“Learning to Live Together: Transitional Justice and Intergroup Reconciliation in Northern Ireland” by Nevin T. Aiken

Nevin T. Aiken’s article discusses transitional justice in the context of reconciling postconflict societies that are characterized by intra-societal divides through the encouragement of social learning between groups of former enemies. As a scholar of political science, Aiken applies A. Nadler, T.E. Malloy, and J.D. Fisher’s social psychological theory of social learning, which lists several categories, whose fulfillment is necessary to achieve intergroup reconciliation, to Northern Ireland. Considering the legacy of group identity in Northern Ireland, it is especially useful to apply a study that focuses on intergroup reconciliation to the context of Northern Ireland’s decentralized peace process.

The three types of reconciliation measures that are necessary to promote social learning in transitional societies are instrumental reconciliation, socioemotional reconciliation, and distributive reconciliation. Instrumental reconciliation attempts to increase the number of (positive) cross-community interactions, with the goal of reducing feelings of animosity and distrust. Aiken looks at governmental and local initiatives that promote cooperation and understanding between Northern Ireland’s groups, such as the Community Relations Unit and Community Relations Council, to assess how successful methods of instrumental reconciliation have been. Socioemotional reconciliation addresses emotional and perceptual legacies of conflict caused by feelings of guilt and victimization, for which the concepts of truth (restorative justice) and justice (retributive justice) are important. Aiken discusses the competing narratives of victimhood in Northern Ireland, the subsequent lack of formal truth commissions or tribunals, victim acknowledgement, prisoner reintegration, legal investigations into the past such as the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, and local, decentralized initiatives, such as Healing Through Remembering, to assess to what extent socioemotional reconciliation has been achieved in Northern Ireland. Distributive reconciliation is aimed at the reduction of structural and material inequalities between (former) enemy groups, for the assessment of which Aiken discusses the Belfast Agreement and several other governmental initiatives for equal rights between protestants and catholics. 

Aiken concludes with an assessment of the effectiveness of Northern Ireland’s decentralized peace process, and discusses the implications of this research for the broader field of transitional justice. Specifically, the case of Northern Ireland has illustrated that postconflict societies in transitional processes should consider the timing and order of reconciliation measures, as well as that decentralized approaches to transitional justice and intergroup reconciliation can be just as valuable as more established, formal approaches, such as international tribunals and truth commissions. Northern Ireland also illustrates that politics of identity hugely affect reconciliation measures, and he captures very well the competing narratives of victimhood and zero-sum attitude in Northern Ireland. Thus, this article is useful to those in the field of transitional justice, but also those in politics, or interested in non-governmental organizations, as the article puts their importance on equal ground with traditional transitional justice means of dealing with postconflict societies. This article expands on the capabilities, factors, and ideas behind transitional justice, which are useful specifically in the Northern Ireland context, but can also be extrapolated to other societies. It is therefore of vital importance to the field of transitional justice, and (intergroup) reconciliation. 

Autor of this entry: Nienke Veenstra

Aiken, Nevin T. “Learning to live together: Transitional justice and intergroup reconciliation in Northern Ireland.” International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2010, 4.2, p. 166-188.