The politics of neoliberalisation and resistance in post-crash Northern Ireland

Abstract

Northern Ireland’s transition from conflict to relative peace has been accompanied by significant changes to the region’s economic base, with far-reaching consequences for working class communities and negative impacts on social and political stability. This article sets out to explain neoliberalism’s locally contingent form in the St Andrews Agreement era. Accounting for both external pressures and the political priorities of Northern Ireland’s Executive parties, it contends that the state in its integral form has not merely retreated or outsourced the peace process to the corporate sphere but has actively intervened to shape society in the interests of capital and institutionalise neoliberal thought while simultaneously acting to depoliticise key policy decisions. The article goes on to show how various forms of resistance have emerged in the face of seemingly global processes and even as society appears to have become more polarised along ethnonational lines.