The Troubles describes the social-historical phenomenon occurring between 1969 and 1994 when the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland was at its most extreme. Those 25 years have had a profound impact on the social, political, economic, cultural and spatial structures of Northern Ireland ever since. The consequent reaction by government, security and statutory authorities bore witness to a profound material impact upon inner-city communities resulting in architectural and spatial disconnection and disengagement with the economic and social structures that manage, govern and regulate the built environment. This review focuses on a specific aspect of material impact, the built structures installed within the inner-city to divide streets, disconnect spatial continuity, mitigate against vehicular flow and limit pedestrian movement. These vary in implementation and include walls, bollards, landscaping and the locating of housing across the path of existing streets. This material impact is extensive across inner-city Belfast. Whilst the sociological and economic impact of The Troubles has received much research attention the impact of these built interventions has yet to be systematically assessed. This review recognises the inner-city exemplar of Ballymacarrett, East Belfast as a community of disconnected people and disconnected spaces. The considered implementation of these divisive built structures has served to fundamentally fragment and spatially disconnect this community. This review conceives of a community as an intrinsic ecosystem of people and the built environment and addresses the challenging issue of engaging a disenfranchised and disconnected community with a broad range of stakeholders and academic research. The review process is a catalyst for inclusive discussion that involves a team of project partner stakeholders, directly linking the review process with the agencies with the remit and funding to implement urban regeneration and social housing policy review and change. The aims of this review are to utilise knowledge gained from academic and practice-based research methods to inform and stimulate discussion amongst key stakeholders with active inclusion from policy makers and the community. Such discussion has the stated aim of developing a policy discussion mechanism that will continue to progress the issues highlighted by the review beyond the review period. These aims meet address the objective of engaging research with non-academic stakeholders; empowering the related community; developing a methodological framework that is transferable to other contexts. The creation of buildings and spaces is a complex scenario involving stakeholders across the social, political and economic spectrum. As a consequence built artefacts contain much embedded information pertaining to a wide variety of perspectives that concern, and have potential to engage, the community within which they are installed. The research team of an architect and a fine art photographer presents a cross disciplinary approach to analysing this context. The disciplines have been aligned to provide a historical record that is accessible to a diverse audience of community, policy, politics and academia. Architectural and spatial analysis will identify Case Studies of built structures that will be documented and illustrated through conceptual photographic representation. Built structures will be utilised as mechanisms to extract data of historical and contemporary importance, eliciting new knowledge. Disconnections will be highlighted and former connections illuminated. The key relationships that are revealed will be essential tools towards addressing the very real architectural and spatial issues within inner-city Belfast communities. Such analysis will present a new perspective to the social, political, economic, cultural and spatial factors that shaped physical change in this community in a distinct and extreme period in cultural history.

Understanding the transformative power of multilingualism is vital. Over half of mankind daily speaks more than one language, and multilingualism brings advantages for community relations, business, and global understanding. Yet the linguistic landscape is changing fast, with English increasingly the lingua franca. In the UK, many schools are highly multilingual, despite falling numbers learning languages, and almost 1 in 5 primary school pupils have a first language other than English. Equally integral to a multilingual UK are the regional (minoritized) languages (e.g. Irish, Scottish Gaelic). The decline in pupils taking language GCSEs/A-levels and the number of children with English as an additional language are often portrayed negatively, and the value of community and minoritized languages is underestimated. The aim of this interdisciplinary project is to reflect critically on multilingualism and to transform attitudes through greater understanding. Our approach is holistic, exploring individuals, communities and nations. We analyse the situations giving rise to multilingualism, its social implications and creative possibilities, and relationships between languages, cultures, identities and standards. We explore why individuals/societies choose (consciously or not) to be multilingual, the potential of multilingualism as 'mental gymnastics', ways to optimize language learning, and the benefits of multilingualism for community and international relations. Our research questions: 1. What is the relationship between the multilingual individual and the multilingual society? What does it mean to be multilingual in a monolingual/multilingual society? Or monolingual in a multilingual society? 2. What are the opportunities and challenges presented by multilingualism? How might multilingualism benefit individuals, enhance communities, enrich cultures and foster social cohesion? To what extent might multilingualism disadvantage individuals, divide communities, dilute culture or fragment societies? 3. What is the relationship between multilingualism, diversity and identity? How does this play out at the individual, local, regional, national and international level? 4. What is the relationship between multilingualism and language learning? Who can/should learn additional languages, and in what contexts? How do age and other factors affect motivation, achievement and well-being? 5. How can we influence attitudes towards multilingualism? How can we change the attitudes of individuals and societies, and inform language policy? 6. How can we re-energise Modern Languages research? Can we reinvigorate the discipline by broadening its scope and developing new interdisciplinary methodologies? Intersecting research strands (S1-6) offer powerful case studies for understanding multilingualism: literature, film and culture in a globalized context; the role of standard languages; linguistic identity, diversity and social cohesion; the influence of multilingual identity on foreign language learning; language learning across the lifespan; the cognitive benefits of multilingualism. The project spans major languages traditionally or newly studied in the UK (French, German, Mandarin, Spanish), minoritized languages in Europe (Catalan, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Ukrainian), and community languages (e.g. Cantonese, Polish, Punjabi). We seek to break down barriers between high/low status and home/learnt languages. The project will have transformative outcomes for individuals, for education, health and social policy and practice, and for international relations. Our partners (community groups, educational, cultural and policy bodies, drama and creative writing groups, business) will help shape the research and disseminate outcomes. Placing language-led research at its heart, literary-cultural studies are integrated into an exciting new interdisciplinary programme to show how Modern Languages can respond to key issues of our time.