Sociology - Doctoral Theses
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Item Resistance and solidarity through feminist craftivism; a comparative study of Ireland and Mexico(University College Cork, 2023) Mondragon Toledo, Brenda; O'Keefe, Theresa; Finnegan, Nuala; Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnologías; CONAHCYTThe proposed research is a comparative study of feminist textile practices between Mexico and Ireland with the purpose of establishing transnational solidarity (Mohanty, 1991). From a feminist standpoint, this research used a feminist Participatory Arts-Based Research methodology to enable conversations between participants from both countries. This research proposes using textile-making practices as a methodological tool to encourage reflexivity and collective knowledge creation. The data-gathering consisted of a series of online workshops with women living in Mexico and Ireland in which, by using embroidery, patchwork and doll-making, we encourage conversations around different topics related to experiences of gender-based violence. As a result of the COVID pandemic, this research hat to shift into an online format. During this unique period, amid the pandemic, I had the opportunity to observe a heightened interconnection of craftivism on the Internet. The research involved conducting textile workshops on Google Meet over an eight-month period, with activist groups serving as facilitators for each session. These groups included the Puebla feminist collective Refleja, Mexico City’s textile activist Agujas Combativas, and the West Cork-based The Bábóg Project. There was a strong engagement over the entire eight months from six participants, evenly distributed between Ireland and Mexico. Each workshop session was meticulously recorded and transcribed, the acquired data was analysed through a reflective thematic analysis. Photographs of each textile piece have also been gathered and are part of the data. The thesis showcases the effectiveness of a PABR methodology in facilitating comparative discussions across diverse scenarios, overcoming language and distance barriers. The ability to engage collectively allows us to expand physical and linguistic frontiers to weave together participants who are geographically distant from each other and across language differences. Therefore, this study shines light on how women navigate the complexities of post-colonial, capitalist, and patriarchal societies throughout their lives, leading to the development of a feminist consciousness evident in their textile practices and activism. Finally, the research aims to highlight the connections and unique experiences of women in both the Irish and Mexican contexts, illustrating how they construct a feminist identity as a form of resistance against normalized and extreme manifestations of gender-based violence, which I call ‘crafting a feminist self’.Item Sex work, disability and care: towards a 'caring imaginary' for disabled sex workers in Ireland(University College Cork, 2024) Murphy, Doris Amy; O'Neill, Maggie; Bonfiglioli, Chiara; Irish Research CouncilThis project investigates the lived experiences of disabled sex workers in Ireland. Theoretically and conceptually it uses a feminist ethic of care, intersectionality, and critical disability studies to analyse my participants’ experiences of accessing care. It also identifies the barriers to care that exist for disabled sex workers in Ireland. This project proposes a ‘caring imaginary’ for disabled sex workers, and it recommends policy-relevant strategies towards achieving this goal. Methodologically, this project uses creative methods, including walking interviews as a biographical method, and map-making. It also takes a feminist Participatory Action Research approach to investigate the lived experiences of disabled sex workers in Ireland. The partner organisations who participated were the Sex Workers Alliance of Ireland, the Sexual Health Centre in Cork, and the Red Umbrella Front. These organisations helped to shape the research questions, aided with the recruitment of participants, consulted throughout the project, and at the end of the project they co-constructed the recommendations and policy implications. They also helped to identify potential stakeholders, eleven of whom took part in interviews to establish the landscape of sex work in Ireland. Following these interviews, six different sex workers with disabilities were interviewed about their experiences of care in Ireland. Eight of the ten interviews were walking interviews, while the other two interviews took place virtually. Some of the themes which emerged from the interviews with stakeholders include: the facilitators of care; barriers to care; and how organisations either upheld or challenged the hegemonic position on sex work in Ireland. Critical analysis of the findings from the sex worker interviews helped to organise the chapters into five different themes: sex work and sex workers’ lives in Ireland, disabled sex work, addiction and sex work, care, and caring imaginaries. Maps of the walks sex workers led were created by the researcher, and these provide a visual insight into the sensory and embodied experiences of the walking interviews from both the researcher and participant. Given the ethos of participatory research that underpins the research and the use of creative methods across the project, two of the participants volunteered poems which are included in the findings chapters. One of the main findings from this project is that the main provider of care to disabled sex workers in Ireland is the sex working community. The idea of care and community care was defined, problematised and discussed at length in the research. Analysis of the research findings led to the development and contribution of a ‘caring imaginary’. The participants in this project noted that the full decriminalisation of sex work would be an important first step towards a ‘caring imaginary’. Recommendations from this project include the full decriminalisation of sex work in Ireland; funding to be made available to sex worker-led organisations to support sex workers as they see fit; and more conversations to be had about disability, sex work, addiction, and the intersectional nature of disabled sex workers’ lives. Organisations which support sex workers should be included in the management of complex cases, and inter-agency working should be encouraged between support organisations. There was agreement across stakeholders and sex workers that support organisations should be led by sex workers, and at the very least that all organisations should access training led by sex workers. This project is the first to investigate the lives of disabled sex workers in Ireland, and proposes a ‘caring imaginary’, which is underpinned and indeed constituted by the knowledge and lived experiences of disabled sex workers. Further research into the intersectional lives of disabled sex workers could include members of the Travelling community, or migrant workers with disabilities in Ireland.Item Framing justice in ‘unjust times’: critiquing Irish legal, political, and medical debates on the right to die(University College Cork, 2023) Keogh, James Patrick; Skillington, Tracey; O'Neill, MaggieAgainst the backdrop of notable legal challenges here in Ireland, this research examines the enduring discord between the widespread societal endorsement of assisted dying and the prevailing legislative rigidity that unequivocally rejects it. To support this investigation, a qualitative methodology was applied, involving frame analysis of legal case documents and semi-structured interviews, supplemented with elements of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This approach helped identify the most dominant interpretive positions that constitute major sticking points of the right to die debate, and explore how these positions are shaped by ideologies, biases, and power dynamics that structure the exchange of ideas, arguments, and counter-positions. Drawing from critical definitions of justice (Forst, 2007; Honneth, 1995; Fricker, 2007) and Foucauldian considerations of power concerning both the physical and the body politic (Foucault, 1978), this study posits that end-of-life controversies are more usefully conceptualised as ‘pained’ experiences (Scarry, 1985), defined from the viewpoint of the suffering body. Providing detailed accounts of how justice regarding the right to die has been constructed in formal decision-making arenas and publicly challenged by an emerging social movement that considers it ‘unjust,’ this body of work observes the residual effects of a deeply conservative Catholic state on experiences of dying. Despite its loosening stranglehold on contemporary Irish society, a nexus of legal, political, and medical power structures continues to thwart efforts to legislate for assisted dying. These forces successfully frame the conditions for its possibility as morally reprehensible and as an extension of suicide, leaving legislators hesitant to take decisive action. Frustrated by the lack of progress on the issue and driven by the desperate pleas of loved ones, this study crucially documents the justifications employed by individuals for taking matters into their own hands and laying a claim upon death themselves. This subversive response, though shrouded in secrecy, speaks to the pressing nature of unfulfilled human needs and the desperate yearning for the fundamental requisites of compassion and agency. It represents a poignant manifestation of the stark realities faced by those entangled in end-of-life crises – realities that demand more urgent and heartfelt engagement from policymakers than currently offered.Item Mapping the production of knowledge of cyberterrorism and hacktivism research using an integrated bibliometric and content analysis framework(University College Cork, 2024) Hosford, Kevin; Windle, James; Lynch, OrlaThe proliferation of Internet Communication Technologies (ICT) has prompted scholarly interest in role of ICT in facilitating cybercrime, particularly in the domains of cyberterrorism and hacktivism. Exploration of cyberterrorism and hacktivism has faced challenges stemming from the absence of dedicated platforms, such as academic journals and conferences impeding a consistent research output and hindering collaborative research. In contrast to more established domains like terrorism studies and organised crime studies, the research on cyberterrorism and hacktivism is still in its initial stages within the academic discourse. This doctoral thesis seeks to map the conceptual understandings and production of knowledge surrounding cyberterrorism and hacktivism research throughout a twenty-year period (2000-2020). Employing a modified version of Creswell and Clark's ‘Triangulation Design: Data Transformation Model,’ the research employs bibliometric analysis for a knowledge mapping of the academic domain. Additionally, a quantitative content analysis of definitions pertaining to cyberterrorism and hacktivism sheds light on key issues within the scientific domain. The investigation reveals a dominance of male, single-author publications, primarily originating from the global north, suggesting a potential lack of collaborative trans-national research amongst a backdrop of an array of multi-disciplined parties. The absence of consistent high-impact journal contributions, lack of knowledge cohesion, coupled with an over-reliance towards secondary sources, further hinders the rich and dynamic collection of researchers from achieving a cohesive academic discourse leading to the issue of knowledge fragmentation within academia fields. The analysis of definitions exposes cyberterrorism as predominantly hypothesised, emphasising unspecified actors and potential harms, diverging from conventional notions of terrorism as a spectacle. In contrast, hacktivism is characterised by more group-oriented definitions, rooted in specific events, their injustices, and associated hacktivist campaigns. Recognizing the distinct ideological motivations behind both cyberterrorism and hacktivism, this thesis concludes by proposing an ontological framework in effort to decentralise the dependency towards specific research definitions. This framework aims to facilitate the collection and dissemination of event details related to these phenomena, fostering more extensive and collaborative research efforts in this evolving field.Item The power of empty places. A re-appraisal of modernity through void experiences(University College Cork, 2023) Bollard, Kate; Szakolczai, Arpad; Boland, TomSocial media has been established as a central feature of the modern world and a propagator of contemporary culture. The problematic effects of engagement in the social domain have been widely recognised across various disciplines. However, the compelling force and limitless nature of social media have previously gone undetected because they are veiled by its innovativeness and suitability to the fast-paced modern world. This thesis will employ anthropological theories to help understand the modern world. The theory of the void is utilised to examine the destructive features of social media that induce an unreality and provoke users to unfold in alternate ways. Voids can be regarded as brutal traps that promote capturing, limitlessness and disconnectedness. Application of void theory to the realm of social media highlights its vicious qualities such as an entrapping force and transformative power. Classifying the realm of social media as a void illustrates how the intangible non-place is a divisive feature of modernity. To gain comprehension of the pervasive void created by technology, historical phenomena must be considered and evaluated. Comparative analysis of the most varied types of voids offers insight into how voids operate to exert dominance over their respective cultures. The circular formation of stone circles establishes a void, which functions as a representation of the realm of social media. Evaluating tangible characteristics of stone circles, such as their material character, configuration and optical display on the solstice offers insight into how social media operates to lure people into its domain and promote entrapment. Social media and stone circles are analogous void typologies that possess the ability to disrupt an individual’s internal equilibrium and alter reality. Envisaging highly influential facets of society as voids highlights the prevalence of absurdity in the lifeworld.