“Ballymun is Me Heart”: Place-Making in a Dublin Suburban Community

Bezlaj, Alina (author), Repič, Jaka (mentor), Coleman, Steve (co-mentor)

This thesis is concerned with the topic of place-making practices in a working-class suburb of northside Dublin, called Ballymun. It analyses the historical forces that have shaped Ireland and Dublin, and that led to the construction of Ballymun in the late 1960s, which had been planned as social housing estate aimed at easing the housing crisis in the city. Furthermore, the thesis explores the way a community in the area was formed, and how residents got united in their effort to improve the environment, especially after the suburb declined economically and socially. It addresses the way a global shift to neoliberalism was reflected in activist structures in Ballymun getting incorporated within state machinery. In addition, it explicates how neoliberalist influences on state welfare policies were experienced in the most direct and personal sensory modality. Lastly, it explores how affects relate residents to a place and to one another.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Ballymun, place-making, urban community, social housing, regeneration, neoliberalism, senses, affectivity
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2023
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-145126
• Publication date in RUL: 07.04.2023

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: “Ballymun je moje srce”: Ustvarjanje prostora v predmestni skupnosti Dublina

Abstract

Magistrska naloga se ukvarja s temo praks ustvarjanja prostora v delavskem predmestju severnega Dublina, imenovanem Ballymun. Analizira zgodovinske vplive, ki so oblikovali Irsko in Dublin, ter v poznih šestdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja vodili v izgradnjo soseske. Ballymun je bil zasnovan kot stanovanjsko naselje z družbenimi stanovanji za ekonomsko šibkejše prebivalce, namenjeno reševanju stanovanjske stiske v mestu. Naloga raziskuje načine, kako se je v Ballymunu oblikovala skupnost ter kako so se prebivalci v njem združevali (in se še vedno združujejo) v prizadevanju za izboljšanje svojega okolja, zlasti odkar je to predmestje začelo ekonomsko in socialno nazadovati. Obravnava tudi načine, kako se je globalni prehod v neoliberalizem odražal v lokalnem aktivizmu in njegovem vključevanju v državne strukture. Poleg tega pokaze neposredne in osebne načine čutenja posledic vpliva neoliberalizma na državne politike socialne pomoči. Nazadnje naloga raziskuje se, kako afekti povezujejo prebivalce med seboj in s krajem, v katerem živijo.

• Keywords: Ballymun, ustvarjanje prostora, urbana skupnost, družbena stanovanja, regeneracija, neoliberalizem, čuti, afektivnost