Sociology - Doctoral Theses
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Item Emile Durkheim: the narrative of a liminal subject(University College Cork, 2021) Flannery, Sophia; Szakolczai, Arpad; Balfe, MylesSince 1939, Anglo-American biographers have presented a non-political narrative of Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) that has rendered subordinate the political assessments of Edward Tiryakian (1979) and Robert Alun Jones (1986). This is despite evidence existing that corroborates these latter researchers understanding. To elucidate the circumstances behind this disparity this thesis examines these biographies to discover if they display an engagement with rhetorical literary practices. This is to consider if these have caused them to make discursive statements that preclude the valuations of Tiryakian and Alun Jones in the same location from being given full recognition with the effect they limit knowledge formation around Durkheim’s identity. Additionally, it is to explore the situation whereby Tiryakian’s particular offering triggered Durkheim’s identity and this narrative to incur a state of liminality (Van Gennep, Turner) while more modern western biographies on Durkheim activated these to experience a state of permanent liminality (Szakolczai, 2009). To support these efforts, the concepts of liminality and permanent liminality are employed as a conceptual framework while Marie-Laure Ryan’s (2007) view of narrative and Judith Butler’s (1997) understanding of textual silences in conjunction with Foucault’s archaeological method and Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction are utilised as an analytical framework. The objective is to locate points of agreement within Anglo-American biographies on Durkheim that can be analysed to confirm if the statements they make are exclusionary in form. To additionally enable this process these statements are analysed against others presented by more historically directed researchers. The intent is to unveil points of reference within these texts that connect Durkheim with French politics between 1858 and 1917. To broaden this research scope even further an examination of the level of reflexivity (Bourdieu) that underlies the above situations occurs. The aim is to affirm which of the above interpretations of Durkheim holds legitimacy in the contemporary context (Van Leeuwen, 2007). Moreover, it is to establish if beyond the observations of Tiryakian and Alun Jones, the information that biographies on Durkheim present has the capacity to confirm Durkheim as political in the republican sense and a ‘subject’ (Foucault) of the French Third Republic.Item Suspicion, control and desire - a criminological analysis of secretive conduct and smart devices(University College Cork, 2022) Szakolczai, Janos Mark; Boland, Tom; O'Neill, MaggieThe topic of this thesis is the connection between secrecy and the onlife reality, a blurring line between being online and offline. Specifically, it offers a novel criminological perspective on how the smart technological devices integrated in the onlife ecology (with its technologies, features, design, instant online access, and messaging) aid specific instances of 'secretive conduct', involving regular and mundane episodes of suspicion, control and desire towards our kin, partners, co-worker, and perfect strangers. While most studies on smart technology (phones, pc, homes, watches, cars) concern privacy and security, as well as the elements of isolation and social disintegration - this thesis offers an innovative contribution in the field of criminology. The elements which protect our devices, such as touch ID and face recognition have created an un-accessible wall against other users, both online and offline; the character of such elements and their effects is a central concern of this thesis, revolving around suspicion, control and desire such a condition induces. Using a cultural criminology perspective, this work will theorize the ecology of onlife reality, the secretive conduct that characterises its environment; interpreting how tools of monitoring and control appear to have taken over any 'space' - from public to private. It appears that not only is anything observable - but it is done in a covert and discreet manner - the Goffmanian front & back stage result constantly under scrutiny. In this context, the users become increasingly effected by this covert scrutiny. The smartphone functions as a quintessential tool that allows such a blur - leading into the onlife question of crime and cybercrime. Advancing an experimental 'hybrid' methodology that attempts to unite both digital and 'in-person' ethnographic considerations, the research makes use of informal and incidental 'confessions' of smart technology users, such as their personal or witnessed secretive conducts. The analysis concentrates on specific abusive episodes in which the use of onlife devices allow all sorts of secretive conducts, with direct or indirect elements of harm: these are treated as social 'vignettes', and include parents secretly monitoring their children, partners making assumptions on the other's whereabouts, perpetuating elements of stalking, blackmailing, monitoring, all in a remote and apparently 'secured' environment. This work contributes to cultural criminology with analysis of the blasé approach to such elements of secretive conduct becoming integral in the onlife habitus of smartphone users. Secrecy is becoming a central element of onlife ecology, taking place unwillingly, and mostly unknowingly. To act in secret, to monitor in secret - wanting to see, control, and observe all become central elements of the onlife.Item “Seeking peace of mind” – understanding desistance as a journey into recovery and out of chaos(University College Cork, 2019) Cambridge, Graham; Lynch, OrlaThis research examines the lived experience of 40 men from working class areas of Cork city as they attempt to desist from offending. As part of this study, addiction featured as a significant issue for all of the participants and dominated their desistance journey. This study aimed to understand how issues of masculinity, working class culture, poverty and trauma were relevant for men from the Cork area and their participation in crime. In addition, this research sought to understand the relationship between addiction and offending, and relatedly the relationship between desistance and recovery. This work uses the voices of the participants via life narrative interviews and the findings emerged via a Grounded Theory analysis that links the themes and concepts to the data.Item The Irish revolutionary period as a rite of passage: things hidden since the foundation of the state(University College Cork, 2018) McGrath, Patricia; Szakolczai, Arpad; Keohane, KieranThis thesis is an exercise in the application of a number of key concepts from Szakolczai's reflexive historical sociology and political anthropology to an interpretation of Irish history during the revolutionary period from 1916 to 1927, and more particularly to an appraisal of the central figure of Eamon deValera. The hypothesis suggests that a characteristic pattern of action, an ideal-type character of leadership and distinctive political style emerges under the conditions of liminality of the revolutionary period, and becomes institutionalised in Irish political culture. This pattern of action, character type, and style corresponds to the anthropological figure of Trickster. This is represented vividly in the exemplary figure of deValera, a style which, institutionalised, recurs problematically in the subsequent Fianna Fáil leaderships of Charles J. Haughey and Bertie Ahern during the recent liminal period of the so-called 'Celtic Tiger'. The key theoretical concepts are: 'liminality', elaborated from the form of a 'rite of passage'; the crucial role of 'masters of ceremonies' (van Gennep (1960), Turner (1967), Szakolczai (2000), Horvath (2008), Thomassen (2008)); 'schismogenesis' (Bateson, 1979); 'mimesis', violence, sacrifice and the scapegoat mechanism (Girard, 2003); the 'hero'; (Giesen, 2004); charismatic leadership (Weber, 2012) and 'Trickster' (Jung (1991), Radin (1972), Hyde (2008), and Szakolczai (2000)).Item The public sphere and Islamic democracy in Iran: a case study of the Ta’ziyeh theatre ritual(University College Cork, 2015) Sharifi Isaloo, Amin; Szakolczai, Arpad; Cork City Council
