The silent construction of class, religion and conflict through organizational procedures and civic practices: a case study of the Northern Ireland women's festival day project

Whether seen as a buffer for the worst excesses of market, corporate or global capitalism or a defense against domination by an authoritarian, totalitarian, bureaucratized state, the civic sector of society is thought to play a crucial role in contemporary political theory and practice. This critical analysis of the Northern Ireland Women's Festival Day Project does not proceed from these predominant assumptions. While acknowledging considerable variation in civic groups and projects, it argues instead that the organizational procedures of many civic groups can provide an unequal playing field for social actors and that their civic practices (Eliasoph, 1996) may construct and maintain boundaries between groups and individuals and even discourage public discourse through processes of cultural censorship (Sheriff 2000). In short, civic groups may play contradictory and, at times, negative roles in the development of democracy, generally, and in the pursuit of peace in Northern Ireland, specifically.