80 LISA CLAIRE WHITTEN
would be possible to correlate the geographical and chronological occurrence of
murals in areas of Belfast with a measure of community division, aggregately devised
from the factors listed.
If a positive correlation was found in this proposed research project, the application of
a classical positivism framework the research would conclude that political murals in
Belfast reinforce community division. Such a conclusion may have implications for
the policing and governing of Belfast’s visual landscape. Efforts to advance crosscommunity relations, for example, in light of a positive correlation, may seek to
remove or replace political murals in order to diminish division. The conclusions of
such a study could be used to inform policing strategies in regulating the visual
typography of public spaces in other deeply divided societies.
In the same area, a post-positivist epistemology may lead researchers to ask: can the
political murals in Belfast be seen as a type of resistance to disciplinary power, or are
they an example of the same disciplinary power operating in communities?
Underlying this question is a complex view of the dynamics of power involved in
governing. The question presumes that there is a correlation between the exercise of a
particular (disciplinary) power over the community and that the murals represent a
form of resistance. The question presumes that government is an exercise of the
dominant which can be formative for those governed; through the exercise of
‘discipline’, the behaviour and beliefs of individuals are formed, either by conforming
or by acting in resistance. This reflects a post-positivist understanding of power as
both relational and productive. The method chosen here would likely be to document
the narratives of those who have constructed the visual landscape of Belfast.
Interviews could be conducted, for example, with the paramilitary leadership on the
purpose and motivations behind the production and maintenance of murals, and with
the painters to query the degree of creativity afforded and the role of patronage.
Focusing on the details of murals in a particular geographical area or time period may
also be fruitful to uncover the particularities of power relationships involved.