Everyday sentiment among unionists and nationalists in a Northern Irish town

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6074865
AutoresStephanie Dornschneider (University College Dublin), Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink (0000-0002-8577-5846, University College Dublin, autor correspondente), Jennifer Todd (0000-0002-4156-4393, Geary Institute University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland)
Ano2021
Volume36
Fascículo2
Páginas185-213
Data de publicação2021-04-03
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoIrish Political Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0790-7184 • E-ISSN: 1743-9078
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07907184.2020.1743023
OpenAlexW3015287569
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas37

Unionists and nationalists remain polarized in their political choices, increasingly so since Brexit. Does this signal increasing and dangerous division? Or have the decades of peace and agreed institutions changed the tenor of discussion in Northern Ireland? In this article, we examine the ways community relations, political division and contention are discussed by focusing on the expression of everyday sentiment among unionists and nationalists in a mixed Northern Irish town. Theoretically, it has been argued that positive sentiment raises hopes for compromise and leaves room for discussion, while negative sentiment closes off deliberation and compromise. Based on interviews, we first conduct a sentiment analysis that identifies positive versus negative sentiment expressed by the respondents, focusing on themes addressing Irish unity, unionism, Brexit, as well as personal and community life. The analysis shows that, on average, interviewees talk more positively than negatively about each theme. We then conduct a qualitative discourse analysis to investigate how positive and negative sentiment are expressed by unionist and nationalist respondents. We find that respondents name and elaborate on the political issues in contention while lowering the emotional valence of discussion. This suggests much more room for deliberation and compromise than is usually assumed

Brexit · Compromise · Credibility · Deliberation · Economics · Irish · Irish nationalism · Linguistics · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Irish and British Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration