Moralisations of space and the spatiality of morality : the case of the Dublin working class neighbourhood Ballymun

Bezlaj, Alina (author)

Recent scholarship on morality highlights it as a communal and everyday achievement, rooted in everyday (spatial) practices and tied to places. In this article, I explore two distinct yet over-lapping moral orders that shape life in Ballymun, a working-class suburb of Dublin built in the 1960s as a social housing estate and redeveloped in the early 2000s. I argue that these moral repertoires correspond to two versions of Ballymun: the pre-regeneration “Old Ballymun” and the post-regeneration “New Ballymun”. Both places are morally charged and thus often generate conflicting understandings of the neighbourhood and its challenges. While regeneration, driv-en by the neoliberal politics of the Third Way, sought to materially and socially transform the area through new moral visions, these were not uniformly adopted by residents. Some embraced them; others resisted, drawing instead on affective and memorial ties to Old Ballymun and leaning on the moral repertoires tied to the past place. Although the moral logics of old and new often align, they also produce tensions – particularly around notions of individual responsibil-ity, care, and the causes of local problems. I show in this article how moral values are embedded in everyday practices that shape the neighbourhood, and how different conceptions of place inform residents’ moral interpretations of its transformation and ongoing struggles.

• Language: English
• Keywords: morala, kraji, spomini, regeneracija, etika skrbi, odgovornosti
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication date: 01.07.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 69-85
• Numbering: Letn. 3, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179540
• UDC: 39(417)
• ISSN on article: 2820-6088
• DOI: 10.4312/svetovi.3.2.69-85
• COBISS.SI-ID: 245379843
• Publication date in RUL: 16.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Svetovi
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2820-6088
• COBISS.SI-ID: 148550403

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Moralizacije prostora in prostorskost morale : primer dublinske delavske soseske Ballymun

Abstract

Nedavna znanstvena dognanja o morali jo označujejo kot dosežek skupnosti in vsakdana, zakoreninjen v vsakdanjih (prostorskih) praksah in vezan na kraje. V prispevku raziskujem dva različna, a prekrivajoča se moralna reda, ki oblikujeta življenje v Ballymunu, delavskem predmestju Dublina, ki je bilo v šestdesetih letih 20. stoletja zgrajeno kot socialno stanovanjsko naselje in nato prenovljeno po vstopu v novo tisočletje. Zagovarjam tezo, da to-vrstni moralni repertoarji ustrezajo dvema različicama Ballymuna, »staremu« in »nove-mu«, pred in po prenovi. Oba kraja sta vsak po svoje moralno opredeljena in zato pogosto sprožata nasprotujoča si razumevanja soseske in njenih izzivov. Medtem ko je regeneracija, ki jo je vodila neoliberalna politika tako-imenovane tretje poti, skušala v materialnem in družbenem smislu območje preoblikovati v okviru nove moralne vizije, pa le-te prebivalci niso enotno sprejeli. Nekateri so jo vzeli za svojo, drugi pa so se ji uprli, pri čemer so se opirali na čustvene in spominske vezi s starim Ballymunom in na moralne repertoarje, povezane s krajem iz preteklosti. Čeprav se moralna logika starega in novega pogosto ujemata, povzročata tudi napetosti – zlasti ko gre za predstave o individualni odgovornosti, skrbi in vzrokih za lokalno problematiko. V članku ponazorim, kako so moralne vrednote del vsakodnevnih praks, ki oblikujejo naravo soseske, in kako različna pojmovanja kraja vplivajo na to, kako tamkajšnji prebivalci interpretirajo njeno preobrazbo in nenehne stiske.