subject is 'Identity' and Investigators Surname is like 'Mitchell' and Abstract/Title contains Protestant and Year of coverage is 2000

5 Results

Title: Discourses of Equality in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland(45)

Principal Investigators: Claire Mitchell, Queen's University Belfast, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

Coverage Years: 1998-2000

Title: Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland(24)

Principal Investigators: Claire Mitchell, Queen's University Belfast, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

Coverage Years: 2000-1

Title: Behind the Ethnic Marker: Religion and Social Identification in Northern Ireland(42)

Principal Investigators: Claire Mitchell, Queen's University Belfast, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

Coverage Years: 2000-1

Title: Protestant Identification and Political Change in Northern Ireland(43)

Principal Investigators: Claire Mitchell, Queen's University Belfast, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

Coverage Years: 2000

Title: From victims to equals? Catholic responses to political change in Northern Ireland(44)

Principal Investigators: Claire Mitchell, Queen's University Belfast, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

Coverage Years: 2000

Clicking either on the Title or the ‘More’ box will bring up the full entry.(The Description field has been abbreviated to allow it to be shown on a single page).

A full entry in the database

Title: Discourses of Equality in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland

Principal Investigator(s): Claire Mitchell, Queen's University Belfast, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

Description: This study sought to examine the process of political change in Northern Ireland through an analysis of discourse in relation to the specific issue of the “equality” agenda since the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement of 1998. The study explored how the notion of equality was interpreted by people from a range of backgrounds, but specifically how the two communities differed in their understanding of equality and how this had been affected by developments proceeding from the 1998 Agreement. As well as analysing texts relating to the main political parties and how they presented the notion of equality in relation to the 1998 Agreement to their respective followers, the study also involved in-depth interviews with 32 individuals undertaken in 2000. The interviews were structured so as to allow access to and exploration of a personal, political and religious identities, this to see how these factors related to competing conceptions of equality. The process was therefore episodic, a mixture of narrative and semi-structured forms of interviewing in which participants . . . . range of backgrounds, differing in terms of age, gender and practice of faith as well as their communal identification. Initial contacts were made with community leaders across Northern Ireland and, using these leads, a snowballing technique was used to elicit further participants. The interviews lasted between one and three hours. (Adapted from Katy Hayward and Claire Mitchell, “Discourses of Equality in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland”, Contemporary Politics, vol. 9, no. 3, September 2003)

Complete Archive: Discourses of Equality in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland

Record 45

. . . continued ///

Time Period Covered :

1998-2000

Holder/Depositor: Claire Mitchell, Queen's University Belfast, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

Sponsors: The Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences

Subject Categories: Communities; Culture; History; Identity; the Peace Process; Politics; Religion

Main Topics: Northern Ireland; the “equality agenda”; competing conceptions of equality amongst Catholics and Protestants; the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement

Publications(based on

study): Katy Hayward and Claire Mitchell, “Discourses of Equality in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland”, Contemporary Politics, vol. 9, no. 3, September 2003

Coverage

Date from: 01/01/1998 Date to: 31/12/2000

Fieldwork Dates: 2000

Country: Northern Ireland

Geography:

Spatial Units: No spatial units

Observation Units: Individuals

Kind of Data: Audio tapes of in-depth, narrative/semi-structured interviews with 32 individuals; transcripts of interviews

Universe Sampled

Location of Units: Subnational

Population: Protestants and Catholics from a range of backgrounds, differing in terms of age, gender and practice of faith as well as their communal identification

. . . continued ///

Methodology

Time Dimensions : Cross-sectional (one-time) study

Sampling Procedures : Purposive selection/case studies; snowball sampling

Additional info: Sampling was not random or statistical, but aimed to select participants from a range of backgrounds, differing in terms of age, gender and practice of faith as well as their communal identification. Initial contacts were made with community leaders across Northern Ireland and, using these leads, a snowballing technique was used to elicit further participants

Number of Units : 32

Method of Data Collection : Face to face interview

Weighting: Not Applicable

Access

Access Conditions : Access currently restricted by the author/holder

Availability: Not currently available

Contact: Claire Mitchell, Queen's University Belfast, School Sociology & Social Policy, e-mail: claire.mitchell@qub.ac.uk

Misc.

Languages: Study Description: English; Study Documentation: English

Copyright: Research subjects

MIsc/Other:

Qualitative Archive on AgeismARK has been exploring the placement of video interview

material online. This has raised issues of access & confidentiality and their effects on each other.