The Symbolic Reconstruction of Opposition

Horowitz says that ethnic conflict has roots in ethnic comparative evaluation. While he privileges the distinction between ‘backward’ and ‘advanced’ groups, what he describes involves the totalising and oppositional assumptions and ascriptions which have been identified by other scholars as typical of protracted conflicts . This paper shows how such totalising and oppositional division is interactively asserted, and how it is resisted. It does so by exploring comparatively how respondents recount such episodes in two presently peaceful societies with very similar symbolic distinctions - post-conflict Northern Ireland and the long-peaceful Irish state. This shows how a distinctive kind of value clash is interactively produced, and how everyday responses may perpetuate or undermine its preconditions. It also adds to our knowledge of the micro mechanisms and macro-conditions by which totalising divisions (often called ‘ethnic’) are made out of more permeable distinctions.