Handbook
CKE55 MA Sociology
CKE56 Sociology of Development and
Globalization
CKG 55 PhD Track Sociology
CKH 57 PhD Sociology
Discipline of Sociology
School of Sociology and Philosophy
University College Cork
Ireland
2016-2017
CONTACT DETAILS
Department Address:
Askive, UCC, Donovan’s Road, Cork, Ireland
Tel: +353-214902318/2894
Fax: +35321-4272004
General Enquiries, Department of Sociology:
Eleanor O’Connor [email protected];
Jerry O’Sullivan, [email protected]
Tel: +353-21-4902318
Information on the Postgraduate Programme:
Dr. Kieran Keohane, Head of Graduate Studies in Sociology
[email protected]
Department Website:
www.ucc.ie/sociology
ONLINE GRADUATE TEACHING RESOURCE:
http://blackboard.ie
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Table of Contents
MA Sociology, MA Sociology of Development
Globalization, PhD Track Sociology, PhD
and 4
Welcome
The Discipline
Administration
5
5
6
Routes to the M.A, M.Phil and Ph.D Degrees
THE PH.D PROGRAMME
THE MASTERS IN SOCIOLOGY PROGRAMME
7
8
THE MASTERS IN DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBALISATION
PROGRAMME
32
M.A. Assessment and Dissertation Requirements
33
Seminar and Dissertation Requirements
The Dissertation
Presentation and Return of Work
Assessment Procedures
Re-registration
Admission Requirements
33
34
34
34
34
36
Application Procedures
36
Other Matters
37
Graduate Representation
37
Staff Interests and Contact Details
Visiting Fellows
3
38
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Sociology
Welcome
Welcome to the MA and PhD programmes in Sociology – to those returning to UCC, to
those joining us from other institutions, and to those making enquiries for future years.
Listed below is some key information about Sociology, our programme, staff interests and
research projects, and the programmes/seminars offered in the coming year (2016-2017)
The Discipline of Sociology in the School of Sociology &
Philosophy
Sociology at University College Cork is one of two disciplines in the School of Sociology
& Philosophy. We have a successful and popular undergraduate programme, with large
student numbers.
Sociology has a very strong postgraduate programme, offering Master’s and Ph.D. degrees
for over twenty-five years. We offer a flexible, structured, modularized credit-based
graduate research education programme that is inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional and
international. Several of our graduates are now distinguished sociologists in their own right
teaching at third level colleges in Ireland and elsewhere in the world; others are involved
in full-time social research; and others are engaged in careers where a postgraduate
sociological training is an integral aspect of their work. Some of our graduates, particularly
from the Masters programme, have entered fields like teaching, journalism, human
resources, the civil service, social services, community work and broadcasting where their
postgraduate training is a valuable backup. We typically have 20-25 postgraduate students
enrolled in the Masters and PhD. As well, the modular and credit based structure of our
postgraduate programme enables students to undertake interdisciplinary postgraduate
degrees.
Sociology has research interests in a wide range of areas, enabling it to teach a diverse
programme and, along with its central contribution to the BA undergraduate programme
at UCC, to participate in many co-operative ventures (including the B.Soc.Sc, BSW,
BComm, BBS/DBS, MBA, Film Studies MA, MPlan, MA Irish Studies Women's Studies
MA, Public Policy, Nursing, and Medical Ethics). Its commitment to interdisciplinary
work also emerges in its successful visitors’ Seminar Series, which is open to the wider
UCC community and to the public.
In particular, Sociology at UCC is recognised for its outstanding research and publications
record (see staff interests and achievements below). For example, five members of staff
have been awarded the UCC Arts Faculty Research Achievement Award. In the last
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Research Quality Review conducted by an independent panel of international reviewers
Sociology scored 4 out of a possible 5, and the Review compared us favourably with the
top 15 sociology departments in the UK and the US! Staff in Sociology have published
extensively in their specialist fields and their work has been widely reviewed both in the
national and international arenas. In addition, Sociology is currently conducting research
projects - funded by the EU, Irish Research Council, Royal Irish Academy, PRTLI, the
EPA and other research bodies. These research projects have generated doctoral and
postdoctoral positions for researchers in recent years and we are highly committed to
expanding the research capacity of Sociology. Some members of staff are regular
contributors to the media, and our work is regularly reviewed or referred to in the media.
Sociology has extensive research contacts with colleagues and institutions in the UK,
Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, the Netherlands,
Norway, Africa, the Middle East, India, Canada, Brazil and the USA. In its teaching and
research Sociology seeks to further the unique contribution of the discipline both in the
academy and in the wider public sphere. Along with providing training and expertise in
the fields of social theory and research methodologies, Sociology is committed to offering
challenging and quality courses that are relevant to the most pressing issues in
contemporary societies – such as, global development, social inequality,
environmentalism, health and well being, gender, race and ethnicity, multiculturalism,
media and communication, cultural change, nationalism and community.
Administration
The MA and PhD Sociology and the MA Sociology of Development and Globalization is
administered by the Department’s Graduate Studies Committee. Ongoing
administration is carried out by this Committee. For general queries contact: Eleanor
O’Connor or Jerry O’Sullivan in the Departmental Office: +353-21-4902318
THE PH.D.
PROGRAMME
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Students who are registered for PhD and PhD Track in Sociology
programmes must take three (10 credit) Graduate seminars from the
discipline specific list below or from the list of CACSSS and University
wide modules available. Each student must consult with their supervisor
when selecting graduate modules
All PhD and PhD Track students have the option of participating in some
or all of the Graduate seminars without submitting a paper
Each PhD Track student must pass a progress review in order to upgrade
to full PhD registration. The College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social
Sciences require that all PhD Track students submit 10,000 words from
their thesis between 12 and 18 months after registration. This work must
be defended at interview with their supervisor and a progress reviewer
from the Discipline
Students who have already upgraded to PhD status may be requested to
submit some or all of their work to date for annual review between
upgrade from PhD Track and final submission of their thesis
THE MASTERS IN SOCIOLOGY PROGRAMME
There are two distinct kinds of Masters in Sociology degrees: M.A. and M.Phil. The
M.A. is finished in one year; the MPhil takes two years. The M.A. is taken by examination
and minor thesis (20,000 words); the MPhil is taken by major thesis only (40,000 words).
All incoming Masters Students are registered initially for the M.A. and take a
required number of seminars (five in total). (Students who already have the M.A. and
seek an MPhil are exempt from these requirements).
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All MA Sociology and Sociology of Development and Globalization
students are required to take five seminars in total from the programme.
This includes the ‘Social and Sociological Theory’ and the ‘Methodology
and Methods’ seminars, which are compulsory for all Masters Students
as well as three additional seminars from the programme outlined below.
Social and Sociological Theory Seminar
SC6608
Teaching Team: Staff
Co- Coordinator: Professor Arpad Szakolczai
All MA students will be required to take 24 hours of ‘Social and Sociological
Theory’. The seminars on theory will introduce graduate students to some
critical issues in the changing landscape of social theory. These seminars will
have the twin aims of increasing general knowledge of and capacity to apply
social theory.
Students are required to write a 3000 word paper on this course. This paper can either be
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(a) a critical review of a text assigned by one of the lecturers;
or
(b) the application of theoretical frameworks outlined in the seminars to students'
research.
Details of seminars to follow.
Methodology and Methods Seminar
SC 6614
Teaching Team: Sociology staff.
All first year students will be required to take 24 hours of methodology and methods.
This course is presented in full awareness of the drastic changes that have taken place in
both the philosophy and the practice of the social sciences during the past number of
decades. Its aim is to provide an up-to-date context in which graduate students can develop
the ability to reflect on the practice of sociology and, in particular, to refine their
competence and skills to carry out theoretically informed and methodologically justifiable
research from a number of different angles. The course is therefore divided into two parts.
The first part under the traditional title of ‘Methodology’ provides a research oriented
introduction to the conceptual paradigms that have emerged in the wake of the demise of
positivism since the 1960s and the subsequent emergence of post-positivism. These
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paradigms are explicated through the exploration of three essential questions deriving from
the philosophy of the social sciences: first, different frameworks of understanding
employed or the kinds of knowledge pursued in social research, traditionally called
‘epistemology’; second, different conceptions of the nature and scope of the field of study
or the kinds of object or reality referred to in social research, traditionally called ‘ontology’;
and, finally, different theories of science or logics of research informing social research,
traditionally called ‘methodology’.
N.B Seminar Paper Question
Students are required to write a 5-6000 word paper for this course:
“Give an outline of the methodological approach that you regard the most appropriate to
your research”.
The module is delivered in 12 x 2hr seminars and is held on Tuesday, 4.00 pm-6.00
pm during the second term.
In addition to the Social Theory and Methodology
courses which are compulsory, all students must
take a total of three other seminars listed below.
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Globalization and Culture
SC6623 / SC7623
Dr. Niamh Hourigan
Course Objectives
Globalization can be characterized as the increasing connectedness between people and
places. Some of the key ways in which this connectedness is created is through
technologies such as information and communication technologies, the greater use of air
travel, global media news coverage and the spread of global capitalism. As people become
more influenced by these elements of globalization, they become less limited by the culture
of the specific place they live in. The distinctiveness of places themselves also becomes
eroded by the influence of transnational chains of shops and restaurants and the
pervasiveness of elements of global culture such as global English.
For some this process of de-territorialization is a positive development allowing them to
reject the limitations of local and national cultures. For others, who are deeply enmeshed
in their cultures, the process of globalization represents a threat to their sense of identity.
At the transnational level, non-stop flows of images, information and people via
communication technologies have spawned intense debate about the impact of
globalization on cultural diversity. Sociologists have made a significant contribution to this
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debate as they document and analyze the subtle and innovative ways that people formulate
identities and meanings within the globalized political, economic and cultural systems that
now increasingly encompass them.
This advanced seminar provides you with the opportunity to explore the rich body of
literature on the complex relationship between globalization and culture. Theoretical
perspectives within Sociology are utilized to explore how cultural changes linked to
globalization have impacted on relationships between trans-national institutions, states,
regions, ethnic groups and local communities. A second focus of the course is to examine
the role of communication technologies and the mass media in creating new forms of
hybridity in the global cultural context. We will consider the impact of globalization on
individual, collective and national identities, as identity plays a key role in how we
experience culture. Finally, the variable ways in which individuals, collectivities and states
have been differentially affected by, responded to, resisted and/or sought autonomy from
increasingly globalized economic and cultural conditions will be examined through
exploration of movements of resistance to globalization.
Structure
This course will run over four intensive one-day workshops each focusing on a
specific theme. Students are expected to read all of the five pieces of the course material
set for each workshop prior to attendance.
Workshop One – Definitions and Mechanisms of Globalization
Within the social sciences, globalization has become a deeply contested term. Within the
global public sphere, it has become linked to range of controversial political and economic
ideologies. This first workshop seeks to interrogate these debates in order to develop a
more complete understanding of globalization. The main objectives of this first workshop
are:
1. To interrogate of sociological and popular definitions of globalization in order to
develop a more advanced understanding of the concept.
2. To examine the role of communications and travel technologies in generating
globalization and explore how these technologies transform human relationships
3. To critically engage with the sociological literature which explores how these
technologies which transform the relationship between time and space change the
individual’s understanding and engagement with the world
Readings to be prepared for workshop
B. Turner and R. Holton (2015) ‘Theories and Definitions’ The Routledge International
Handbook of Globalization. London: Routledge
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Giddens A. (1990) Chapter One from The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity
Press
Robertson, R. (1995) Time-Space and Homogeneity – Heterogeneity in M. Featherstone
and S. Lash (eds) Global Modernities. London: Sage
Appadurai, A. (1990) ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Economy’ in M.
Featherstone (ed) Global Culture. London: Sage
Barrangwanath, L. ‘Escaping the Grove of Globalisation: Distentangling description,
discourse and action. New Zealand Sociology. Vol 19, No. 2 2004: 299-320
Workshop Two – Globalization and Inequality (Economic, Political and
Cultural Dimensions)
Although globalization is a phenomenon that has crept into every corner of the world, some
locations have become more ‘globalized’ than others. Thus, globalization is an inherently
unequal and uneven process. The main focus on this workshop is to interrogate the various
dimensions of this inequality within globalization and the following themes will be
explored.
1. Globalization, economics and inequality: focusing specifically on the role of global
economic institutions in generating unequal economic structure. This discussion
will focus not only on the role of globalization in generating inequality between
countries at a global level but also the role of globalization in generating inequality
within societies between different socio-economic groups
2. Globalization and Politics. This review will examine the weakness of global
political institutions, the continuing dominance of American political influence and
the rise of China as a political force. It will also examine the question of war within
globalization
3. The final segment of the workshop focuses on these economic and political
inequalities within globalization generate potential for cultural inequalities
Readings to be prepared for workshops
Massey, D. (1993) ‘Power Geometry and a progressive sense of place’ in Bird et al.
Mapping the Futures. London: Routledge
Stiglitz, J. (2002) ‘The Promise of Global Institutions’ in Globalization and its
Discontents. London: Penguin
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B. Burgoon (2012) ‘Inequality and the anti-globalization backlash’ European Union
Politics 14(3): 408-435
S. Gamage (2015) ‘Globalization, Neoliberal Reforms and Inequality’ Journal of
Developing Societies 31,1: 8-27
J. Pakulski (2015) ‘Global Elites’ Routledge International Handbook of Globalization
Studies. London: Routledge
Workshop Three – Globalization and Identity (Resistances, Hybridities
and Reconciliations)
This workshop examines the variety of ways in which individuals, communities, ethnic
minorities and nation-states have engaged with globalizations. It explores the tension
between the distinctiveness of local place-based identities and the lure of global cultural
forms. Three pathways for mapping the relationship between globalization and identity are
examined.
1. Resistances: This section of the course will examined the rise of ‘so-called’
fundamentalisms. It will examine the globalized nature of these phenomena and explore
how they pose a challenge to the ‘values’ within globalization.
2. Accommodation: This segment will focus on the sociological literature which examines
the range of reconciliations which have emerged between global cultures and local
identities. This included work on hybridized culture, creolisation and glocalisation.
3. Embracing Global Culture: This final section examines whether a case can be made for
the emergence of a dominance global culture which will dominate local identities and
examines the pressures faced by minorities to embrace this culture out of economic
necessity. The discussion will focus specifically on the question of language and the rise
of ‘global English’
Readings to be prepared for workshops
R. Holton (2000) ‘Globalization’s Culture Consequence’ Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science
J. Nederveen Pietersee (2015) ‘Globalization as Hybridization’ Globalization and
Culture: Global Melange. Rowman and Littlefield
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S. Turkle (1984) ‘Hackers: Loving the Machine for Itself’ The Second Self: Computers
and the Human Spirit. New York Touchstone.
J. Roose and B. Turner (2015) Islam and Globalization: Islamophobia, security and
terrorism. Routledge Handbook of Globalization Studies. London:Routledge
Khatib, L (2003) ‘Communicating Islamic Fundamentalism as Global Citizenship’.
Journal of Communication Inquiry 27: 389-409.
Workshop Four – Globalization, Culture and Ireland
Having been listed as one of the most globalized countries in the world by Foreign Policy
in 2002, Ireland presents one of the most interesting contexts in which to examine the risks
and benefits of a whole-hearted engagement with globalization. This final workshop seeks
to link some of the literature which has emerged around globalization in Ireland with the
themes which have been interrogated in the other three workshops.
This day’s discussion will focus on four questions:
1. Rich and poor: How did the generation of a new ‘economic’ elite via globalization
change Irish society? How did the exclusion of the poor from the benefits of
globalization impact on Irish society?
2. Globalization, Ireland and Values. A rapid form of globalization occurred in Irish
society at the same time as secularization and the exposure (via tribunals) of the
weakness of Irish civic culture and citizenship in Ireland. What are the values which
now define Irish society?
3. Globalization, Identity and Irishness: During the Celtic Tiger period, many aspects
of Irish culture were turned into commodities while Ireland itself, became more
culturally diverse (via immigration). In Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, what does it now
mean to be Irish?
4. Having embraced globalization so enthusiastically, where is Ireland now located
within global economic, political and cultural hierarchies?
Readings to be prepared for workshops
Smith, Nicola (2004) Deconstructing ‘globalisation’ in Ireland’ Politics and Policy Vol
32, No 4.: 503-19.
Van der Bly, Martha (2007) ‘Globalisation and the Rise of One Heterogeneous World
Culture: A Micro-perspective of a Global Village’. International Journal of Comparative
Sociology 48, 2-3: 234-256
T. Pappas and E. O’Malley (2014) Civil Compliance and Political Luddism: Explaining
Violence and Social Unrest in Ireland and Greece
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G. Titley (2012) Budgetjam! A Communications Intervention in the Political Economic
Crisis in Ireland
K. Allen (2012) ‘The model pupil who faked the test: social policy in the Irish crisis.
Critical Social Policy
N.B Assessment
The assessment of the course is completed through attendance, presentations and
the submission of a 5,000 seminar paper on the
following theme:
Critically assess the process of globalization as a process of transformation in light
of at least two of the following themes
-
relationship between time and space
transformation of the global economy
relationship between power and inequality
identity, culture and resistance to globalization
globalization as a process of transformation in Irish society
Globalization and Culture Reading List
Agnew, J. (2009) Globalization and Sovereignty. Rowman and the Littlefield.
Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined Communities. London: Verso
Appadurai, Arjun 1990 ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Economy’ In
Featherstone, Mike (ed) Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity.
London: Sage
Bhagwati, J. (2004) In Defence of Globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Castells, Manuel 1997 The Power of Identity, London: Blackwell
Das, D (2009) Two Faces of Globalization. Munificient and Malevolent. Edward Elgar.
Easterly, W. (2006) The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest have
done so much ill and so little good. London: Penguin
Featherstone, Mike (1987) ‘Lifestyle and Consumer Culture’ Theory, Culture and Society.
4(1): 55-70.
Hall, Stuart (1990) ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora In Rutherford, J (ed) Identity:
Community, Culture and Difference. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
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Hannerz, Ulf (1991) ‘Scenarios for Peripheral Cultures’ in King, A. (ed) Culture,
globalization and the world system. London: Sage
Harcourt, W and A. Escobar (2005) Women and the Politics of Place. London: Routledge
Hardt, M. And A. Negri (2000) Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Herman, Edward and Noam Chomsky (1994) Manufacturing Consent: The Political
Economy of the Mass Media. London and New York: Random House.
Hourigan, Niamh (2003) Escaping the Global Village: Media, Language and Protest.
Lanham, MD: Lexington Books
Huntington, S. (1996) The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New
York: Simon and Schuster.
Keep, Christopher and Tim McLoughlin (1995) Marshall McLuhan and the Gutenberg
Galaxy. Virginia: The Marshall McLuhan Centre for Global Communications.
Jenkins, Richard (2004) Social Identity. London: Routledge
Lechner, F. And J. Boli (2005) World Culture: Origins and Consequences. Blackwell.
Massey, Doreen (1993) ‘Power Geometry and a progressive sense of place’ In J. Bird et al
(eds) Mapping the Future: Global Cultures, Local Change. London: Routledge.
McLuhan, Marshall (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man New York:
Macmillan.
Morley, David (2000) Home Territories: Media, Mobility and Identity. London: Routledge
Norris, Pippa (2000) ‘Global Governance and Cosmopolitian Citizens’ In Held, D and
Anthony McGrew (eds) Global Transformations Reader. Cambridge: Polity
Ogan, Christine (2001) Communication and Identity in the Diaspora. Lanham, Md:
Lexington Books
Perrons, D. (2004) Globalization and Social Change. London: Routledge.
Ritzer, George (1996) The McDonaldisation of Society. Newbury Park: Sage
Robertson, R. (1992) Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture, London: Sage
Robins, Kevin (1997) ‘Encountering Globalization’ In Held, D and Anthony McGrew (eds)
Global Transformations Reader. Cambridge: Polity
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Saxenian, A. (2006) The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schiller, Herbert (1985) ‘Electronic Information Flows: New Basis for global domination
in Drummond, P and R. Patterson (eds) Television in Transition. London: British Film
Institute.
Scholte, J. A. (2000) Globalization: A Critical Introduction. London: Palgrave
Sklair, Leslie (2002) Globalization: Capitalism and its Alternatives (3rd Edition) Oxford:
Oxford: University Press.
Smith, Anthony D. (1990) ‘Towards a Global Culture’ in Featherstone, Mike (ed) Global
Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity. London: Sage
Smith, Anthony, (1991) National Identity. London: Penguin
Thompson, W and R. Reuveny (2009) Limits to Globalization: North South Divergence.
Routlegde.
Tomlinson, John (2000) ‘Globalization and Cultural Identity’ In Held, D and Anthony
McGrew (eds) Global Transformations Reader. Cambridge: Polity
Urry, J. (2003) Global Complexity. Polity Press.
Veblen. Thorstein (1970) The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Mentor (first
published by Macmillan, New York in 1899)
Waters, M. (2001) Globalisation. London: Routledge
Woods, N. (2005) The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank and their Borrowers. Cornell
University Press.
The module is held during the first term
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Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization SC6627 /
SC7627
Dr. Kieran Keohane
Neither the life (or the health) of an
individual nor the history of a society can
be understood without understanding both.
C. Wright Mills (1959)
The
Sociological
Imagination
The Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization
The overarching theme of this course is an investigation of the ways in which contemporary
malaises, diseases, illnesses and psychosomatic syndromes are related to cultural
pathologies of the social body and disorders of the collective esprit de corps of
contemporary society. Hence, the focus is directed at understanding contemporary
problems of health and well-being in the light of radical changes of social structures and
institutions, extending to deep crises in our civilization as a whole. Problems of health and
well-being have hitherto been considered chiefly in isolation; both in isolation from one
another, and in isolation from broader contexts. This path has shown to have severe
limitations. Instead, we are interested in locating health and well-being not simply at the
level of the individual body, but within a trans-disciplinary imagination that takes into
account the integral human person’s situatedness within collective social bodies, particular
communities, entire societies, or even whole civilizations, encompassing the health of
humanity as a whole and our relationship with Nature.
Social pathology was once a mainstream concern of the social sciences, but over
the years it has become associated with conventional, ‘old fashioned’, or normatively
conservative standpoints. For instance, the social science focus on social pathologies of the
early and mid-20th-century was on specific topics, such as alcoholism, crime and
delinquency and (what was seen at that time as) sexual deviance. More recently,
professional clinicians and medical doctors have provided a great number of books in a
‘self-help’ genre oriented to both a specialist readership and to a broad audience. There is
a wide variance of quality in the genre. Some are ‘best-sellers’ because their authors hold
positions of authority and their readers are looking for authoritative guidance. However,
the weakness of most books in this genre is that they concern themselves with one discrete
problem – depression, or eating disorders, or stress – and/or that they are focused at the
level of the individual subject.
Conscious of this problematic antecedence and its narrowly ideological and
moralistic legacy, the Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization breaks decisively
from this anachronistic context, as indicated by its three distinct emphases: the course
focuses on the Social – i.e. historical and cultural as opposed to reductive psychological
and bio-medical- sources of Contemporary epidemic pathologies; and, extending beyond
the urgency of the new pathologies and beyond the immediate and particular context(s) of
the present societ(ies) in which they occur, the analysis extends to encompass principles
and processes of global Western Civilization as a whole.
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As well as the illnesses that are at least recognized as such - depression, stressrelated illnesses, eating disorders, suicide and deliberate self-harm, to name just a fewthere are more general, diffuse social pathologies that have so far not even been formulated
as being problematic. On the contrary, they have come to be seen, broadly, as the normal
conditions of life in contemporary society, so much so that, echoing Sigmund Freud, ‘to be
sane in a sick society is to be sick relative to the society’ (Freud 1961: 102f). For instance,
under the auspices of the neoliberal revolution whereby the norms of society are eclipsed
by the principles of the market, a corresponding new type of subject has been emerging.
Shaped by the experiences of hyper-individuation and the political-economic and culturalideological emphasis on the purported rationality of utility-maximizing individual selfinterest we can see a florid symptomology of egoism, conceit, greed and narcissism that in
many ways approach new forms of psychosis. Moreover, the amorality of the market and
the relativization and dissolution of collective ethical frameworks and ideals (whether
traditional-religious or modern-secular) under conditions of global postmodern culture,
results in an amplified and intensified anomie and loss of meaningfulness, a moral vacuum
experienced individually and collectively. One of the characteristic aspects of this social
pathogenic milieu is a generalized experience of liminality; a morbid interregnum wherein
we are ‘stuck in a moment’ as it were; living in a interminable present, with a lack of sense
of history on the one hand and lack of a sense of a future – other than an extension of the
present – on the other. Characteristic social pathologies of this condition of ‘permanent
liminality’ (Szakolczai 2000: 220) include an acceleration and intensification of sensations
(rather than meaningful experiences); a proliferation of choices (rather than significant
decisions) and individual and collective amnesia / aphasia corresponding with loss of
historicity, and of despair / hopelessness corresponding with loss of futurity.
Hence, social pathologies are treated as multiple and as being related to one another,
and as not merely problems to be understood and addressed at the level of the individual
sufferer but rather as to be understood in social and historical terms. Instead of addressing
these conditions as though they were discrete pathologies, specific diseases suffered by
private individuals as ‘cases’, the starting point is thus that the sources of these problems
are social, cultural, and historical: that they arise from collectively experienced conditions
of social transformations and shifts in our civilization. This diagnostics of social
pathologies of contemporary civilization suggests also a corresponding therapeutics. When
we consider the challenges of recovery we realize that our individual and collective health
and well-being will require more than changes at the level of the discourse of professional
medicine, or at the level of the contents and forms of health services and policies, but, more
fundamentally, a revitalization of our social, political, cultural and moral institutions.
Mode of Delivery. 12 x 2hour seminars (dates to be determined)
Assessment:
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Students must attend seminars and participate in classroom discussions. In addition,
students will write a major research paper (max 5,000 words) on a topic to be negotiated.
For example, students may develop a research paper around a particular disease,
sociologically interpreting its etiology, symptomology and epidemiology in terms of its
sources, course and effects; or, they may choose to focus more generally on the historical
and sociological moral pathology and spiritual malaise of our times; or they may wish to
engage systematically with one of the current debates mentioned above.
Indicative Bibliography
Some readings for this module are listed below. Additional sources (books, articles,
films, art, etc) will be recommended in class.
Antonovsky, A. (1987): Unraveling the Mystery of Health. How People manage Stress and
Stay Well. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Bauman, Z. (1995) Life in Fragments ‘Acceleration and its discontents’pps 77-88
Blum, A. (2012): ‘The enigma of the brain and its place as cause, character and pretext in
the imaginary of dementia.’ History of the Human Sciences, October 2012 vol. 25 no. 4
108-124
Dufour, D-R. (2008): The Art of Shrinking Heads. On the New Servitude of the Liberated
in the Age of Total Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity.
Durkheim, E. excerpts from: Suicide; Moral Education; Division of Labour
Ehrenberg, A. (2010a): The Weariness of the Self. Diagnosing the History of Depression
in the Contemporary Age. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Fanon, F. (1970) ‘Colonial war and mental disorders’ in The Wretched of the Earth
Ferguson, H. (1995) Melancholy and the Critique of Modernity London: Routledge
Freud, S. Civilization & its Discontents pps 78 -104
Gadamer. H. G. (1996) The Enigma of Health Cambridge: Polity
Honneth, A. (2014): ‘The Diseases of Society. Approaching a Nearly Impossible
Concept’. Social Research: An International Quarterly, Vol. 81, No 3: 683-703.
Horwitz, A. V. (2002): Creating Mental Illness. Chicago: Chicago University
Keohane, K. A. Petersen & B. van de Bergh, B. (2017, forthcoming) Late Modern
Subjectivity and its Discontents: Anxiety, Depression and Dementia. London: Routledge.
Kristevia, J. (1995) New Maladies of the Soul New York: Columbia UP
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Marmot, M. (2004) Status Syndrome London: Bloomsbury pps 13-36; 142- 195.
Petersen, A. (2004) ‘Work and Recognition’ Acta Sociologica vol 47(4) pps 338-350. &
‘Depression as a Social Pathology of Action’
Ratcliffe, M. (2015): Experiences of depression. A study in phenomenology. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Rosa, H. (2013): Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. New York: Columbia
University Press
Salecl, R. (2004): On Anxiety. London: Routledge
Sennett, R. (1998) The Corrosion of Character New York: Norton.
Shorter, E. (1997): A History of Psychiatry. From the era of the asylum to the age of
Prozac. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Snowdon, D. (2001): Aging with Grace. What the Nun Study Teaches us about Leading
Longer, Healthier, and More Meaningful Lives. New York: Bantam Books
Taylor, C. (1989): Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Wilkinson, R. (2005) Health & Inequality: How to Make Sick Societies Healthier
London: Routledge
Sociology of Sustainable Development
SC6631 / SC7631
Dr. Gerard Mullally
A shift in register in environmental discourses in the late 1980s from environmental threat
to sustainable development marked an official recognition that environmental problems
are fundamentally social problems, but are also simultaneously global problems too
(Szerszynski, Lash and Wynne 1996; Beck 1999). The ascendance of the discourse of
sustainable development promised a fundamental and qualitative shift in the relationship
between human society and nature.
In perhaps the most recognisable formulation sustainable development has been defined
as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of
future generations to meet their needs' (‘Our Common Future’, 1987) The definition goes
on to point out that sustainable development contains within it two main concepts: the
concept of needs in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding
priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology
and social organization on the environments ability to meet present and future needsIrwin
points out that the concept of sustainable development was essentially the marriage of
developmentalism (as a commitment to economic development) and environmentalism,
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which is neither straightforward nor without its critics e.g. Sachs (1999). Yet the discourse
of sustainable development is an actively created framework for understanding our period
in history (Irwin 2001). Sustainable development has been characterised as a latter day
equivalent of a grand narrative ‘a way of seeing the present in the perspective of the
future…with a societal storyline for justifying change’ (Myerson and Rydin, 1996). As
Lafferty points out a realisation of sustainable development, particularly in the area of
production and consumption and issues of global equity implies a transformative
programme - a reorientation of the basic tenets of Western liberal-pluralist – capitalist
society.
With such monumental claims invested in the concept is it not perhaps sociologically naïve
to begin from a policy-oriented discourse? The focus of this module is to explore the idea
put forward by Irwin that the policy discourse acts as a window on several central
sociological themes. These include: the call for fundamental social and institutional
change at all levels of society from the global to the local; a quasi-religious sense of
togetherness and globality as the human family struggles to deal with its problems; the
notion that democracy, participation and empowerment are seen integral to sustainable
development; and the evocation of a shared crisis.
The module has two dimensions:
The first critically examines the construction, elaboration and evolution of the discourse
of sustainable development on an international and global level as a transformative project
that attempts to reconceptualize the relationship between humanity and nature. It begins
from the premise that sustainable development is, above all, a cultural form consisting of
words, concepts, propositions, explanations, meanings and symbols, that provide
legitimation to a range of distinct actors and agents to engage in certain kinds of action
and to create certain kinds of institutions (Strydom 2002). Particular attention will be paid
to the role of international actors like the United Nations, the OECD, the EU and
transnational actors such as the global environmental movement and how they both
coalesce and divide on the present and future direction of human social development.
The second takes the example of Ireland as an illustrative case study of a country that has
effected an economic transformation from one of the most underdeveloped countries in
Western Europe to a much-vaunted exemplar of successful modernization by bodies like
the EU and OECD. The emphasis will be on the ambivalent encounter between the
discourse of sustainable development with its emphasis on themes of integration, equity,
balance and futurity and the experience of recent and rapid social and cultural
transformation of Ireland. As economic development brings not just an accumulation of
materials but also materialism there is a growing sense of cultural malaise becoming
evident in increased levels of protest over development options in Ireland. Particular
attention will be given to how this relates to the transformative project of sustainable
development and is revealed in discourses of environment and development.
Workshop 1: The Concept and Discourse of Sustainable Development.
- concept and contestation
- cognitive, normative and regulative aspects of sustainable development
- convergence and divergence
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Readings:
Connelly, Steve (2007), ‘Mapping Sustainable Development as a Contested Concept’,
Local Environment, Vol. 12, No. 3, 259-278.
Jabareen, Yosef (2008), ‘A New Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Development’,
Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10, 179-192.
Kallio, Tomi J., Nordberg, Piia and Ahonen, Ari (2007), ‘Rationalizing Sustainable
Development – A Critical Treatise’, Sustainable Development, Vol. 15, pp. 41-51.
Lafferty, William M (2004), ‘Introduction: Form and Function in Governance for
Sustainable Development’, in W.M Lafferty (ed.), Governance for Sustainable
Development: the Challenge of Adapting Form to Function, Cheltenham and Northampton:
Edward Elgar, pp. 319-360
Morse, Stephen (2008), ‘Post-Sustainable Development’, Sustainable Development, 16,
341-352.
Workshop 2: Global Transformations, Local Transitions.
- Global Summits and Local Strategies
- European Horizons
- Local Experiences
Readings:
Baker, Susan (2007), ‘Sustainable Development as Symbolic Commitment: Declaratory
Politics and the Seductive Appeal of Ecological Modernisation in the European Union,
Environmental Politics, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp 297-317
Göll, Edgar, and Lafond, Micheal (2002), ‘From Rio to Johannesburg and Beyond: A Long
and Winding Road’, Local Environment, pp. 317-324.
Göll, Edgar, and Thio, Sie Liong (2008), ‘Institutions for a Sustainable Development,
Experiences from EU Countries’, Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10, 6988.
Rajamini, Lavanya (2003), ‘From Stockholm to Johannesburg: the Anatomy of Dissonance
in International Environmental Dialogue’ RECIEL, Vol, 12, No.1, pp. 23-32.
Sneddon, Chris., Howarth, Richard. B., and Norgaard, Richard. B (2006), ‘Sustainable
Development in a Post Brundtland World, Ecological Economics, 57, pp. 253-268.
Von Frantzius, Ina (2004),’ World Summit on Sustainable Development Johannesburg
2002: A Critical Analysis and Assessment of Outcomes’, Environmental Politics, Vol. 13,
No.2, pp. 467-473.
Workshop 3: Socially Sustainable Development
- Social and Institutional Capital
- Social Movements and Sustainable Development
- Social Networks and Social Change
Readings:
Garavan, Mark (2007), ‘Resisting the Costs of Development: Local Environmental
Activism in Ireland: Environmental Politics, 16.5, 844-863.
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Lehtonen, Markku (2006) ‘Deliberative Democracy, Participation and the OECD Peer
Reviews of Environmental Policies’, American Journal of Evaluation, Vol. 27, No. 2, 185200.
Newman, Lenore and Dale, Ann (2007), ‘Homophily and Agency: Creating Effective
Sustainable Development Networks, Environment, Development and Sustainability, Vol.
9, No. 1, 79-90.
Rydin, Yvonne and Holman Nancy (2004), ‘Re-evaluating the Contribution of Social
Capital in Achieving Sustainable Development’, Local Environment, 9: 2, 177-233
Various (2006), ‘Symposium: The Death of Environmentalism’, Organization and
Environment, Vol. 19, No. 1.
Workshop 4: Sustainable Ireland?
Readings:
Flynn, Brendan (2007), The Blame Game: Rethinking Ireland’s Sustainable Development
and Environmental Policy, Dublin and Portland: Irish Academic Press (Chapter 5)
Kelly, Mary (2007), Environmental Debates and the Public in Ireland, Dublin: Institute of
Public Administration (Chapter 7)
Mullally, Gerard and Motherway, Brian (forthcoming 2008), ‘Governance for Regional
Sustainable Development: Building Institutional Capacity on the Island of Ireland’, in
John McDonagh, Tony Varley and Sally Shorthall (eds.), A Living Countryside? The
Politics of Sustainable Development in Rural Ireland, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Mullally, G (2006), ‘Relocating Protest: Globalisation and the Institutionalisation of
Organized Environmentalism in Ireland? pp. 145-167 in L. Connolly and N. Hourigan
(eds.), Social Movements and Ireland, Manchester and New York: Manchester University
Press.
Tovey, Hilary (2007), Environmentalism in Ireland: Movements and Activists, Dublin:
Institute of Public Administration.
Workshop 5: Emergent Sociological Theories of Climate Change
Readings:
Compston, Hugh et. al (2009), Climate Change and Political Strategy’, [Special Issue]
Environmental Politics, Vol. 18, No. 5.
Coughlan, Oisín (2007), ‘Irish Climate Change Policy from Kyoto to the Carbon Tax: a
Two-game Analysis of the Interplay of Knowledge and Power’, Irish Studies in
International Affairs, Vol. 18, 131-153.
Lever-Tracy, Constance (2008), ‘Global Warming and Sociology’, Current Sociology, 56:
455-484.
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Yearly, Steven (2009), ‘Sociology and Climate Change After Kyoto’, What Roles for
Social Science in Understanding Climate Change?’ Current Sociology, Vol. 57: 389-405.
Workshop 6: Reflexivity and Societal Change
Readings:
Bang, Henrik P. (2003), ‘Governance as Political Communication’, Henrik P. Bang (ed.)
Governance as Social and Political Communication, Manchester: Manchester University
Press, pp. 7-26.
Mullally, Gerard (2008), ‘Sustainable Development and Responsible Governance in
Ireland: Communication in the Shadow of Hierarchy’, in Seamus O’ Tuama (ed.), ‘Critical
Turns in Critical Theory’, Taurus
Usui, Yoichiro (2007) ‘The Democratic Quality of Soft Governance in the EU Sustainable
Development Strategy: A deliberative Deficit, Journal of European Integration, 29, 5, pp.
610-633.
Voß, Jan-Peter and Kemp, Rene (2005), ‘Reflexive Governance for Sustainable
Development: Incorporating Feedback in Social Problem Solving’, Paper for IHDP Open
Meeting, Bonn October 9-13.
February Friday
Mode of Delivery: The seminar is open to all students affiliated with the Irish Social
Sciences Platform –ISSP. The module will be taught at UCC. It will be delivered in
Teaching Period 2 in the form of Four x One-Day intensive seminars, supported by
online resources (Blackboard). The dates of these seminars are as follows:
Sociology of the Public Sphere
SC6626 / SC7626
Dr. Patrick O’Mahony
The public sphere is an often-referenced concept in sociology and it has claims to constitute
one of its basic theoretical components. However, the concept is still relatively underdeveloped beyond the early pivotal contributions of Jurgen Habermas, the ongoing critique
of this work, especially that inspired by Negt and Kluge’s contribution in the 70’s in,
amongst others a feminist direction, some important essays by Nancy Fraser, Habermas’s
own later contributions, and some comparatively recent work such as that of Emirbayer
and Sheller, Mayhew and Hauser, and others. Much of this work is written from a
normative standpoint addressing the relationship between communication in the public
sphere and the role of the public in democratic societies. While the normative tenor of this
work is to be welcomed, since the concept of the public sphere must address the
relationship between public communication and democratic institutions, much is also left
out by a failure to attend to how public communication can actually be conceptualized and
analysed in specific contexts and within and across issues. The normative emphasis also
needs radical sociological supplementation for a fully developed theory of the public sphere
to be possible.
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Readings for the course will broadly follow the indicative themes outlined below. At the
first session, proposals are put forward regarding the further development of the course and
relevant student interests taken into account.
The aim of the course is for students to gain familiarity with the sociological value of the
concept of public sphere as a foundational concept for grasping all kinds of societal
reflection, discussion and deliberation of a public nature. The readings for the course will
follow the themes outlined below. Some indicative readings are also supplied below. The
course will run through the second semester in two-hour blocks.
Course Themes
-
Habermas’s foundational account of the structural transformation of the public
sphere and its later reception;
Historical accounts of the evolution of the public sphere;
Habermas’s later work on deliberation, discourse ethics and the public sphere
The public sphere and liberal-representative elitism;
Radical alternative accounts of the public spheres;
Cognitive sociology as a new foundation for theorizing and applying the concept
(see O’Mahony below in indicative readings).
Indicative Reading
Asen, R. and Brouwer, D. 2001. Counterpublics and the State State University of New
York.
Calhoun, Craig (Ed.). 1993. Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Cohen, J. L. & Arato, A. 1992. Civil Society and Political Theory. Cambridge,
Mass: MIT Press.
Emirbayer, M. & Sheller, M. 1999. ‘Publics in History’, Theory and Society, 27 (6),
727-779.
Ferree, M., Gamson, W. A., Gerhards, J., Rucht, D. 2002. ‘Four Models of the Public
Sphere in Modern Democracies’, Theory and Society, 31, 289-324.
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Fraser, N. 1990. 'Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually
Existing Democracy', Social Text, 25/26, 56-80.
Habermas, J. 1996. Between Facts and Norms. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hauser, G. 1999. Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres,
University of South Carolina Press.
Negt, O. & Kluge, A. 1993. Public Sphere and Experience. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
O”Mahony, P. 2013. The Contemporary Theory of the Public Sphere. Oxford: Peter Lang
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SC6638 Borders and Social Justice
Dr. Tracey Skillington
This course explores the impact of global processes of change on the borders of the
sovereign state. Borders have always played an integral part of the 'imagining' of a
sovereign political community and in the more contemporary global age, the borders within
and between states are subject to significant transformation. Globally shared challenges
like climate change, international poverty, economic crisis, diminishing access to natural
resources are 'borderless' problems that face us all, yet states respond to the various 'chain
effects' of such issues today, including displacement and migration, by asserting the
preeminence of sovereign borders in the determination of the right of entry, the right of
movement, access to entitlements and the allocation of citizenship. In light of the current
international 'human rights crisis' (denied access to food, fresh water, arable land,
livelihood, shelter) and ever-widening global social inequalities, this course critically
explores what purpose borders fulfill today in the allocation of justice?
The course will be designed around a social analytical framework exploring five thematic
areas relevant to the study of borders. One session will be devoted to each research area.
Session one: Understanding sovereignty: Is the authority of the nation state still based on
a command over territory, a monopoly of legitimate force, and the definition of political
community? There are many arguments that say 'no' and we will explore them. We will
also examine what challenges does the emergence of a 'trans-sovereignty' pose to the nation
state today?
Session two: How and in what instances does the assertion of 'entitlement' become a
'hardened' border to global justice and democracy? The international politics of climate
change is currently being played out through a scramble for the world's dwindling resources
(conflict over arable land, crop yields, fresh water, hostile take-over bids of the world's oil
and gas refineries). How are ideas of justice, equity and sustainability being defined at
present through such global economic and political practices?
Session three: Sovereign borders are being fortified at the same time as the UN's High
Commissioner for Human Rights announces that humanity is in the grips of a 'global human
rights crisis'. Poverty and climate change are inducing major hardships on vulnerable
regions of the world leading to a mass displacement of peoples. In this session, we assess
how the issue of responsibility (for both climate change and its victims) is being articulated
in international political discourse as fresh water becomes the 'defining resource of the
future' and 'food shortages the defining issue'. We will look at what various sociological
perspectives can be brought to bear on our understandings of such issues.
Session four: The relativity of rights and the 'hypocrisy of sovereignty'. In this session, we
will address the issue of denial. States continue to embed themselves more and more in
international structures of co-operation (economic partnerships, military or peace alliances,
environmental agreements, etc.) yet still express a desire to exercise significant autonomy
and a tight control of immigration. We will assess the issue of 'hypocrisy' and note how the
latter is currently being played out internationally in policy discourse and practices on
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border control, securitization, detention and exclusion. We will also assess to what degree
there is an element of 'cultural insiderism' operative in current interpretations and
applications of rights. The question is whose 'universal rights' are being prioritized?
Session five: The current human condition requires a new approach to the social, ecological
and political realities of the contemporary global world. The United Nations has begun to
finally speak openly of state and inter-state obligations to those displaced peoples directly
affected by climate changes now and indeed, whole communities of 'ecologically
challenged states' in the future. We will look at how impending global realities can be
actively addressed by reconfigured 'democratic communities' that exist between and
beyond the sovereign state. What role can these communities play in the allocation of rights
to resources and the reinterpretation of distributive justice under conditions of global
scarcity?
Readings will be distributed in class.
SC6611
Sociology of Crime and Deviance
Professor Colin Sumner
WGB G13 Semester 1, Thursdays 5.00-7.00 pm
Our objective in this module is to explore the ways intellectuals have understood or
explained the social censure, stigmatization and exclusion or treatment of various groups
of the population as matters of ‘crime’ and ‘deviance’. The different theories of crime and
deviance reflect the main political positions in society. They also reflect growing
secularization, the insecurities and fast-changing moral sensitivities of modernity, and the
social conflicts that marked the twentieth century.
Sociology offers us great insights into the origins, processes, functions and outcomes of
the social censure of crime, deviance and transgression. But that sociology is always a
creature of its time. Therefore our course will look at different perspectives in sociology
but always within their historical context. The textbook that will cover most of the course
is my:
The Sociology of Deviance: an Obituary. 1994, Open UP and Continuum; now
published by CrimeTalk Books, in 2013 as a reprint with new cover and in 2012 as pdf,
available from YPD Books, at http://www.ypdbooks.com/215__crimetalk-books. NB I
have paperback copies in my office for €18.00.
For those of you with no background in criminology, you should also buy one of the
following:
Chris Hale et al. [2013 ed.] Criminology [3rd ed.]. Oxford: Oxford UP.Tim Newburn
29
[2013] Criminology [2nd ed.]. Abingdon: Routledge.Students should also regularly read
and explore CrimeTalk, my online resource for criminology students:
www.crimetalk.org.uk
Our lecture-seminar topics will be:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Marx, industrial capitalism and de-moralization
Durkheim, social dis-integration and suicide
Cities, gangs and communities: the Chicago School
Unequal policing, labelling and deviancy amplification
Stigma, asylums and scapegoats: Goffman
Media and crime: folk devils and moral panics
The politics of deviance: the ‘new’ criminology
Critical criminology, the state and criminal law
Disciplinary power, prisons and the concept of social control
Punishing the poor, left realism and 'extreme' responses
Gender, feminism and the masculinity of crime
Crime and social development
SC6624 / SC7624
Professor Arpad Szakolczai
Aim of the course:
The course will provide a guide for understanding the processes that gave rise to the
modern global world in which we all live. The rise of modernity, through its various
revolutions (French, American, industrial, scientific, technological, and so on), was
accompanied with broad promises about freedom, equality, unprecedented well-being and
happiness. By now it is rather evident that such promises are not being met, but the world
around us are indeed increasingly transformed, and quite seriously and increasingly
destroyed. The main modernist intellectual frameworks, not only positivism and
analytical philosophy, but even the various critical perspectives, relying on the works of
Marx and Freud, are unable to offer a proper understanding, not to mention suggesting a
way out of the dead end of global modernity. The course is based on a research project
conducted over the past decades which so far yielded seven monographs, each published
by Routledge, which attempt to bring together the most important thinkers, and figures of
culture, that do not shy away from tackling directly the destructive nature of modernity. It
will focus on the three main sources of such destructiveness: the ‘market economy’ (or
rather fairground capitalism); the scientific transformation of nature (or rather alchemic
technology); and the mass-democratic public arena.
Logistics:
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The course will be organised in four one-day workshops, in the first term. Those
attending the course will have to write a final paper, on a theme to be agreed upon.
Readings:
As I have published extensively about most of the themes to be covered in the course, these
publications will be the primary readings, comparable to course notes. These are available
in the Library, in the Information Room, or on-line. They also contain and extensive
secondary reading list. The most important of these are Reflexive Historical Sociology
(Routledge, 2000), containing a detailed discussion of classical authors; and the three most
recent volumes: Comedy and the Public Sphere: The Re-birth of Theatre as Comedy and
the Genealogy of the Modern Public Arena (Routledge, 2013); Novels and the Sociology
of the Contemporary (Routledge, 2016); and Permanent Liminality and Modernity:
Analysing the Sacrifical Carnival through Novels (Routledge, 2017). A more specific
reading list will be distributed at the beginning of the course, updated at the start of each
workshop.
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Sociology of Development and Globalisation
Programme
Course Team:
Dr. Niamh Hourigan and Dr. Ger Mullally
Course Description:
The Department also offers an MA in the Sociology of Development and Globalisation.
This programme was launched in 1990 and grew out of a long-standing interest in
development issues within the Department. The importance and continuing relevance of
an analysis of the global nature of our current world, at both the structural and cultural
levels, is illustrated by the street confrontations over the World Trade Organisation’s
meetings and by the less volatile, but pervasive “McDonaldisation” of culture and
consumerism. However, at the same time, examples of resistance and conflict exemplified
by events in Chechnya, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Palestine remind us of the
importance of the local and the specific in understanding regional developments as they
articulate with the wider global trends. In our teaching and research, we draw on both
sociological and anthropological perspectives. We are particularly interested in
developing new ways of thinking about development and globalisation and the practice
and policy implications of alternative approaches. The programme is premised on the
assumption that while we can talk about “one world”, it is still a very unequal world, and
increasingly so, and that this inequality needs to be both analysed and challenged.
Therefore, the programme attempts to analyse critically the processes of the globalisation
of poverty and inequality and explores alternative strategies of development by which
people can liberate themselves from the structures and ideologies of domination. In the
programme we recognise that poverty and inequality are not only about access to
resources, but are based on ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.
Students registered for this programme must take SC6631 Sociology of Sustainable
Development and SC6623 Globalization and Culture
Seminars Offered:


Dr. Niamh Hourigan: Globalization and Culture (see MA Sociology, Society and
Mass Communication)
Dr. Ger Mullally: Sociology of Sustainable Development
32
M.A. Assessment and Dissertation Requirements
Seminar and Dissertation Requirements
The MA programme is made up of seminars and a minor dissertation (20,000 words). Five
seminar papers comprise 60% of the total mark for the M.A. The remaining 40% is made
up by the dissertation.
Seminar Papers
All MA in Sociology and MA in the Sociology of Globalisation and Development
students must take the Social and Sociological Theory and Methodology and Methods
courses (see above for details) plus three postgraduate seminars. Both of the
compulsory courses have 5 -6000 word assignments, each worth 10 credits.
Seminars are held in both the first and second terms (see timetable below). You must
submit a seminar paper for each seminar you take. Each seminar paper should be 5-6000
words in size and is worth 10 credits.
Two copies of each paper must be submitted to the Department Office by a stated
deadline, where they will be date stamped. Papers will be indicatively graded and returned
to you normally within one month of their submission. Final grades will be confirmed by
the External Examiner in June. Penalties (in the form of reduced marks) will be
imposed for late submissions.
 1- 3 days late a 5% deduction will be made from the assigned mark.
 4 -7 days late a 10% deduction will be made from the assigned mark
 8-14 days late a 20% deduction will be made from the assigned mark.
Example: If a piece of work is given a mark of 60% by the lecturer and the work is 1- 3
days late, the mark recorded for examination purposes will be 57%. If the work is 4 - 7
days late, the recorded mark will be 54, and if 8 -14 days late, it will be 48.
The Department recommends the currently most widely used system, the Harvard system
of referencing. Guidelines for the use of this system are to be found at:
http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm
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Dissertation
You should be planning your dissertation right from the beginning of the year. From
February onwards it will be your primary concern as an MA student. A draft copy should
be submitted to your supervisor by June, and a final copy by September. This deadline is
strictly imposed by the Examinations Office, and under no circumstances are extensions
granted. Students submitting work after this date must re-register and pay fees.
The Dissertation
You will work with a supervisor in defining and planning the work for your dissertation.
Supervisors will normally be allocated in February of each year. Some of you may have
already established who you would like your supervisor to be in light of your research
interests. However, you will have to complete a form early in the year indicating your
research interest and your first and second choice of supervisor. You should meet with
your supervisor as soon as possible once you have been allocated one and then at least
once per month throughout the year.
Presentation and Return of Work
Students must submit two copies of all work for assessment.
Two copies of all seminar papers must be submitted by stated deadline.
Two unbound copies of the thesis are to be submitted to supervisors on or before the
submission to the examinations Office in early October. Reader’s reports will be
completed and agreed upon prior to the Internal Examinations Board meeting in
November.
All final work submitted for evaluation (seminar papers and dissertation) must be typed
and bound, and must be free of spelling, typographical and grammatical errors. You are
strongly advised to check, and double check, all papers and theses for errors before
submitting them. Work which does not conform to the standards of presentation specified
in the University Marks and Standards may be penalised or refused.
The reading of drafts of seminar papers is a matter for negotiation between the staff
member and the student. Supervisors will read and comment on drafts of theses provided
they are submitted at a time that permits this. Note that supervisors may not always be
readily available during the summer months due to vacation and research commitments.
34
You should make appropriate arrangements to have contact with your supervisor regarding
the reading of draft material during the summer period.
Normally drafts of seminar papers or chapters of theses will be returned within two weeks
of submission. Drafts of completed theses will be returned within four weeks of
submission. Students should take note of these times and schedule their submission
accordingly.
N.B. Students are not allowed to present the same material for more than one seminar
paper.
Assessment Procedures
All postgraduate work, seminar papers and theses, will be read by two members of staff.
In addition your thesis will be read by the external examiner whose role it is to oversee the
consistency of grading in the department and the overall standard of the department.
Re-Registration
Students who fail to complete their work within the specified time-period require the
permission of the Head of Discipline to re-register. Students who fall seriously behind in
their work may not be permitted to re-register as full-time students. Students who register
‘for examination only’ are not entitled to supervision.
35
ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The minimum standard for entry to the MA Programme is an undergraduate degree with
Second Class Honours Grade 2, or equivalent, in Sociology. In exceptional cases we will
accept applications from candidates who do not have an undergraduate qualification in
Sociology, but who can demonstrate an equivalent level of competence.
For PhD applicants the minimum requirement is possession of the MA degree in
Sociology, or an MA in a closely related discipline, plus an undergraduate degree in
Sociology.
Application Procedures
Application for admission to the postgraduate programme is made through the
Postgraduate Application Centre Applicants should visit www.pac.ie. for the relevant
forms and further particulars. Other queries should be addressed to:
Graduate Studies Office,
West Wing,
University College Cork,
Cork, Ireland.
Tel 353-21-4902645
Fax: 353-21-4903233
E-mail: [email protected]
Non-EU students must apply to:
International Education Office
Tel: 353-21-4902543
Fax:353-21-4903118
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ucc.ie/international
In addition to the general requirements of the Office of Postgraduate Admissions, we
require:
* A supporting letter. This should outline your intellectual biography and your reasons
for pursuing postgraduate studies in sociology.
36
* A research proposal. This should outline, as precisely as possible, a topic on which you
propose to write a dissertation. It should define a problem, develop hypotheses concerning
the problem, show the theoretical framework within which the problem and hypotheses
are formulated, and indicate the method(s) which you will apply. While the research
proposal will be important in the evaluation of the applicant's ability, successful applicants
will be free to modify and alter their research interests in accordance with the knowledge
gained and new perspectives encountered in the course of their studies. In formulating
their research proposal, applicants should give careful attention to the research interests of
the staff to ensure that the Department will be in a position to offer the specialised
supervision they will need in carrying out their research.
* A sample of your written work. For MA students, this could be a final year
undergraduate essay or research project. For M.Phil/PhD applicants it will be your M.A.
dissertation or equivalent (e.g. published papers).
N.B. We may also require prospective applicants to present themselves for interview. The
interviewing of overseas applicants may be conducted by telephone.
OTHER MATTERS
Postgraduate Representation
Department meetings take place approximately once per month. Postgraduate students
have right of representation at these meetings (except for meetings dealing with restricted
business). Representatives are elected by registered postgraduate students. Elections
should take place as early as possible in the academic year.
Resource Centre
Formatted: Font: Times New Roman
The Department of Sociology has a Resource Centre that provides reading materials for
all courses in Sociology. Ms Paula Meaney, the Resource Centre manager, will also be
happy to give you advice and guidance.
The Resource Centre is located on the ground floor of ASKIVE, the main Sociology
building on Donovan’s Road.
Opening Hours:
Monday: 10.30 am to 12.30 p.m
Tuesday, Wednesday: 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
37
Thursday: 10.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
Friday: 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
Student Experience Committee
The Department has a Student Experience Committee that consists of elected student
representatives for the different courses and years, and a number of members of staff. The
committee meets twice each term and enables students to contribute to the business of the
Department. Students are urged to exercise their right to do this by direct participation on
the committee or by channelling suggestions, comments and/or complaints through their
representatives. The Department is proud of the fact that it is one of the few departments
at UCC with such a committee, but its effectiveness depends upon the importance given
to it by students.
Good academic practice guidelines for students.
Dept. of Sociology, UCC.
All work submitted by students of the Department of Sociology, UCC is
expected to represent good academic practice.
Students are advised to ensure they make use of RED @UCC (Resources
for Education) to familiarize themselves with some of the issues around
academic cheating but also to be aware of what constitutes good academic
practice.
Both RED@UCC and internal documentation supplied by the Dept. of
Sociology (style sheet and handbook) - available on the department home
page - provide information about referencing, writing and academic
misconduct.
The
University
has
produced
a
plagiarism
policy
http://www.ucc.ie/en/exams/procedures-regulations/ that clearly outlines
what constitutes plagiarism and the procedure to be followed when a case
of plagiarism is suspected. This document informs all Department policy in
such instances.
In the case of suspected plagiarism in ‘non-invigilated’ assessment (e.g.
essays/dissertations), the assignment in question will be, in the first
instance, referred to the Head of School/Dept. or nominee.
38
If the HOS, HOD or nominee deems that there is a case to answer, the case
can be either passed to the Exams and Records office, or a penalty can be
applied locally.
The penalties include:
- A reduction in mark
- Award of zero
If there is evidence of plagiarism (or other academic misconduct) the student
will be given the opportunity to respond to the allegation via email or in
person. If a meeting is held, students are entitled to have a witness (noncontributing) present.
If a penalty is applied locally, the student can choose to accept this penalty,
or refer their case to the Exams and Records office (see the University
Plagiarism Policy).
As a means of ensuring good academic practice, the Dept. of
Sociology reserves the right to use Turnitin software on any and all
student submissions.
Staff Interests
Contact Details
For complete list of staff publications see the Sociology Department website www.ucc.ie/acad/socio
Prof. Arpad Szakolczai B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 021-4902472/ Ext 2472 internally
Research interests
Social theory (thinkers: Max Weber, Michel Foucault, Norbert Elias, Eric Voegelin,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Reinhart Koselleck; themes: theorising experiences and events as the
foundation of sociological methodology; the formation of identity, especially through
mimesis and recognition; gift-giving and sociability as the foundation of sociological
39
theory of order; liminality, periods of transition and social change; diagnosing and
overcoming nihilism);
- historical sociology (long-term comparative civilisational perspective; civilisational
analysis, the civilising process; 'axial age' theories (Karl Jaspers, Shmuel Eisenstadt, Jan
Assmann), 'reflexive historical sociology' (including also Lewis Mumford and Franz
Borkenau); the links between pilgrimage, monasticism and the Crusades - especially
Alphonse Dupront);
- bringing together the links sociology has with anthropology (Marcel Mauss, Arnold van
Gennep, Victor Turner, René Girard, Mary Douglas, Colin Turnbull, Gregory Bateson),
and comparative mythology (Georges Dumézil, Karl Kerényi, Mircea Eliade, Walter
Burkert);
- history of sociological thought (apart from the classical figures, special interest in
Gabriel Tarde, crowd psychology (Gustave Le Bon), elite theory (Vilfredo Pareto,
Gaetano Mosca, Roberto Michels), Karl Mannheim);
- a problematisation of criticism, focusing on the 'radical Enlightenment', especially on
the 'end of metaphysics' thesis;
- sociology of religion; especially pilgrimage and monasticism;
- sociology of values, especially the Rokeach test;
- East-Central Europe.
Current research projects
- the sociology of comedy:
At the moment I’m completing a book manuscript on the genealogy of comedy. The idea
is to reconstruct the effective history of comedy, since the 16th century, and thus
demonstrate the extent to which crucial aspects of the modern world can be attributed to
the impact of comedy, starting from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, that arrived into
Europe through Venice, after the sack of Constantinople, and much contributed to the end
of the Renaissance.
- two global ages:
Following The Genesis of Modernity, the central idea is that the current debate on
globalisation, which is extremely confusing and is all but hijacked by various and often
very obsolete ideologies can be better situated on a comparative historical plane, using the
parallels between the modern age of 'globalisation' and the previous 'global age' of worldconquering empires (Persian, Macedonian, Roman). This research path was opened up by
the 'axial age' thesis of Karl Jaspers, based on Max Weber's work, and continued by Lewis
Mumford or Eric Voegelin, more recently by Shmuel Eisenstadt and scholars associated
with his research project like Johann Arnason, Peter Wagner, Bo Strath, Georg Stauth and
Said Arjomand; the sociogenesis and psychogenesis of the civilising process championed
by Norbert Elias (based on the work of Karl Mannheim), and also by his friend Franz
Borkenau; and the 'genealogical method' inspired by Nietzsche and developed further by
Michel Foucault.
- liminal crises and the return of the trickster:
40
This research project uses research in comparative anthropology and mythology in order
to situate contemporary society. Using the concept liminality, derived from the study of
rites of passage (Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, Gregory Bateson), the phenomenon
of sacrifice and the problem of the sacred (René Girard, Giorgio Agamben), and the figure
of the Trickster (Paul Radin, Karl Kerényi and Georges Dumézil), it argues that under
highly volatile, confusing, 'liminal' conditions social life will become dominated by the
'sinister' impact of Trickster like figures that feel genuinely at home in the homelessness,
whether other human beings are at easy, feeling alienated, anxious and despairing, and
normal human life becomes impossible. Special emphasis will be paid to the question of
the birth of the tragedy and the Dionysian, following Nietzsche and Kerényi; and the rebirth of tragedy with Shakespeare, and the role played by Trickster figures in Shakespeare's
work. Central to this project is a complementing of Weber's pure type of 'charisma' using
the 'archetypal figure of the Trickster. This project starts from the PhD dissertation of
Agnes Horváth, and will be done together with her
- re-founding social theory:
On the basis of the various other research projects, and my previous work, I plan to bring
together the various threads by developing of a genuinely social theory of order and change,
using ideas on gift-giving (Mauss and the 'total social fact'), sociability (Simmel), the
mimetics of desire (Girard), the link between identity and recognition (Pizzorno) and the
dynamic model of the spiral. The central claim is that much of social theory is dominated
either by individualistic theories, rooted in economic theory or legal philosophy, which are
explicitly hostile to a 'social' theory; or 'critical' theories based on conflict, struggle, and
violence, which are again, almost by definition anti-social, as conflict destroys the
conditions of possibility of meaningful human coexistence. The aim is to develop a social
theory starting at the 'in-between' level of experiences and events, focusing on the way
stable identities are formed by such event-experiences and their interpretation, and how
meaningful order can be upset and derailed by the intensive activity of 'Tricksters' during
liminal conditions of distress.
- the end of metaphysics?:
Since the mid-19th century, but going back to the 'radical Enlightenment', it is widely
assumed that the critique of religion, and the end of metaphysics, is the starting point of all
forward-looking social theory. Comte's positivism was thought to end all religion and
philosophy, Marx proclaimed the hatred of gods as the Preface to his doctoral dissertation,
Nietzsche radicalised the critique of metaphysics, Heidegger declared Nietzsche the last
metaphysician, Derrida declared Heidegger's 'Being' as the metaphysics of presence … can
it be continued? Should it be continued? At the same time when this dead end was reached,
a series of thinkers deeply steeped in the Central European tradition, and starting from
Nietzsche, but then taking further inspiration from Plato, reached a completely different
end-point: the reassertion of metaphysics. These include the Hungarian Karl Kerenyi, Bela
Hamvas and Elemer Hankiss, the Czech Jan Patocka (the care of the soul), the Polish Julius
Domanski (philosophy as a way of life), but also the Vienna-educated Eric Voegelin
(metaxy, anamnesis), and the approach is also close to the works of influential French
41
thinkers like Pierre Hadot (philosophy as a way of life, philosophical conversion) or Michel
Foucault (the care of the self, parrhesia) in his last period. Following research done in some
forthcoming publications, the aim is to develop along these lines a full-scale book project.
The central concept of this project is the various, philosophical and religious approaches
to conversion, arguing that nihilism can only be reversed by turning around. This project
also incorporates the recent ideas of Agnes Horváth on Plato and the Florentine 'neoPlatonist', and will be done together with her.
Selected recent and major publications
Books:
Sociology, Religion and Grace: A Quest for the Renaissance. Routledge, London and
New York, 2007.
Gli interpreti degli interpreti: l’Ione di Platone oggi (The interpreter of interpreters:
Plato’s Ion today), (edited with Agnes Horvath), Ficino Press, Florence, 2008, 103 pp.
The Genesis of Modernity, Routledge, London and New York, 2003.
La scoperta della società (The discovery of society), (with Giovanna Procacci). Carocci,
Roma, 2003.
Reflexive Historical Sociology, London, Routledge, 2000.
Identità, riconoscimento e scambio: Saggi in onore di Alessandro Pizzorno (Identity,
recognition and exchange: essays in honour of Alessandro Pizzorno), (ed, with Donatella
Della Porta and Monica Greco). Bari, Laterza, 2000.
Max Weber and Michel Foucault: Parallel Life-Works. London, Routledge, 1998.
The Dissolution of Communist Power: The Case of Hungary. London, Routledge, 1992
(with Agnes Horváth).
Recent articles and chapters:
‘In pursuit of the “Good European” identity: From Nietzsche’s Dionysus to Minoan
Crete’, in Theory, Culture and Society 24 (2007), 5: 47-76.
‘Image-Magic in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Power and Modernity from Weber to
Shakespeare’, History of the Human Sciences 20 (2007), 4: 1-26.
‘Il Rinascimento e le rinascite nella storia: verso una sociologia della grazia’, in Studi di
Sociologia 45 (2007), 2: 123-45.
42
‘Citizenship and Home: Political Allegiance and its Background’, in International
Political Anthropology 1 (2008), 1: 57-75.
‘Anthropology beyond Evolutionism, or the Challenge of Prehistoric Cave Art: A Review
Essay’, in International Political Anthropology 1 (2008), 1: 149-60
‘‘The Spirit of the Nation-State: Nation, Nationalism and Inner-worldly Eschatology in
the Work of Eric Voegelin’, in International Political Anthropology 1 (2008), 2: 193212.
‘World-Rejections and World Conquests: The Dynamics of War and Peace’, in Tilo
Schabert and Matthias Riedl (eds) Die Menschen im Krieg, im Frieden mit der Natur
(Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 2006), pp. 147-63.
‘Global Ages, Ecumenic Empires, and Prophetic Traditions’, in Johann P. Arnason,
Armando Salvatore and Georg Stauth (eds) Islam in Process: Historical and
Civilizational Perspectives, Yearbook of the Sociology of Islam (Bielefeld, TranscriptVerlag, 2006), Vol. 7, pp. 258-78.
‘Identity Formation in World Religions: A Comparative Analysis of Christianity and
Islam’, in Johann P. Arnason, Armando Salvatore and Georg Stauth (eds) Islam in
Process: Historical and Civilizational Perspectives, Yearbook of the Sociology of Islam
(Bielefeld, Transcript-Verlag, 2006), Vol. 7, pp. 68-93.
‘The Non-being of Communism and Myths of Democratisation’, in Alexander Wöll and
Harald Wydra (eds), Democracy and Myth in Russia and in Eastern Europe (London,
Routledge, 2008), pp. 45-59.
‘Sinn aus Erfahrung’, in Kay Junge, Daniel Suber, and Gerold Gerber (eds.) Erleben,
Erleiden, Erfahren: Die Konstitution sozialen Sinns jenseits instrumenteller Vernunft
(Festschrift in Honour of Bernhard Giesen), (Bielefeld, Transcript-Verlag, 2008), pp. 6399.
‘Images of Society’, in Harvie Ferguson (ed.), Festschrift in Honour of Gianfranco Poggi
(Bologna, Il Mulino, forthcoming).
‘Voegelin, Weber, and Neo-Kantianism’, in Eric Voegelin and the Continental Tradition:
Explorations in Modern Political Thought, edited by Lee Trepanier and Steven McGuire
(University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, forthcoming).
‘Contemporary East Central European Social Theory’, in Gerard Delanty (ed.) Handbook
of Contemporary European Social Theory (Routledge, London+New York, 2006), pp.
138-52. (with Harald Wydra)
‘Civilization and Its Sources’, in International Sociology 16 (2001), 3: 371-88.
‘Experiential Sociology’, in Theoria (South Africa), (2004), 103: 59-87.
43
‘Elias and the Re-founding of Social Theory: A Comment’, in Current Sociology 53
(2005), 5: 829-34.
‘Moving Beyond the Sophists: Intellectuals in East Central Europe and the Return of
Transcendence’, in The European Journal of Social Theory 8 (2005), 4: 417-33.
Current teaching:
SC1001: Introductory Sociology
SC2001: Social Theory I (Classical sociological theory)
SC3001: Social Theory II (Contemporary sociological theory)
SC3009: Sociology of Religion
SC3015: Project
SC4005: Postgraduate course on social theory
Dr. Niamh Hourigan B.A. (Hons), Ph.D.
Head of Department
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 021-4902904/Ext 2904 internally
Name: Dr. Niamh Hourigan, BA, Phd
Position: Senior Lecturer
T: 353 (0) 21 4902904
F: 353 (0) 21 4272004
E: [email protected]
TEACHING INTERESTS (UNDERGRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE)
Globalisation and Culture, Globalisation and Development, Social Structure, Inequality
and Stratification, Political Sociology, Multiculturalism and Ireland, Individual, Collective
and National Identity
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Niamh Hourigan is a College Lecturer at the Dept of Sociology and Co-ordinator of
the Dept’s MA Programme in the Sociology of Development and Globalisation. Her current
research focuses on the response of Irish language activists to immigration as part of a
broader assessment of the relationship between nationalism and multiculturalism in
Ireland. Her PhD examined campaigns for indigenous minority language television
services in Europe and was highly commended by the European Union’s Committee of the
44
Regions. She previously lectured at the University of Limerick (1997) and between 1998
and 2002, was lecturer and co-ordinator of BA (Economic and Social Studies) at NUI
Galway.
She has published four books. Escaping the Global Village: Media, Language and Protest
(Lexington Books, 2004) is the first comparative study of minority language media
campaigns in Europe and has been positively reviewed in Current Sociology, Irish Journal
of Sociology, Communications Research and the American Communications Journal. Her
PhD (A Comparison of the Campaigns for Raidio na Gaeltachta and Telifís na Gaeilge)
was the first book published in series entitled Irish Sociological Research Monographs
(McGraw-Hill, 2001). She has co-edited with Linda Connolly, Social Movements and
Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2006) an edited collection from leading Irish
sociologists that documents new research on key social movements in Irish society. She
has also just co-edited a new collection with Mike Cormack entitled Minority Language
Media: Concepts, Critiques and Case Studies (Multilingual Matters, 2007) which aims to
establish minority language media studies as a distinct field of research.
Having worked as a journalist and presenter while completing her PhD, Niamh Hourigan
is an active contributor to the media. Most recently, she has hosted Educating John, a four
part series on Radio One which examines current educational challenges by exploring the
path of one fictional person called John through the Irish educational system. She has also
appeared on Questions and Answers, Today with Pat Kenny, The Message (BBC Radio
Four) and The Sunday Show.
RECENT BOOKS
Hourigan, Niamh (2011) Understanding Limerick: Social Exclusion and Change. Cork:
Cork University Press.
Cormack, Mike and Niamh Hourigan (eds) (2007) Minority Language Media: Concepts,
Critiques and Case Studies. Clevedon & New York: Multilingual Matters
Series Editor: Prof. John Edwards (Paperback, Hardback and Ebook)
Connolly, Linda and Niamh Hourigan (eds) (2006) Social Movements and Ireland. New
York & Manchester: Manchester University Press (Paperback and Hardback)
Hourigan, Niamh (2004) Escaping the Global Village: Media, Language and Protest.
New York: Lexington Books (Paperback) (Hardback, 2003)
Hourigan, Niamh (2001) A Comparison of the Campaigns for Raidio na Gaeltachta and
Teilifís na Gaeilge. Irish Sociological Research Monographs. New York & London:
McGraw-Hill.
CHAPTERS IN BOOKS
45
Hourigan, Niamh (2007) ‘Mediating Diversity: Identity, Language and Protest in Ireland,
Scotland and Wales’ in L. Cardinal and N. Brown (eds) Managing Diversity: Prospects for
a Post-Nationalist Politics. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.
Hourigan, Niamh (2007) ‘The Role of Networks in Minority Language Media Campaigns’
in M. Cormack & N. Hourigan (eds) Minority Language Media: Concepts, Critiques and
Case Studies. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
Hourigan, Niamh (2007) ‘Minority Language Media Studies – Key Themes for Future
Scholarship’ in M. Cormack & N.Hourigan (eds) Minority Language Media: Concepts,
Critiques and Case Studies. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
Hourigan, Niamh (2006) ‘Movement Outcomes and Irish language protest’ in L. Connolly
& N. Hourigan (eds) Social Movements and Ireland. New York & Manchester: Manchester
University Press.
Connolly, Linda & Niamh Hourigan (2006) ‘Introduction’ in L. Connolly & N. Hourigan
(eds) Social Movements and Ireland. New York & Manchester: Manchester University
Press.
Hourigan, Niamh (2001) ‘New Social Movement Theory and Minority Language Media
Campaigns’ in Toby Miller (ed) Television: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural
Studies (2002) New York: Routledge.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Hourigan, Niamh (2004) Minority Language Media, Globalisation & Protest. Mercator
Media Forum 5. Aberystwyth: University of Wales Press
Hourigan, Niamh (2001) ‘New Social Movement Theory and Minority Language Media
Campaigns’. European Journal of Communication 16 (1): 77-100.
Hourigan, Niamh (1998) ‘Framing Processes and the Celtic Television Campaigns’. Irish
Journal of Sociology. 8: 49-70.
Hourigan, Niamh (1996) ‘Audience Identification and Raidio na Gaeltachta’ Irish
Communications Review, 6: 3-10.
REVIEW ARTICLES
Review of Tina Hickey (1997) Early Immersion Education in Ireland: Na Naíonraí. Dublin:
Institúid Teangolaíochta published in the Irish Journal of Sociology, 1999 Vol 9:pp.135137
46
Review of Ronnaldo Munck (2005) Globalisation and Social Exclusion. Bloomfield, CT:
Kumarian Press published in the Irish Journal of Sociology, 2006, Vol. 15 No. 2
PUBLISHED COURSE MATERIAL
Hourigan, Niamh (2005) ‘The Globalisation Debate: Definitions and Dimensions’ Unit 1
of Sociology 2: Globalisation. Course Material Sociology. Dublin: National Distance
Education Centre, Dublin City University
Hourigan, Niamh (2005) ‘Globalisation and Economics’ Unit 2 of Sociology 2:
Globalisation. Course Material Sociology. Dublin: National Distance Education Centre,
Dublin City University
Hourigan, Niamh (2005) ‘Globalisation and Politics’ Unit 3 of Sociology 2: Globalisation.
Course Material Sociology. Dublin: National Distance Education Centre, Dublin City
University
Hourigan, Niamh (2005) ‘Globalisation and Culture’ Unit 4 of Sociology 2: Globalisation.
Course Material Sociology. Dublin: National Distance Education Centre, Dublin City
University
Hourigan, Niamh (2005) ‘Ireland - A Globalised Society?’ Unit 5 of Sociology 2:
Globalisation. Course Material Sociology. Dublin: National Distance Education Centre,
Dublin City University
This module on Globalisation was commissioned by the National Distance Education
Centre (OSCAIL) Dublin City University. Each unit is approximately 7,000 and provides
the core material for Sociology Degree and Diploma students undertaking the module on
Globalisation. It is available to students in hardcopy and on the Internet at
www.oscail.ie/sociology
Dr. Patrick O'Mahony Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Tel: 021-4902903/Ext 2903
47
E-mail: [email protected]
Background
Dr. O'Mahony received his doctorate from the National University of Ireland in 1991
and spent the next seven years as Director of the Centre for European Social Research
before taking up a position as lecturer in Sociology at UCC in 2000. He theoretical
interests cover a wide span but are currently focused on questions of public
participation and the public sphere. He has wide-ranging methodological expertise in
a variety of research approaches and techniques. He has conducted and co-ordinated
wide-ranging research, primarily focused on questions of environment, the societal
implications of new technology and identity and ideology in Ireland. He is currently
working on a book on the public sphere of biotechnology.
Interests
The public sphere and the theory of society; citizenship and public participation;
textual research methodologies; sociology of communication; political sociology;
sociology of science and technology.
Selected Recent Publications
O'Mahony, P. (forthcoming 2005) 'Nationalism' in Routledge Encyclopaedia of Social
Theory, Harrington, A., Marshall, B., and Muller, H-P (eds) (by invitation)
O'Mahony, P. & O'Sullivan, S. (2005.) 'Procedure and Participation: The Genetically
Modified Plants Controversy in the UK and Ireland', in Bora, Alfons. and
Hausendorf, Heiko. (Eds) Communicating Citizenship and Social Positioning in
Decision-Making Procedures: The Case of Modern Biotechnology. Part of the Series,
Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture. Edited by Ruth Wodak and
Paul Chilton. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
O'Mahony, P. and Schaefer, Mike Steffen (2005) 'Media Discourse on the Human
Genome in Germany and Ireland' Social Studies of Science
Delanty, G. and O;Mahony, P. (2002) Nationalism and Social Theory (London: Sage)
O'Mahony, P. (2002) 'Citizenship, Digitization and Citizen Services in Ireland' in
Chaning Aspects: ICT supported development in rural areas' (Cork: South Western
Regional Authority:)
O'Mahony, P. (Ed) (1999), Nature, Risk and Responsibility: Discourses of
Biotechnology (London: Macmillan) pps. 232
O'Mahony, P. and Skillington, T. (1999), 'Discourse Coalitions on Biotechnology in
the Press' in O'Mahony, P. (Ed) Nature, Risk and Responsibility: Discourses of
Biotechnology (London: Macmillan), pp. 100-113.
O'Mahony, P. and Delanty, G. (1998), Rethinking Irish History: Nationalism, Identity
and Ideology (London: Macmillan) pps. 222.
48
O'Mahony, P. (1998), 'The Tension between Facts and Norms: A Response to
Delanty on the Idea of the University' in Social Epistemology. 12, 1, 51-7.
Bielenberg, A. and O'Mahony, P. (1998), 'An Expenditure-based Estimate for Irish
National Income in 1907' in The Economic and Social Review, 29, 2, 107-133.
O'Mahony, P. (1998), 'Sustainable Development and Institutional Innovation' in
Research on the Socio-Economic Aspects of Environmental Change, pp. 435-440
(Brussels: CEC).
O'Mahony, P. and Skillington, T. (1996), 'Sustainable Development as an Organising
Principle for Discursive Democracy?' in Sustainable Development, 4, 1, 42-51.
Reports
(1994) (With Gerard Mullally) 'Report on Ecological Communication in Ireland
between 1987 and 1992: Discourses, Frames and Resonating Themes' (incorporated
into final report of project Framing and Communicating Environmental Issues: The
Dynamics of Environmental Consciousness in Europe (no: EV5V-CT92-0153),
coordinated by Prof. Klaus Eder of the European University Institute, pps. 40.
(1996) (Edited report with sub-reports by Stephen Yearley, John Forrester, Tracey
Skillington, Reiner Keller, Pedro Ibarro, Carlo Ruzza, Paolo Donati, Lynn Dobson,
Anastasios Fotiou, Frank Semrau, Georg Jochum, Giampietro Gobo, Anna Lisa Toto,
Anna Traiandafillidau, Pedro Ibarro, Inaki Barcena and earlier contributions from
Klaus Eder, Karl Werner Brand and Mario Diani). Final Report to the European
Commission of Research Project Sustainability and Institutional Innovation (no:
EV5V-CT94-0389) coordinated by Patrick O'Mahony, (pps. 400; pps. 1-40 written by
myself as coordinator).
(1996) (With Noreen Kearns) 'Report on Survey Research on the Indicative Drug
Prescribing Policy' commissioned by Professor Michael Murphy as part of his
evaluation of the scheme for the Irish General Medical Payments Board, pps. 115.
(1997) (Edited report with sub-reports by Cathal O'Connell, Gerard Mullally, Marie
O'Shea, Lydia Sapouna, Inaki Barcena, Fulvia Concetti, Paolo Donati, Martin Hajer,
Sven Kesselring). Final Report of the project Evaluation of Technological Options to
Relieve the Challenges caused by the Saturation of Cities: Sustainable Mobility and
Deliberative Democracy (no: PRVI-CT94-OOO5), coordinated by Patrick O'Mahony,
pps. 320; pps. 1-23 written by myself as coordinator).
(1998) (Co-authored with Tim Murphy and Marie O'Shea) Ecstacy Use among
Young Irish People: A Comparative and Inter-disciplinary Study. Report to Enterprise
Ireland, the Irish government agency for science, technology and innovation, pp. 154
(pp. 121-148 written by myself).
(2001) 'Communicating Citizenship as an empirical phenomenon, A Contribution to
49
first Paradys Workshop, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, Germany,
June 29th
(2001) 'Account of current legal-administrative arrangements for regulating plant
biotechnology in the UK and Ireland and their social and legal contexts' A
Contribution to first Paradys Workshop, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research,
Bielefeld, Germany, June 29th 01 presented by Dr, Patrick O'Mahony, research work
by Siobhan O'Sullivan, researcher Paradys project
(2001) Presentation on Citizen Services to the South West Regional Authority
organized workshop on citizen services at Inchydoney Island on December, 12th
2001 (an organization present has approached the candidate to provide research
services following the presentation)
(2002) 'Public participation in licening procedures for genetically modified plants'
(Opening address to the 25 person international workshop on the same topic, part of
the PARADYS project, was organized by me and held in UCC).
(2003) Research report for fifth deliverable of PARADYS project 'Linguistic analysis
of Irish interviews on genetically modified plants' pp25 June.
Research Projects, Reports and Activities
Co-ordinator of the new research project on "Public Participation in the
Environmental Field' funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency and
commencing in December 2004. This project will last for 12 months and will look at
partications plans and citizen participation in the overall context of Irish public
culture in comparative profile.
Responsible Scientist for the Irish Research in the PARADYS project (Participation
and the Dynamics of Social Positioning - the case of Biotechnology). Also
responsible for the UK sociology research.This project involves detailed research into
constructions of citizenship in public participation settings in the area of plant
biotechnology. The final Irish and UK reports and other information on the project
are available at:
http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/iwt/paradys/english_start.html
Expert evaluator of major research projects financed by the European Commission in
the period November 2001-2004 in the fields of policy, socio-economic models and
political culture.
Ongoing personal research project on the public sphere of biotechnology in the UK
and Ireland, based on text analysis of interview and documentary data on plant
biotechnology. This is currently being worked up into a book on this theme.
Selected Recent Conference Papers
(2004) "Theoretical reflections on the public sphere", paper delivered to EU
workshop on the public sphere, co-ordinated by Thomas Mayer,
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Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, May.
(2003) Research report for fifth deliverable of PARADYS project 'Linguistic analysis
of Irish interviews on genetically modified plants' pp25 June.
(2002) 'Public participation in licening procedures for genetically modified plants'
(Opening address to the 25 person international workshop on the same topic, part of
the PARADYS project, was organized by me and held in UCC).
(2002) 'Public participation in licening procedures for genetically modified plants'
(Opening address to the 25 person international workshop on the same topic, part of
the PARADYS project, was organized by me and held in UCC).
(2001) Presentation on Citizen Services to the South West Regional Authority
organized workshop on citizen services at Inchydoney Island on December, 12th
2001 (an organization present has approached the candidate to provide research
services following the presentation)
(2001) 'Account of current legal-administrative arrangements for regulating plant
biotechnology in the UK and Ireland and their social and legal contexts' A
Contribution to first Paradys Workshop, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research,
Bielefeld, Germany, June 29th 01 presented by Dr, Patrick O'Mahony, research work
by Siobhan O'Sullivan, researcher Paradys project
(2001) 'Communicating Citizenship as an empirical phenomenon, A Contribution to
first Paradys Workshop, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, Germany,
June 29th
Professor Colin Sumner
Position: Professor
T: 353 (0)21 490-2900
F: 353 (0)21
E: [email protected]
Biography
Colin recently finished with 'retirement' and joined UCC to return to teaching sociology.
His career really began with a lectureship in sociology at UCW, Aberystwyth. From 1977
to 1995, he was a Lecturer in Sociology at the Institute of Criminology and a Fellow of
Wolfson College in Cambridge University. Later he became Professor of Criminology
and Head/Dean of the School of Law in the University of East London until 2000. In this
latter role, he was active on University Research, Research Degrees, Professorial
51
Designations and International Marketing Committees, and a frequent adviser to Senior
Management Team.
Over the years, he had been a Visiting Professor of Sociology at Queen’s, St. Mary’s,
and Simon Fraser universities in Canada, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong; a
Visiting Professor of Law at the universities of Dar es Salaam and Victoria [Canada]; a
Visiting Professor of Criminology at Barcelona and Hamburg universities; and a Visiting
Research Fellow in the Sociology of Law at the University of California at Berkeley and
at the Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law.
In 1997, Colin co-founded and then edited Theoretical Criminology, the first truly global
journal of criminology, published by Sage. For many years, he had been an Associate
Editor for the journal Socio-Legal Studies. In 2004 he edited The Blackwell Companion
to Criminology, having earlier edited a book series called New Directions in Criminology
with the Open UP.
Research and Teaching Interests
Sociology of crime and deviance; social theory; criminology; education, digital
knowledge and the web; sociology of law; media studies; research methodology;
jurisprudence.
Colin has sole supervised 13 doctorates to successful completion and over 140 Master’s
dissertations. He has also received grants for his personal research from the British
Council, McCarthy-Tétrault, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Spanish
Ministry of Education. Additionally, he has organized 3 major conferences: two in
Cambridge - on Crime, Justice & the Media and on Crime and Justice in the Third
World; and one for the Philippine government and the Foreign & Commonwealth
Office on Policing in a Multicultural Democracy.
Books
Reading Ideologies (1979 Academic Press)
The Sociology of Deviance: an Obituary (1994 Open UP and Continuum, now in
Spanish - 2012 CrimeTalk Books)
The Blackwell Companion to Criminology (ed. 2004 Blackwell).
Policing in a Multicultural Democracy (ed. 2000 Lorenzo Publications)
Violence, Culture and Censure (ed. 1997 Taylor & Francis)
Social Control and Political Order (1997, ed. with Roberto Bergalli, Sage)
Censure, Politics and Criminal Justice (ed. 1990 Open University Press)
Crime, Justice and the Mass Media (ed. 1982 Cambridge University)
Crime, Justice and Underdevelopment (ed. 1982 Heinemann)
52
Selected Articles
2012. Censure, culture and political economy: beyond the death of deviance debate. In
S. Hall [ed.] New Directions in Criminological Theory. Cullompton: Devon.
2006. Censure, criminology and politics. In I.Rivera, H.C.Silveira, E.Bodelón and
A.Recasens (eds.) Contornos y Pliegues del Derecho. Barcelona: Anthropos, pp. 140-6.
2001. Entries on Deviance and Social Censure. In: E. McLaughlin & J.Muncie (eds.)
The Sage Dictionary of Criminology. London: Sage, pp. 89-90 and 265-6.
1997. Censure, crime and state. In M.Maguire, R.Morgan and R.Reiner (eds) The
Oxford Handbook of Criminology. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 499-510.
1990. Foucault, gender and the censure of deviance. In Feminist Perspectives in
Criminology (L.Gelsthorpe and A.Morris, eds.). Milton Keynes: Open UP, pp. 26-40.
1983. Law and legitimation in the advanced capitalist state: the jurisprudence and social
theory of Jurgen Habermas. In Legality, Ideology and the State (D. Sugarman,
ed.). London: Academic Press, pp. 119-58. Reprinted in M.Vogel [ed.] Crime,
Inequality and the State, 2007, London: Routledge.
1983. Rethinking deviance: toward a sociology of censures. In Research in Law,
Deviance and Social Control, Vol. 5. (S.Spitzer, ed.). Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, pp.
187-204.
1981. Race, crime and hegemony. Contemporary Crises, 5 (3), 277-91.
1981. The rule of law and civil rights in contemporary Marxist theory. Kapitalistate, 9,
63-91.
1981. Pashukanis and the "jurisprudence of terror". Insurgent Sociologist, special issue,
x (4) and xi (1), 99-106.
1976. Marxism and deviancy theory. In Sociology of Crime and Delinquency in Britain,
Vol. 2: The New Criminologies (P.Wiles, ed.) London: Martin Robertson, pp. 159-74.
Dr. Gerard Mullally B.A, M.A., Ph.D.
Lecturer in Sociology
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 021 4902618/ Ext. 2618 internally
Teaching and Research Interests
Community; Environment; Sustainable Development; Social Movements; Multi-level
Governance; Society and Energy; Democracy, Deliberation and Public Participation;
53
Cultural Politics
Recent Publications
2008, ‘Sustainable Development and Responsible Governance in Ireland:
Communication in the Shadow of Hierarchy’ in Seamus O’ Tuama (ed.) Critical Turns in
Critical Theory: Festschrift for Piet Strydom. Taurus Publications (forthcoming)
2008 (with Brian Motherway), ‘Governance for Regional Sustainable Development:
Building Institutional Capacity on the Island of Ireland’, in John McDonagh, Tony
Varley and Sally Shorthall (eds.), A Living Island? The Politics of Sustainable
Development in Rural Ireland, Aldershot: Ashgate.
2008 (with Jillian Murphy), ‘Ireland: Putting the Wind Up the Political System’, in
William M. Lafferty and Audun Ruud (eds.), Promoting Sustainable Electricity in
Europe: Challenging the Path Dependence of Dominant Energy Systems, Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar.
2006a, ‘Relocating Protest: Globalisation and the Institutionalisation of Irish
Environmentalism?’ in Linda Connolly and Niamh Hourigan (eds.) Social Movements
and Ireland, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
2006b, (with Tara Mullally), Angels, Apostles and Acolytes: Social Intermediaries and
the CSR Regime in Ireland, available at
http://www.sum.uio.no/publications/pdf_fulltekst/prosusrep2006_02.pdf.
2004a, (with Aodh Quinlivan), ‘Environmental Policy: Managing the Waste Problem?’ in
Neil Collins and Terry Cradden (eds.), Political Issues in Ireland Today, [Third Edition],
pp. 117-134.
2004b, ‘Shakespeare, the Structural Funds and Sustainable Development: Reflections on
the Irish Experience: Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, Vol.
17, No. 1, pp. 25-43
2003, ‘Tipping the Scales Towards Sustainable Development in Ireland: Lessons from
Local and Regional Agenda 21, in William M. Lafferty and Micheal Narodoslawski
(eds.), Regional Sustainable Development in Europe: The Challenge of Multi-level Cooperative Governance, Oslo: Programme for Research and Documentation for a
Sustainable Society (ProSus), pp. 90-114.
2001a, ‘Starting Late: Building Institutional Capacity on the Reform of Sub-national
Governance?’ in William M. Lafferty (ed.) Sustainable Communities in Europe, London:
Earthscan, pp.130-152.
2001b, ‘Sustainable Development and Sustainable Tourism in Five National Contexts’, in
Zinaida Fadeeva and Minne Halme. (eds.) The Emerging Paradigm of Sustainable
54
Tourism: A Network Perspective, Lund: International Institute of Industrial
Environmental Economics (IIEEE), IIIEE Reports 2001:4, pp. 42-59.
2001c, ‘Understanding Sustainable Development in Nine Tourism Networks in Europe’,
Zinaida Fadeeva and Minna Halme (eds.), pp. 75-102.
1999, ‘Agenda-building through Local Agenda 21: Creating a Constituency for Change?’
in William M. Lafferty (ed.) Implementing LA21 in Europe: New Initiatives for
Sustainable Communities, Oslo: Programme for Research and Documentation for a
Sustainable Society (ProSus), pp. 171-190.
1998, ‘Does the Road from Rio Lead Back to Brussels?’ in William M. Lafferty and
Katarina Eckerberg (eds.) From the Earth Summit to Local Agenda 21: Working
Towards Sustainable Development, London: Earthscan.
1997, ‘Treading Softly on the Political System? The Irish Greens in the 1997 General
Election, Environmental Politics, Vol. 6, No. 4, [Winter], 165-171.
1996, [Book Review] ‘Margaret Jacobs (ed.) The Politics of Western Science, 16401990, Science, Technology and Human Values, Vol. 21, No. 2, [Spring], 240-242.
Courses Taught
‘Sociology of Organisations’ (3rd Year), Sociology of Development (3rd Year),
‘Research Methodology’ (M. Comm in Governance, Department of Government),
‘Research Methodology’ (M.Sc. in Management and Marketing, Department of
Management and Marketing).
Current Teaching
‘Introductory Sociology’, (1st Year), Research Methods [Theory Method and
Argument](2nd Year), Sociology of Environment (3rd Year), Sociology of Community
(3rd Year), ‘Sustainable Development’ (Module Co-ordinator and Lecturer, BSc.
Environmental Studies, 4th Year).
Additional Information
Member of International Advisory Board, Innovation: The European Journal of Social
Science Research. Member of International Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of
Environmental Planning and Policy. Member of Review Board, Ecopolitics Online.
Member of Advisory Group on Cross Border Research on Local Agenda 21 on the Island
of Ireland funded through the Centre for Cross Border Studies, Armagh (2002-3);
Member of ENSURE – European Network for Sustainable Urban and Regional
Development; Former Director and Member of Management Executive Committee, Cork
Environmental Forum.
55
Kieran Keohane. M.Soc.Sc.; PhD.
Senior Lecturer in Sociology.
Tel: 021-4902836
E-mail: [email protected]
Kieran Keohane is an interdisciplinary sociologist working in the interpretive tradition,
with research & teaching interests in social & political theory and in cultural sociology. He
has published across several disciplinary fields, including sociology, politics, philosophy,
anthropology, mythology, management, literature, Irish studies, psychology, and health.
He has supervised ten PhD students to completion and he has supervised over fifty MA
students. He is the recipient of a national teaching award. Kieran Keohane has led several
inter-institutional initiatives nationally and is a member of international networks such as
‘Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization’. Under the auspices of the President of
Ireland’s Ethics Initiative, Kieran Keohane co-founded (with Arpad Szakolczai & Colin
Sumner) the Centre for the Study of the Moral Foundations of Economy & Society at UCC
& WIT, and ‘Community Voices for a Renewed Ireland’
Some recent publications:
Keohane, K., A. Petersen, A. and B. van den Bergh (2017): Late Modern Subjectivity and its
Discontents: Anxiety, Depression and Alzheimer’s Dementia as Social Pathologies of
Contemporary Civilization. London: Routledge. (forthcoming)
Imaginative Methodologies: Creativity, Poetics and Rhetoric in Social Research (2014) K.
Keohane et al. (eds), London. Ashgate.
What Rough Beast? The Political, Domestic and Moral Economies of post Celtic Tiger
Ireland. (2014) K. Keohane and C. Kuhling. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
The Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization (2013) K. Keohane & A. Petersen
(eds) London. Ashgate.
“At Swim-Two-Birds Again: How to read what is to be read (and how the real returns to
its place!)” Canadian Journal of Irish Studies (2016) forthcoming.
“Flags, parades and Commemorating the Past: Remembering and Forgetting in Northern
Ireland” International Political Anthropology Vol. 8 (2015) no. 2: 63-76.
“Hugh Brody’s Inniskillane: A Return Visit” Irish Journal of Anthropology 2015 Vol.18
(1): 72-76
“Possessing Utopia: a genealogical demonology” Irish Journal of Anthropology 2014 Vol.
17(1): 18-26.
“On the Political in the Wake: Carl Schmitt’s and James Joyce’s Political Theologies”
Cultural Politics 2011 Vol 7 ( 2): 249-264
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“The darkness drops again: the Recurrence of the Táin foretold in the Corrib Gas
Giveaway” Irish Journal of Sociology 2011, vol.18 (1).
Dr. Tracey Skillington, BA, MA, PhD
Email: [email protected]
Dr Tracey Skillington is a full-time lecturer in Sociology at University College Cork. Her
interests include social theory, critical theory, political theory, social justice,
cosmopolitanism, human rights, social justice, borders and climate change. Her
publications date from 1996. More recent publications include (2012) 'Climate Change and
the Human Rights Challenge: Extending Justice Beyond the Borders of the Nation State',
International Journal of Human Rights, 16 (8); (2012) ‘Cosmopolitan Justice and Global
Climate Change: Toward Perpetual Peace or War in a Resource Challenged World?’, Irish
Journal of Sociology 2(20); (2013) 'UN Genocide Commemoration, Transnational Scenes
of Mourning and the Global Project of Learning from Atrocity', British Journal of
Sociology, 63(3); (2013) 'The Borders of Contemporary Europe: Territory, Justice, Rights',
in Czajka, Agnes & Isyar, Bora (Eds) Europe After Derrida, Edinburgh University Press;
(2013) 'Maintaining an International Order of Peace under Conditions of Growing Natural
Resource Scarcity', Social Space 6(2); Climate Justice and Human Rights, Palgrave
Macmillan (forthcoming); (2014) 'Remembrance and Beyond: Holocaust Memory in Lived
Time', in Seymour, David & Wodak, Ruth (eds) The Holocaust in the Twenty-First
Century: Contesting and Contested Memories, Routledge (in press); ‘Imaginaries of a
Global Commons: Memories of Violence and Social Justice’, in Samuel Kirwan, Julian
Brigstocke & Leila Dawney (eds). Space, Power and the Making of the Commons, London:
Routledge (forthcoming).
She is also currently editing a special edition of the European Journal of Social Theory
(published by Sage) on 'Social Theory and Climate Change'. She recently completed seven
years as a General Co-Editor of the Irish Journal of Sociology (Manchester University
Press) and is currently a member of the Associate Editorial Board of Sociology, Official
Journal of the British Sociological Association. Her co-editorship of the book series, New
Visions of the Cosmopolitan (with Patrick O’Mahony) is ongoing. So far, several edited
collections and monographs have been published in the series.
She also has an extensive history of European social research, having worked on several
international research projects funded by various EU research programmes. Her
publications reflect her ongoing interest in critical social theory, the sociology of human
rights, global justice, climate change, collective memory, trauma and social perspectives
on violence. Research methods used include narrative research, critical discourse analysis,
historical discourse analysis and frame analysis.
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Pre-2012 Publications
Early Career Refereed Articles in Journals
1. 1996 (with O’Mahony, Patrick) ‘Sustainable development as an
organizing principle for discursive democracy’, Sustainable Development.
Vol. 4. Number 1.
2. 1996. ‘Embracing sustainable development: The role of business in the
communication and application of environmental ethics’. Sustainable
Development. Volume 4. Number 2.
3. 1997. ‘Politics and the struggle to define: A discourse analysis of the
framing strategies of competing actors in a ‘new’ participatory forum’.
British Journal of Sociology. Volume 48. Number 3.
4. 1998. ‘The city as text: Constructing Dublin’s identity through discourse
on transportation and urban re-development in the press’. British Journal
of Sociology. Volume 49. Number 3.
5. 2009. ‘Demythologizing a neo-liberal model of healthcare reform: A
politics of rights, recognition, and human suffering’, Irish Journal of
Sociology, 17(2): Manchester University Press.
6. 2009. Introduction to the Special Edition of the Irish Journal of Sociology
on Health, 17(2): Manchester University Press
Early Career Chapters in Books:
1. 1999. ‘Modernity’s organic economy of governmentality’. In O’Mahony, Patrick
(Ed) Nature, Risk and Responsibility. Basingstoke: Macmillan Palgrave.
2. 1999 (with O’Mahony, Patrick) ‘Constructing difference: Discourse coalitions on
biotechnology in the press’. In O’Mahony, Patrick (Ed) Nature, Risk and
Responsibility. Basingstoke: Macmillan Palgrave.
3. 2006 ‘A critical comparison of the investigative gaze in three approaches to text
analysis’. In Bora, Alfons and Hausendorf, Heiko (Eds) Analyzing Citizneship
Talk. Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture. Series Editor,
Wodak, Ruth and Chilton, Paul. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
4. 2009 ‘Critical Theory and Crisis Diagnosis: The Reconciliation of Reason and
Revolution After 1968’. In Gurminder, Bhambra, K and Demir, Ipek (Eds) 1968
in Retrospect: History, Theory, Politics. London: Macmillan Palgrave.
5. 2009 ‘Linking Knowledge, Communication, and Social Learning: Critical
Theory’s Immanent Critique of the Administrative State’. In O’Tuama, Seamus
(Ed) The Critical Theory of Piet Strydom. London: I.B Taurus.
6. 2010 ‘Nurturing dissent in the Irish political imagination: Civic cosmopolitanism,
legal consciousness and the new (post-national fight for freedom’. In Keohane,
Kieran, and O’Mahony, Patrick (Eds) Irish Environmental Politics after the
Communicative Turn. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
58
She continues to referee articles and book proposals for international journals and
publishing houses, including the British Journal of Sociology, Theory, Culture & Society,
the European Journal of Social Theory, and Palgrave Macmillan.
Commissioned Research Reports
1. 1996. Irish report for the project ‘Sustainable Development and Institutional
Innovation in Five European Countries’ (No. EV5V – CT94 – 0389) funded by
DGXII.
2. 2000, Irish report entitled ‘reflections on the methodological aspects of the central
concept of ‘social positioning’ and the communicating citizenship in decisionmaking procedures’ for the international PARADYS project consortium –
‘Participation and the Dynamics of Social Positioning’.
3. 2003. Irish report for the international PARADYS project (Participation and the
Dynamics of Social Positioning’) entitled ‘Social positioning across different
discourses on GM agriculture in an Irish legal context’.
4. 2004. With Patrick O’Mahony wrote the final report for the PARADYs project
entitled ‘Participation, Discourse and Social Positioning on Plant Biotechnology
in Ireland’. Funded by the EU. Number HPSA-CT2001-00050 524-5854.
5. 2006. With Patrick O’Mahony co-wrote the final report of ‘Public participation
and the Water Framework Directive’, for project ‘Public Participation in the
Environmental Field: Models and Prospects’. Funded by the Irish Environmental
Protection Agency.
6. European Commission funded research conference: ‘Bio-ethical
communication’, staged at the Centre for European Social Research, University
College Cork (April 1995).
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Visiting Fellows
In addition to the regular staff, there is normally some temporary and part time staff, as
well as one or more visiting fellows in residence at the department during the academic
year.
60