Welcome to the Beyond Opposition research project.

This project seeks to move ‘Beyond Opposition’ in the face of increasing social polarisation in Ireland, Great Britain and Canada. It considers how recent social and legal changes to sexual and gender rights impact different people within these countries. In the first phase, the project focused on the experiences of individuals or groups who do not support these changes. This includes, for example, people who believe that marriage should only occur between men and women and/or that families should be based on a heterosexual union. It also includes those who are concerned about the legalisation of abortion and/or people who disagree with, or question, transgender inclusion policies.

This first phase of the project ran from 2020 to 2022. We collected 973 questionnaires and 161 interviews in Ireland, Great Britain and Canada.

The second phase brought together people with a range of different views and perspectives on these issues to take part in discussion groups and artist-led workshops, imagining new ways of sharing space, that do not aim to overcome difference.

If you want to know about the project as it progresses then please sign up to receive email updates  here. To see our publications and other outputs from the research, click here.

This website provides an overview of the project, its ethos, and information on how to stay up to date on our progress. It provides information and materials from phase one of the research: interviews and questionnaires; and phase two: discussion groups and artist-led workshops. It also links to project publications.