Identity, Ideology and Conflict: The Structuration of Politics in Northern Ireland

by John Daniel Cash

• ISBN13: 9780521550529
• ISBN10: 0521550521
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-08-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Ideologies and identities are central to the organisation of political life and political conflict, yet most empirical studies tend to obscure their significance. This failure to take the politics of identity seriously arises from an absence of adequate theory and method. This study draws on both social theory and psychological (especially psychoanalytic) theory in an attempt to overcome these lacunae. First, it develops a novel theory and method for the analysis of ideology and identity. Second, it develops a detailed analysis of the politics of identity in Northern Ireland through focussing upon Unionist ideology and Unionist identities in crisis. The political conflict within Unionism is analysed through a consideration of the variety of unconscious rules drawn upon by political actors and citizens in the making of Northern Ireland's history of the present.

Table of Contents

Part I. Theory with an Empirical Intent: Theories of Ideology, Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity: 1. Competing paradigms in the study of intergroup relations

2. Conceptualising ideology

3. The structuration of ideology

4. Ideology and affect

5. Ideology and reasoning

Part II. The Analysis of an Ideology in Crisis: 6. Towards a depth-hermeneutics of Unionist ideology

7. Crisis and the structuration of Unionist ideology, 1962-1969

8. Crisis and the structuration of Unionist ideology, 1969-1975

Conclusion: The framework document and its discontents.