Sociology - Journal Articles

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Borders, risk and belonging: Challenges for arts-based research in understanding the lives of women asylum seekers and migrants 'at the borders of humanity'
(Intellect Ltd., 2019-04-01) O'Neill, Maggie; Erel, Umut; Kaptani, Erene; Reynolds, Tracey; Leverhulme Trust; ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, University of Southampton
This article critically discusses the experiences of women who are seeking asylum in the North East of England and women who are mothers with no recourse to public funds living in London to address the questions posed by the special issue. It argues both epistemologically and methodologically for the benefits of undertaking participatory arts-based, ethno-mimetic, performative methods with women and communities to better understand women’s lives, build local capacity in seeking policy change, as well as contribute to theorizing necropolitics through praxis. Drawing upon artistic outcomes of research funded by the Leverhulme Trust on borders, risk and belonging, and collaborative research funded by the ESRC/NCRM using participatory theatre and walking methods, the article addresses the questions posed by the special issue: how is statelessness experienced by women seeking asylum and mothers with no recourse to public funds? To what extent are their lived experiences marked by precarity, social and civil death? What does it mean to be a woman and a mother in these precarious times, ‘at the borders of humanity’? Where are the spaces for resistance and how might we as artists and researchers ‐ across the arts, humanities and social sciences ‐ contribute and activate?
Bridge-builder feminism: the feminist movement and conflict in Northern Ireland
(Routledge - Taylor & Francis Group, 2021-02-03) O'Keefe, Theresa
While gender has been widely used as an analytical category to understand the dynamics of conflict transformation in Northern Ireland, surprisingly little has been written on the ways in which the conflict has shaped or constrained feminist organising. Singular focus on groups or initiatives like the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, Peace People or the Women's Support Network has overshadowed the contested history and intricacies of the wider feminist movement. Adopting a more holistic view, this article takes the concept of ‘bridge-builders' as conceptualised by Ruane and Todd in The Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland (1996) to examine the fractured development of the feminist movement in the North. It charts how ‘bridge-builder feminism' became a distinguishable feature of the feminist movement during the Troubles and was used as a mechanism to transgress what Todd calls the ‘grammars of nationality’ (Todd, 2015). I argue that although this organising approach pioneered some changes in Northern Irish society, it overlooked key feminist struggles and thrived at the expense of an inclusive, intersectional feminism. Though the movement has undergone significant changes in the last two decades, the legacy of bridge-builder feminism continues to impact the capacities of the movement to address key feminist issues.
Changing perspectives on natural resource heritage, human rights and intergenerational justice
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2018-12-11) Skillington, Tracey
This paper observes how the social, political and legal life of rights continues to evolve in response to growing natural resource scarcity and deteriorating climate conditions worldwide. In particular, it assesses the type of interpretive repertoires actors bring to bear on issues of justice between generations and human rights eligibility, documenting arguments put forward in defense, as well as against assigning a rights status to those not yet born. It notes how scientific research documenting the ‘forcing effects’ of escalating atmospheric pollution on long-term planetary wellbeing triggers a new conversation on the limits of traditional approaches to environmental justice and highlights the need to consider once again how a more long-term perspectivism on duties, rights and responsibilities can be institutionally applied.
Cognition and recognition: on the problem of the cognitive in Honneth
(SAGE Publications, 2012-05-08) Strydom, Piet
While concurring with Honneth’s reconstruction of reification as a form of forgetfulness, this article questions the way in which he arrives at that conclusion as well as the conceptual status he ascribes to recognition – the instance with reference to which reification is exhibited as distortion or deformation. It argues, first, that Honneth’s dualistic mode of argumentation falls behind the left-Hegelian tradition which he himself seeks to revitalize, thus causing a serious architectonic problem; and, second, that while polemicizing strongly against the cognitive approach, he at crucial points actually reverts to the very resources made available by that mode of thinking. Being the central concern of the article, this latter aspect is treated as the cognitive problem in his work, especially in his Tanner Lectures.
Cognitive fluidity and climate change: a critical social-theoretical approach to the current challenge
(SAGE Publications, 2015-04-24) Strydom, Piet
This article seeks to enrich the social-theoretical and sociological approach to climate change by arguing in favour of a weak naturalistic ontology beyond the usually presupposed methodological sociologism or culturalism. Accordingly, attention is drawn to the elementary social forms that mediate between nature and the sociocultural form of life and thus figure as the central object of a critical sociological explanation of impediments retarding or preventing a transition to a sustainable global society. The argument is illustrated by a comparison of the current situation of climate change to a similar situation some 10,000 years ago which conditioned the transition from hunting-gathering to farming. The crucial factor in the prehistoric transition had been the newly acquired cognitive fluidity, which not only became the defining feature of the modern human mind, but is also foundational of the corresponding social form of life. The cognitively fluid mind made possible new generative practices and the imagination of counterfactuals possessing an incursive force that is capable of transforming existing practices and social structures. The ultimate question, then, is twofold: whether there is enough potential left in the cognitively fluid mind for its societal significance to be activated to the benefit of a transformation of the current recalcitrant social formation; and whether we today are able and willing to recognize such potential and corresponding realizable possibilities upon which to act.
Community policing: a critique of recent proposals
(The Economic and Social Research Institute, 1985-01) McCullagh, Ciaran
In this article the proposals by the Association for Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, for a scheme of Community Policing, are outlined and discussed. Their innovatory nature is recognised but a number of problems — the notion of community which they use, difficulties in implementing such schemes and the question of whether they constitute a scheme of community policing — are considered. Finally the question is posed as to whether the Gardai could make the changes required to produce genuine community policing.
Considering quality of care for young adults with diabetes in Ireland
(BioMed Central Ltd., 2013-10-29) Balfe, Myles; Brugha, Ruairí; Smith, Diarmuid; Sreenan, Seamus; Doyle, Frank; Conroy, Rónán M.; Health Research Board; Diabetes Ireland; Medical Research Charities Group, Ireland
Background: Research on the quality of diabetes care provided to young adults with Type 1 diabetes is lacking. This study investigates perceptions of quality of care for young adults with Type 1 diabetes (23–30 years old) living in the Republic of Ireland. Methods: Thirty-five young adults with Type 1 diabetes (twenty-nine women, six men) and thirteen healthcare professionals (ten diabetes nurse specialists, three consultant Endocrinologists) were recruited. All study participants completed semi-structured interviews that explored their perspectives on the quality of diabetes services in Ireland. Interviews were analyzed using standard qualitative thematic analysis techniques. Results: Most interviewees identified problems with Irish diabetes services for young adults. Healthcare services were often characterised by long waiting times, inadequate continuity of care, overreliance on junior doctors and inadequate professional-patient interaction times. Many rural and non-specialist services lacked funding for diabetes education programmes, diabetes nurse specialists, insulin pumps or for psychological support, though these services are important components of quality Type 1 diabetes healthcare. Allied health services such as psychology, podiatry and dietician services appeared to be underfunded in many parts of the country. While Irish diabetes services lacked funding prior to the recession, the economic decline in Ireland, and the subsequent austerity imposed on the Irish health service as a result of that decline, appears to have additional negative consequences. Despite these difficulties, a number of specialist healthcare services for young adults with diabetes seemed to be providing excellent quality of care. Although young adults and professionals identified many of the same problems with Irish diabetes services, professionals appeared to be more critical of diabetes services than young adults. Young adults generally expressed high levels of satisfaction with services, even where they noted that aspects of those services were sub-optimal. Conclusion: Good quality care appears to be unequally distributed throughout Ireland. National austerity measures appear to be negatively impacting health services for young adults with diabetes. There is a need for more Endocrinologist and diabetes nurse specialist posts to be funded in Ireland, as well as allied health professional posts.
The contemporary Habermas: towards triple contingency?
(SAGE Publications, 1999-05-01) Strydom, Piet
Cooperation, coordination and the social bond: on integration from a critical cognitive social-theoretical perspective
(SAGE Publications on behalf of the Indian Sociological Society, 2013) Strydom, Piet
The coronavirus crisis and the legitimation crisis of neoliberalism
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2020-11-05) Condon, Roderick
This paper considers the societal consequences of the coronavirus crisis through the lens of critical social theory, advancing a social-theoretical perspective as its main contribution. The central argument is that the question of post-pandemic societal transformation be examined in terms of the pre-existing legitimation crisis of neoliberalism. This is developed through three steps. First, a theoretical framework is outlined for considering social transformation in terms of discursively mediated collective learning processes. Then, two loci of the legitimation crisis of neoliberalism are explored, the political crisis and the climate crisis, to delineate a series of antagonistic fronts shaping the contestation of this model. From this, two broad social movements contending for control of societal development emerge: radical-pluralism and reactionary-populism. Finally, the coronavirus crisis is briefly considered in terms of its interaction with this cleavage.
Creating a community of praxis: integrating global citizenship and development education across campus at University College Cork
(UCL Press, 2022-12-13) Cotter, Gertrude; Bonenfant, Yvon; Butler, Jenny; Caulfield, Marian; Doyle Prestwich, Barbara; Griffin, Rosarii; Khabbar, Sanaa; Mishra, Nita; Hally, Ruth; Murphy, Margaret; Murphy, Orla; O'Sullivan, Maeve; Phelan, Martha; Reidy, Darren; Schneider, Julia C.; Isaloo, Amin Sharifi; Turner, Brian; Usher, Ruth; Williamson Sinalo, Caroline; Irish Aid
The Praxis Project, established at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, in 2018, seeks to assess possible models of best practice with regard to the integration of global citizenship and development education (GCDE) into a cross-disciplinary, cross-campus, interwoven set of subject area pedagogies, policies and practices. This study – the first part of an eventual three-part framework – asserts that the themes, theories, values, skills, approaches and methodologies relevant to transformative pedagogical work are best underpinned by ongoing staff dialogue in order to build communities of support around such systemic pedagogical change. This article is based on a collaborative study with the first cohort of UCC staff (2020–1), which demonstrates many ways in which staff and students realised that smaller actions and carefully directed attention to specific issues opened doors to transformative thinking and action in surprising ways. From this viewpoint, the striking need emerged for taking a strategic approach to how GCDE is, and should be, integrated into learning across subject areas.
Critical theory of justice: on Forst's 'basic structure of justification' from a cognitive-sociological perspective
(Philosophy Documentation Center, 2015) Strydom, Piet
This article offers a perspective on the critical theory of justice by presenting a structural and processual reconstruction of Rainer Forst's intriguing yet somewhat opaque concept of a basic structure of justification which is central to his proposed critique of justificatory relations. It shows from a cognitive-sociological perspective what a cooperative relation between a philosophical theory of justice and a social scientific approach could mean for critical theory. A basic structure of justification is revealed to be a cognitively available reflexive order above the order of substantive social and political relations that allows the identification, explanation and transformative critique of reflexivity deficits induced by hegemonic, ideological, repressive or obfuscating means. Far from being exclusively a theoretical and methodological tool, however, it is in principle accessible to those involved and affected on whose experience, suffering and critique critical theory vitally depends.
Cyber as an enabler of terrorism financing, now and in the future
(Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2018-08-20) Carroll, Paul; Windle, James
The objective of this paper is to conduct a critical analysis of whether there is, or could be an incremental use of cyber in the raising and transfer of terrorism finance, compared against traditional terrorism finance practices already in place. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts. They were initially dismissive of any significant use of cyber within terrorism finance, whilst acknowledging that the lack of quality data means that there may be more terrorism finance activity within the cyber domain than is empirically known. Some participants offered examples of how cyber might be utilised by providing impromptu ‘what if’ scenarios. We suggest that this may be symbolic of how primitive the thought process around the current and future use of cyber in terrorism finance is. It was also acknowledged that the current gap in empirical data might be addressed through bespoke training of both security services personnel and wider organisations in identifying terrorism finance ‘red flag’ indicators.
Cyberspace, Ta’ziyeh symbols and the public sphere in Iran
(International Political Anthropology, 2016) Sharifi Isaloo, Amin
The instruments of publicity and public engagement in the social, economic and political arenas are growing in power due to the development of communication technology and electronic media. At the same time, their capacity to play a manipulative role in forming the public sphere is disregarded. Drawing on Victor Turner’s emphasis on the importance of symbols and his analyses of liminality, this article focuses on a liminal period in the recent history of Iran, namely the 2009 Green Movement, when a ritual performance such as Ta’ziyeh and its symbols played key roles in mobilising crowds and forming the public sphere. In this way, it demonstrates how, under such liminal conditions, trickster figures can employ cultural and religious symbols in the medium of cyberspace, social media and social networks to become influential in manipulating the public.
Dance-work: Images of organization in Irish dance
(Sage Publications, 2008-09) Kavanagh, Donncha; Kuhling, Carmen; Keohane, Kieran
The Irish economic boom, commonly known as the Celtic Tiger, provides an interesting and unique opportunity to explore the relationship between the profound shifts in the organization of working life and in the production and consumption of culture. In this paper, we confine our inquiry into the relationship with one aspect of popular culture, namely dance, focusing on the phenomenon of Riverdance which emerged contemporaneously with the Celtic Tiger. We argue that both are deeply immersed in larger organizing discourses, historical narratives about national identity and civilizing attempts to control the body. We identify three distinct 'moments' in the development of Irish dance, which we label as pre-national, 'Traditional' Ireland; national, 'Modern', Parochial Ireland and global, 'Post-modern' Ireland. This provides a narrative through which we explore the transformation of working relations in Ireland during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Deep institutional innovation for sustainability and human development
(Taylor & Francis, 2021-06-24) Hughes, Ian; Byrne, Edmond P.; Glatz-Schmallegger, Markus; Harris, Clodagh; Hynes, William; Keohane, Kieran; Ó Gallachóir, Brian P.; Science Foundation Ireland
The present moment of deep transition, as well as being a time of danger, presents an opportunity for positive renewal. This paper develops a model of deep institutional innovation at times of historic change such as the present and outlines a research agenda aimed at initiating a holistic assessment of the main foundational institutions in society and re-imagining them in ways that will allow them to fulfill their basic ethical and effectiveness functions. Such a fundamental critique and re-imaging, the paper argues, is essential if global challenges are to be mitigated and resolved.
Defending the 'public interest': an assessment of competing actor representations of 'solutions' to growing natural resource deficiencies.
(London School of Economics and Political Science, 2016-06) Skillington, Tracey
This paper applies a SRT framework to the study of two case studies, namely the recent campaign of opposition to the legalization of hydraulic fracking in the State of New York and the more ongoing debate on land leasing in Africa. In relation to both campaigns, the analysis accounts for the arguments of a major financial institution and industry representatives who stress the safe and value-adding dimensions of these practices, as well as the views of opponents who refute the validity of industry's position and point to the unacceptable risks posed to the community, health and the environment. In spite of a number of obvious differences between these two case studies, not least differences arising from contrasting socio-economic and geo-political settings, there were also some notable similarities. First, was a tendency amongst protesters in both cases to formulate their role as contemporaries in a historically extended struggle for democratic justice. All perceived of themselves as guardians of their community's right to resist a corporate 'invasion' of their territories, like their forefathers and mothers before them. A theme of colonialism was explored in both settings through various identity and thematic anchoring devices that deliberately evoked shared understandings and historical memories of exploitation and human suffering. The evocation of powerful symbols of identity through visual narratives of protest further reinforced the cultural comprehensibility of opponents' message of protest in both contexts.
Educating engineers to embrace complexity and context
(ICE Publishing, 2014-10) Byrne, Edmond P.; Mullally, Gerard
Education represents a key intervention point in encouraging the emergence of a professional engineering ethos informed by a sustainability ethic. In terms of establishing an appropriate relationship between sustainability and education, many would contend that incorporating sustainability as merely add-on material to already overcrowded curricula is insufficient. Instead sustainability should actually be a leading principle for curricula. Traditional reductionist models of engineering education seek to extinguish context and uncertainty and reduce complexity across socio-economic and ecological domains. They therefore constitute a wholly inadequate response to the need for fit-for-purpose, twenty-first century graduates required to address broader sustainability issues. This paper presents research from an undergraduate module at University College Cork, Ireland. The module is aimed at developing students' conceptions of complexity, uncertainty, risk, context and ethics as foundational bases for productively engaging with sustainability. The paper also highlights some problematic issues.
Entrepreneurship and development - an alternative perspective
(Economic and Social Research Institute, 1984-01) McCullagh, Ciaran
This paper offers an alternative to the more orthodox psychological approach to the study of entrepreneurship. It suggests that an adequate theory of entrepreneurship must consider a country's political and economic history and especially the way in which this history has structured the opportunities for economic gain open to social groups in the society. It further suggests that due to the different historical experience of underdeveloped countries, and especially international monopoly capital, these opportunities will be differently structured in such societies. Whilst the particular structure may not lead to development, it will be maintained by the class structure and political system which emerges in such societies and which may resist attempts to alter that particular structure of economic opportunities. However, while such opportunities are so structured, analysis of entrepreneurship must also consider why there might be differential response to such opportunities in a society. This, it suggests, can be explained in terms of the degree of role continuity and congruity in economic roles in the society. Consideration of both the historical and the economic role level is essential for the study of entrepreneurship.
First and second nature
(Social Alternatives, 2017) Strydom, Piet
The figure of thought Ananta Kumar Giri introduces in his poser, namely 'roots and routes', is thought-provoking. His interpretation of it is apparent from conceptual pairs such as 'tradition and modernity', 'home and world', 'near and far' and 'closed and open'. The dialectic these formulas capture allows him to offer a penetrating diagnosis of the currently fraught situation, particularly in parts of India, and to suggest ways of interpreting and ameliorating it. The key component of his proposal turns on a single vital idea expressed in a variety of ways: 'dynamic process', 'cross-fertilisation', 'border-crossing', 'bridging', 'translation' and 'communication'.

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