Introduction — Divided Communities

Abstract

As the title suggests, this is a book about the economics of education in a divided community — Northern Ireland. By a ‘divided community’ we mean societies which are partitioned — or which partition themselves — into distinct and identifiable groups such that persons from these groups lead ‘separate’ lives — that is, lives that do not involve association with persons from other groups — with respect to a number of areas. Housing is often such an area of separation; education is another; work might be a third. In all these cases the result is often ‘segregation’, with people from each group living, studying, and working apart from others.