But there have been concrete and symbolic steps toward reconciliation in recent years.

Now some cities are taking on plastics as a kind of symbolic next step.

Or are the recent changes only a small, largely symbolic first step?

It is a largely symbolic step, but a potent one.

The Government defends its decision, saying it has taken symbolic steps to separate the state and religious parts of the ceremony.

This symbolic step might help break popular expectations of falling prices.

But the accord is widely seen as an important symbolic and psychological step.

Advocates for the homeless say the project, while modest, is an important symbolic first step.

Argentina took an important symbolic step on Monday in its struggle to avoid financial collapse.

Desegregating the ball park was often a symbolic first step.