For Better or Worse? Community Relations Initiatives in Northern Ireland

The last ten years have seen the most sustained attempt by the British government to address the underlying problems of segregation and division in Northern Ireland through a reexamination of public policy issues (housing, education, and employment). This paper examines the contribution of one such policy initiative, a “bottom‐up” approach to community relations under the auspices of the Central Community Relations Unit. Official evaluations of twenty‐two projects are reviewed and assessed against principles of good practice emerging from a growing body of theoretical literature on effective intergroup contact.