Sociology - Journal Articles
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Item Introduction to the Special Issue: ‘Critical Theory Today: One hundred years of the Frankfurt School’(SAGE Publishing, 2024-11-14) Boland, Tom; Stypinska, DianaThe Irish ‘Decade of Centenaries' closed in 2023, coinciding with the centenary of the founding of the Frankfurt School. The SAI Social Theory group gathered members and guests to a Symposium at University of Galway in March 2023 to consider the legacy of the Frankfurt school, marking the centenary of the establishment of the Institute for Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung). Rather than following a rather well-established academic custom and focusing on commentaries and exegeses, the contributors embraced the ethos of Critical Theory by exploring the present-time relevance of the passions and aspirations of the Frankfurt School scholars. This article introduces the Special Issue ‘Critical Theory Today: One hundred years of the Frankfurt School’, which consists of papers inspired by the symposium, the product of reflections and conversations. The collection centers on the critical conundrum of the contemporary coexistence of the tendencies towards containment and instigation of radical socio-political change.Item Holding ourselves to account: The precarity dividend and the ethics of researching academic precarity(SAGE, 2024-09-19) O’Keefe, Theresa; Courtois, AlineThis article uses critical reflexivity as a method to document and analyse the ethical dilemmas that emerge when researching academic precarity across the permanent/precarious divide. With our project on long-term academic precarity as a case study, and as people who experienced long-term academic precarity, we take as the starting point other researchers’ silences on their positionality and about who does the work in the production of research on academic precarity. Although our small, unfunded project was driven by feminist ethics and transformative feminist praxis, there were some ethical issues we did not foresee, nor could we resolve. We focus on three main ethical dilemmas that arose as moments of discomfort, triggering extensive reflection and discussion: (1) authenticity and subjectivity, (2) disclosure of employment status and (3) complicity in and benefit from the precarisation of academic work, or what we term the ‘precarity dividend’. The article seeks to push the boundaries around how researchers hold themselves to account in the process of knowledge production. We suggest that precarity and especially the precarity dividend must become an inherent ethical consideration in all social scientific research design. It is a call for social researchers to make explicit – in writing, in ethics reviews and in presentations of their work – the labour process and labour conditions of all those involved.Item The disrupted sociologies of young people with harmful sexual behaviours(Taylor & Francis, 43591) Balfe, Myles; Hackett, Simon; Masson, Helen; Phillips, Josephine; Economic and Social Research CouncilFew studies, particularly few qualitative studies, have focused on the family and social contexts of young people with harmful sexual behaviours. This article, therefore, seeks to provide insight into the more detailed, lived experience of this group of young people. The article involved a thematic analysis of 117 cases, identified from nine services that work with children with sexual behaviour problems. While a number of young people were from stable backgrounds, others were from highly disrupted sociological situations characterised by chaotic families, erratic living situations, poor family relationships, unstable parental backgrounds, generalised neglect and abuse, sexual abuse and school/social problems. Many of these young people's lives appear to be characterised by varying degrees of liminality and chaos. Such chaos may not only be traumatic, it may potentially be traumagenic, and contribute to the emergence of sexual behaviour problems in some young people.Item Experiences of young people with harmful sexual behaviors in services: A qualitative study(Taylor & Francis, 43530) Balfe, Myles; Hackett, Simon; Masson, Helen; Phillips, Josie; Economic and Social Research CouncilYoung people are responsible for a significant number of the sexual offenses that are committed every year. These young people are generally referred to specialist services for treatment. This article explores the health characteristics and service experiences of 117 young people with sexual behavior problems, and the issues that services face when working with them. The study is based on analysis of 117 case files, identified from nine specialist services in the UK. The case files were thematically analyzed. Case files provided information on the following topics: the reasons why the young people were referred to harmful sexual behavior services; the young people’s personal characteristics; their medical and mental health problems; the young people’s interests and aspirations; their attitudes toward services and interventions; continued problematic sexual incidents in services; progress in services; and post-service experiences. Overall, the findings of the study indicate that these young people have a number of strengths, but often have problems across a range of personal and health domains. A number of them continue to remain sexually and generally violent in services, particularly in residential settings, which has risk management implications for staff.Item A tale of three transitions: a year in the life of electricity systems transformation narratives in the Irish media(BMC. Part of Springer Nature, 2016-01-29) Mullally, Gerard; Byrne, Edmond P.Background: This paper focuses on discourses of transition in the electricity system in the Irish print media, with particular attention to both the framing and the scalar referents of the debate. We characterise some of the key contextual drivers for system transformation and suggest that too sharp a distinction between existing electricity infrastructure and systems of the future forecloses the possibility of social learning. Our central question research question is: What lessons can emergent techno-optimistic solutions to electricity system transitions learn from contemporary infrastructure controversies? Using a reconstruction based on print media coverage over a 12-month period in Ireland, we present three contrasting short stories to suggest that there are some commonalities that might provide cues and clues for promoting solutions for transitions to a low-carbon economy and society. Methods: We divide our methods section into a discussion of theory and methods. In the theory part, we explore the literatures on sustainable electricity transitions, critical infrastructures and social acceptability of energy solutions. In the methods part, we begin from the assertion that storylines help constitute reality allowing constellations of actors to coalesce around certain narratives. We outline the methodological approach to the reconstruction of mediated narratives based on three short stories of electricity system transformations in Ireland. Results: The three short stories recounted here, the future is smart; blurred lines; and policy versus place, show how narratives of economic recovery and economic growth risk occlude sustainable electricity system transition narratives, generating conflict rather than consensus on the decarbonisation of the Irish economy and society. Conclusions: Although the public discourse on smart grid technologies is very much in its infancy in Ireland, its rhetorical framing is very similar to that in both the wind farm and infrastructure controversies. The lack of attention to issues of scale, ownership, rhetorical framing and the perceived distribution and fairness of costs and benefits in these controversies could become equally problematic in the roll of smart grid strategies. Smarter green transitions in regions and cities do not depend on technological innovation alone but require social and institutional innovation to ensure constructive public engagement in sustainable electricity system transitions.