Cities that tear us apart

I'm lucky enough to have never been before in a city that has experienced conflict in my own life time. Belfast is my first experience of a recently war torn space. I can't pretend to begin to understand the complexities of the history of the Troubles. Remnants of violence are all around the city, but so are bars full of live music and passionate people creating new stories in whatever way they can. This article at the link below "The Geography of Conflict and Death in Belfast, Northern Ireland" is a revelation for urban policy. It adds so much to the debate about diversity in cities. Robert Putnam, the most vocal advocate for community in American society, kicked off a debate in 2007 with research that claimed that diversity was a bad thing for trust in cities. Thankfully, James Laurence broke that theory ten years later with research showing that it is only where cities are highly segregated that neighbourhood trust is affected. The research from Belfast illustrates this effect starkly investigating the spatial distribution of conflict related deaths, finding that neighbourhoods with the highest level of segregation also had the the highest death rates. Building inclusive, equitable cities is not just a nice-to-have it is a necessity for social cohesion. Read this!