This is inherently different than the consociational approach, which attempts to broker deals between factions without truly bridging the divide, but this does not mean that the two approaches cannot be used in tandem and in fact Byrne makes an excellent case that just such a dual approach is necessary to achieve true and lasting conflict resolution. Byrne identifies several barriers to the civil society approach in Northern Ireland, primarily noting that the British focus on faction elites as the means to achieving peace in the nation has led to a lack of grassroots attention and broader efforts at reducing aggression and tension in the populous.
Civil society approaches to conflict resolution are quite specifically not governmental in their ultimate structure -- government-sponsored and even -operated programs could very well be a part of actual civil society approaches, but such approaches and individual methods and mechanisms within them do not operate through the wielding of authority. Similarly, consociationalism is a government-oriented system that quite specifically does not require or even seek broad unity in the populous, focusing only on the elites in a society and the deals that can be arranged between them. Though...
In Northern Ireland, tensions amongst the elites continue to be fueled by tensions amongst the populous, and this is delaying or preventing the formation of an effective consociational government; a civil society approach to conflict resolution undertaken on a broader scale could address this issue without undermining efforts for a consociational government and society in the slightest.
The tensions in Northern Ireland have been markedly reduced in the pas decade, however society is still quite divided. The easing tensions make civil society approaches easier to implement, however, and this might serve to create a more rapid transition to the "shared culture of peace" Byrne advocates. In a few generations, the pressed-for consociational aspect of Northern Ireland's government might not be at all apparent or desired, if the integrative efforts of a civil-society approach are effective.
