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The 16th Annual Conference on Multi-Organisational Partnerships, Alliances and Networks (MOPAN) visited Ballymun as part of their conference itinerary on the 18th June 2009. MOPAN is an international gathering of academics who meet on an annual basis to discuss common themes and objectives in current academic debate. Academics come as far as Portugal, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, China, United States of America, Ireland and Great Britain.
The themes discussed at this conference were “Collaboration, Competitiveness, and Cohesion”. The conference was hosted by the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) based in NUI Maynooth, Co Kildare. It was organised by Brendan Bartley, Orla Dunne and Rhona Bradshaw. Current research papers were delivered by academics incorporating the wider and longer term objectives of sustainability and balance in embracing social, environmental and territorial dimensions of development, with a clear interest in regeneration, academics were enthused in getting to explore one of the largest regeneration projects currently on going in Europe. Declan Dunne, CEO of the Ballymun Whitehall Area Partnership, and Ray Yeates, Arts Director Axis, delivered a resounding overview of what the regeneration project and Ballymun meant to them in their professional careers.
All academics were impressed to hear the changes that the Ballymun people have been successful in implementing, and at times in the face of adverse adversity, how change was demanded, contested, and implemented, which is required in order for a regeneration project of this scale to be successful. The academics were also suitably impressed to discover the vibrant networks of networks that work together at so many levels in order to bring about this change.
At the end of the conference held in NUI Maynooth it was commented on that “the field trip to Ballymun inspired a different understanding of what is achievable when a large number of people band together and demand difference”.
If you require more information in relation to MOPAN, and to down load research papers that were discussed, click [ HERE ] to visit the conference web site, or click on gerard@ballymun.org to e-mail Gerard at BWAP.
The event was sponsored by:
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