ResearchImpactNIborders

Potential impact on Northern Ireland and the border regions, and on the island as a whole

• An overview and identification of consultation practices on the island as a whole is a necessary component of its social development and will allow for the development of common initiatives on a cross border basis. This has been carried out in England and Wales, but not in Ireland.
• The development of appropriate technologies and processes for citizen participation will foster social stability and a healthy civil society and will provide a context where the benefits of the peace process can be maximised for all.
• Marginalisation of certain categories of citizens, a feature of traditional techniques of consultation, will be countered in the testing of these e-consultation technologies, thus ensuring more progressive social policy initiatives.
• This research group will engage with and submit the findings to relevant state, local and voluntary agencies/institutions thus improving the quality of planning decisions for local and regional development.
• The locus for the workshops, training and evaluations are situated in Northern Ireland and the border counties. We are specifically addressing citizen involvement in these areas, to the benefit of local and regional development.
• In particular, e-consultation promises to improve the quality of planning decisions, leading to better solutions to local conflicts between alternative approaches to local and regional development.