Peace with strings attached: exploring reflections of structure and agency in Northern Ireland peacebuilding funding

Abstract

This article examines Northern Ireland's peacebuilding process by analysing perspectives about economic assistance to determine if the peacebuilding process contributed to the reification of structure or the promotion of human agency. Economic assistance, a key pillar of liberal democratic peacebuilding, has been credited with creating a political economy of civil society peacebuilding in Northern Ireland by either incentivising or coercing community groups to participate in the peace process. Interviews with 120 community group leaders who received International Fund for Ireland (IFI) and/or EU Peace III funding are analysed to see how the respondents' perspectives reflect aspects of the structure–agency debate. Rules, resources, mental schemas and knowledge are used as criteria for evaluating statements from respondents to determine if community groups feel empowered, invested and capable of sustaining peace in post-peace accord Northern Ireland. The study concludes by discussing the implications for sustaining peace in Northern Ireland and other post-peace accord environments where liberal democratic peacebuilding methods are used.