ABSTRACT
For children and young people in Northern Ireland, rioting is a means of expressing cultural identity, while also indicating the existence of resistance to the structural, socio-economic inequalities they experience (Gordon 2012). Although typically framed by adults as ‘recreational’ (Jarman & O’Halloran 2001), research findings assert that for young people rioting is considered to have a firm political foundation and is a means of expressing identity and ‘defending space’ (Leonard 2010b; Meadows 2010; Gordon 2012). Drawing on extensive qualitative interview data and content analysis, this chapter focuses on the role of the media in creating negative representations and maintaining negative ideological constructions of children and young people. This chapter asserts the importance of exploring theories of belonging through an empirical lens. It includes the voices of children, young people and their advocates and explores how they perceive themselves and their peers, as well as the perceived impact of negative representations on their sense of belonging. This chapter adds to the existing body of literature on ‘belonging’ by arguing that the realities of conflict and transition illuminate exclusionary and other issues experienced by young people, which are already present in ‘settled democracies’.
