A Sense of Belonging

Abstract

A key objective of the Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC) Strategy (published in 2013) is to build a united and shared society. The onus to achieve this objective is not just put on the Northern Ireland Executive which published this Strategy, but also on ‘individuals, groups and agencies at a local level’ (p. 11). This is based on the concept of participative democracy and the assumption that local people have a vested interest in contributing to their community, that they trust the decisions at a local level and can feed into, and influence debates at a wider political level.