Since 2022, through its annual Northern Ireland Life and Times and Young Life and Times surveys, ARK has collected data on gender-based violence among representative samples of adults and 16 year olds in Northern Ireland. Alongside information collected from other stakeholders, such as the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and the women’s, youth and education sectors, ARK’s social attitude data has helped to develop key policy indicators that form the basis of the Strategic Framework.  

The surveys asked respondents about their experiences of online and face-to-face violence, and barriers to reporting gender-based violence, as well as attitudes towards violence and bystander behaviour. We found, for example, that 75% of all 16 year old girls had experienced street harassment, whilst over half of girls had received unwanted texts of videos containing sexual content. One in five 16 year old boys did not think there was anything wrong with making sexist jokes, cat-calling or posting nasty sexual messages on social media.

More detailed results on gender-based violence can be found on the ARK website.

Current consultations about lynx reintroductions in England and Scotland are the latest of several such proposals over the last decade. Taken aback by the very limited consultation with livestock- and land-owners in Britain or Ireland on this important issue, SSESW colleague Jonny Hanson set out to consider them. For his Nuffield Farming report, he interviewed farming and rewilding leaders across both countries. He conducted more than 40 interviews and visits across western Europe and North America, seeking insights on how coexistence between livestock farming and large carnivore conservation could be managed and governed when these species return to a landscape.

Overall, farming leaders were very sceptical about lynx and wolf reintroductions, mainly for political, economic and ecological reasons. They were also wary of the suite of management tools that can facilitate coexistence between large carnivore conservation and livestock farming: deterrence, finance, force and enterprise. Only governance emerged as an area of common ground between agricultural and rewilding leaders, namely that it is essential in any discussion of potential reintroductions.

And the short answer to our question? Social science is absolutely critical to understanding the feasibility of these proposals. But as this pilot study shows, the reintroduction process itself is likely to be socially complex, contested and costly.

For the long answer to this query, read the Nuffield Farming report or this article in The Conversation.