Citation

Mcintyre A. Qual. Res. 2002; 2(3): 387-409.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/146879410200200306

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As the newly elected members of the Northern Ireland Assembly work towards implementing mechanisms for protecting and furthering the economic, social, political, cultural, and civic rights of the people of the North of Ireland, many local people are simultaneously developing strategies for addressing the legacy of violence that has characterized life in that region of the world for over 30 years. In this article, I describe how one group of working-class women living in Belfast address their personal and collective experiences with the multiple forms of violence that structure their daily lives. I do so by describing an ongoing feminist participatory action research (PAR) project that provided the women with a culturally relevant lens through which to view the historical and political contexts in which they live and act.Although there were multiple dimensions of the women’s lives that were revealed in the project, in this article I focus specifically on the ‘frozen watchfulness’ that characterizes life on Monument Road - a watchfulness that is born out of years of living in and with chronic and unpredictable violence. First, I provide an overview of the overall project. Second, I provide a glimpse of how violence acts as an organizer in the women’s lives. Lastly, I discuss the importance of opening up spaces for women living in conflicted communities to speak about their lives and develop strategies for generating new contexts for the revitalization of everyday life.