Creating peace from conflict: Bollens helps international peacemakers learn from conflicts
In his latest paper in Urban Affairs Review, Urban Planning and Public Policy's Professor Scott Bollens reveals just how tricky it can be to implement national policies in major cities.
Focusing on Jerusalem and Northern Ireland’s capital of Belfast, Bollens interviewed 122 officials, policy makers and community organizers to understand how national policies were implemented on the ground. “What we’ve learned is that when national political goals are put into action in cities, they are often ineffective or even counterproductive,” says Bollens. “It doesn’t matter whether a national goal is contrary or consistent with peace, it is going to encounter trouble when it hits the turf.”
Read more in this month's School of Social Ecology news feature on Bollens' recent research.