ABSTRACT

Tim Chapman: 0000–0001–8630–6411

Katrin Kremmel: 0000–0002–0206–3537

This chapter focuses on a concept that is relevant both to understanding conflict in intercultural settings and to the practice of restorative justice – community. It starts by reviewing the way community is understood in the context of mainstream restorative justice and then moves on to discuss the relevance of the concept beyond the remit of the criminal justice system towards restorative approaches that aim at restoring security and justice when conflict between groups of people has caused harm. Drawing on the work of broader disciplines, sociology and social and political theory, the authors ground their analysis in a comparison of two research fields in which the ALTERNATIVE project has undertaken action research, working-class areas of south and east Belfast in Northern Ireland and social housing estates in Vienna, Austria. The chapter then applies these new understandings to actual restorative responses with a view to identifying how the positive aspects of community can be activated to transform conflict.