Symbolic governance and the spatial politics of disorder: Anti-social behaviour in Belfast’s ‘Holyland’

Abstract

This article examines how urban disorder is governed under conditions of contested legitimacy in a post-conflict city. Drawing on documentary analysis of institutional and policy materials from 2004 to 2025, it develops the concept of symbolic governance, defined as calibrated legitimacy management through which institutions regulate disorder while avoiding politically or reputationally risky intervention. Using Belfast’s Holyland district as an empirical site, the article traces how this logic operates across universities, policing, and local government. Revisiting social disorganisation theory, it argues that disorder is sustained not by weak social ties but by dense bonding networks within a demographically homogeneous enclave. Institutions respond through coordinated restraint and diffusion of responsibility, containing disorder within reputational thresholds while prioritising legitimacy over structural transformation.