Pub Date : 2021-12-21DOI: 10.1177/07916035211068430
M. McGann
Over the past decade, social policy in Ireland has taken an increasingly ‘workfarist turn’. This has proceeded through benefit cuts, tighter eligibility criteria for payments, and claimant activation via penalty rates for breaching new conduct conditions. However, key to understanding the post-crisis reconfiguration of welfare is not just the increasingly workfarist content of social policy but also how the delivery of public employment services has been reorganised through processes of marketisation and tightening performance management of delivery organisations and the staff who work within them. Positioning these governance reforms as processes of ‘double activation’, and drawing on survey and interview research with frontline staff working for agencies contracted by government to deliver activation, this study explores how frontline staff experience performance management as a disciplinary regime: the degree to which frontline workers are subject to management control and performance management in their jobs, what forms this takes, and how it shapes their field of action and choice. In so doing, the study draws attention to the ways in which the governance of caseworkers and the governance of claimants are inter-related, and the degree to which performance management regimes influence frontline practices to motivate the enforcement of workfarist policy practices.
{"title":"Meeting the numbers: Performance politics and welfare-to-work at the street-level","authors":"M. McGann","doi":"10.1177/07916035211068430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07916035211068430","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past decade, social policy in Ireland has taken an increasingly ‘workfarist turn’. This has proceeded through benefit cuts, tighter eligibility criteria for payments, and claimant activation via penalty rates for breaching new conduct conditions. However, key to understanding the post-crisis reconfiguration of welfare is not just the increasingly workfarist content of social policy but also how the delivery of public employment services has been reorganised through processes of marketisation and tightening performance management of delivery organisations and the staff who work within them. Positioning these governance reforms as processes of ‘double activation’, and drawing on survey and interview research with frontline staff working for agencies contracted by government to deliver activation, this study explores how frontline staff experience performance management as a disciplinary regime: the degree to which frontline workers are subject to management control and performance management in their jobs, what forms this takes, and how it shapes their field of action and choice. In so doing, the study draws attention to the ways in which the governance of caseworkers and the governance of claimants are inter-related, and the degree to which performance management regimes influence frontline practices to motivate the enforcement of workfarist policy practices.","PeriodicalId":52497,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Sociology","volume":"30 1","pages":"69 - 89"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45530825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-01DOI: 10.1177/07916035211038919
Seán Ó Riain
This short article provides an auto-ethnographic perspective on the history of Irish sociology. It is based on the author's experience of Irish sociology, including: experiences as an undergraduate student in the late 1980s and later as a research assistant; a PhD in the US during the 1990s, starting during mass emigration but completed as the ‘Celtic Tiger’ emerged and sociology grew; 5 years in Ireland as a head of department, leading up to the financial crash and the decade between crash and COVID-19. Finally, the article concludes with some general observations about sociology in Ireland today, its promise and the perils that face it.
{"title":"The ongoing project of Irish sociology","authors":"Seán Ó Riain","doi":"10.1177/07916035211038919","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07916035211038919","url":null,"abstract":"This short article provides an auto-ethnographic perspective on the history of Irish sociology. It is based on the author's experience of Irish sociology, including: experiences as an undergraduate student in the late 1980s and later as a research assistant; a PhD in the US during the 1990s, starting during mass emigration but completed as the ‘Celtic Tiger’ emerged and sociology grew; 5 years in Ireland as a head of department, leading up to the financial crash and the decade between crash and COVID-19. Finally, the article concludes with some general observations about sociology in Ireland today, its promise and the perils that face it.","PeriodicalId":52497,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Sociology","volume":"29 1","pages":"312 - 319"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46608276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-20DOI: 10.1177/07916035211062529
A. O’Sullivan
{"title":"Kieran Allen, 32 Counties: The Failure of Partition and the Case for a United Ireland","authors":"A. O’Sullivan","doi":"10.1177/07916035211062529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07916035211062529","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52497,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Sociology","volume":"30 1","pages":"116 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44296512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-17DOI: 10.1177/07916035211054347
Mary J. Hickman
This article reflects on the relatively small body of work that constitutes sociology of Irish diaspora. It argues that Irish diaspora should be an expanded and higher prioritized field of study for Irish sociology.
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Pub Date : 2021-11-11DOI: 10.1177/07916035211050497
Michael D. Higgins
The occasion of the publication of a special 30 year issue of the Irish Journal of Sociology must indeed be a celebratory one. I was honoured to receive an invitation to write a Preface for this edition, and I can, with the greatest sincerity and appreciation for their work, pay tribute to all those who have sustained the journal over three decades, and indeed all of those who have worked, and continue to work, in advancing a sociological perspective in times of great challenge and change. Ireland is fortunate to have teachers, researchers, students in the field of sociology who can now engage with European and global theorists at an excellent level. Yet, however, one must worry as to the absence of the sociological perspective in crucial areas of policy formulation and administrative practice in Ireland and indeed the European Union. Whenever I write of the need for theoretical and policy work that represents a collaboration between theorists in ecology, economics and the social studies, I am very conscious of how appreciation of the value of the insights of the latter is missing in crucial areas. Over the decades, sociology has been displaced by a hegemonic push from a narrow version of economics; one over influenced by Hayekism perspectives and the Friedmanist crudities of the Chicago School. Living as we have been with the disastrous consequences of the policies they advocated in recent times, it is striking to note how the promoters of such view have run
{"title":"Preface for 30th Anniversary Edition of Irish Journal of Sociology","authors":"Michael D. Higgins","doi":"10.1177/07916035211050497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07916035211050497","url":null,"abstract":"The occasion of the publication of a special 30 year issue of the Irish Journal of Sociology must indeed be a celebratory one. I was honoured to receive an invitation to write a Preface for this edition, and I can, with the greatest sincerity and appreciation for their work, pay tribute to all those who have sustained the journal over three decades, and indeed all of those who have worked, and continue to work, in advancing a sociological perspective in times of great challenge and change. Ireland is fortunate to have teachers, researchers, students in the field of sociology who can now engage with European and global theorists at an excellent level. Yet, however, one must worry as to the absence of the sociological perspective in crucial areas of policy formulation and administrative practice in Ireland and indeed the European Union. Whenever I write of the need for theoretical and policy work that represents a collaboration between theorists in ecology, economics and the social studies, I am very conscious of how appreciation of the value of the insights of the latter is missing in crucial areas. Over the decades, sociology has been displaced by a hegemonic push from a narrow version of economics; one over influenced by Hayekism perspectives and the Friedmanist crudities of the Chicago School. Living as we have been with the disastrous consequences of the policies they advocated in recent times, it is striking to note how the promoters of such view have run","PeriodicalId":52497,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Sociology","volume":"29 1","pages":"265 - 271"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46453694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-09DOI: 10.1177/07916035211053257
Z. Roche
To avoid a ‘tsunami’ of repossessions in the years following the global financial crisis, Ireland reformed its system of debt relief in 2013. For the first time Ireland was to have a state-of-the-art system to help debtors discharge their unpayable liabilities, at odds with the punitive Victorian system of bankruptcy which preceded it. While these changes were touted as ground-breaking and innovative, I demonstrate through original qualitative research with debtors, and the Insolvency Service of Ireland's (ISI's) operators that little has changed. When disaster strikes and debtors fall behind on payments, they are encouraged to undergo a process of soul searching and self-criticism involving reflection on their behaviour and finances. This article explores how this governmentalisation of debt and its relief creates responsible financial subjects fit for the market, simultaneously ensuring the stability of the fragile Irish credit system. The insolvency practitioners who run the service advise that only by confessing their wrongdoing (i.e. irresponsible spending), and making lasting change can they become worthy of debt relief.
{"title":"Life after debt: The governmentalities of debt relief","authors":"Z. Roche","doi":"10.1177/07916035211053257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07916035211053257","url":null,"abstract":"To avoid a ‘tsunami’ of repossessions in the years following the global financial crisis, Ireland reformed its system of debt relief in 2013. For the first time Ireland was to have a state-of-the-art system to help debtors discharge their unpayable liabilities, at odds with the punitive Victorian system of bankruptcy which preceded it. While these changes were touted as ground-breaking and innovative, I demonstrate through original qualitative research with debtors, and the Insolvency Service of Ireland's (ISI's) operators that little has changed. When disaster strikes and debtors fall behind on payments, they are encouraged to undergo a process of soul searching and self-criticism involving reflection on their behaviour and finances. This article explores how this governmentalisation of debt and its relief creates responsible financial subjects fit for the market, simultaneously ensuring the stability of the fragile Irish credit system. The insolvency practitioners who run the service advise that only by confessing their wrongdoing (i.e. irresponsible spending), and making lasting change can they become worthy of debt relief.","PeriodicalId":52497,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Sociology","volume":"30 1","pages":"48 - 68"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41928880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-26DOI: 10.1177/07916035211054770
J. O’Brien
Anniversaries are moments to reflect. ‘Irish sociology’ (with the inverted commas very much necessary to highlight the nebulousness of the concept) has periodically reflexively looked at itself to ask the question of what are we about, and even what are we (Conway, 2006; Fanning and Hess, 2015). The Irish Journal of Sociology is one of the primary institutions through which the discipline of sociology gives reality to itself and it is wonderful to mark 30 years of the journal. I would propose that one of primary things to celebrate at this moment is the hard work of institution building. Over three decades, successive editorial teams have performed the laborious, generally unseen and occasionally insufficiently recognised work of bringing editions to press, sustaining a focal point for a tradition of thought and collective of researchers. Such hard and hidden work has developed the discipline over two generations. Its success is witnessed by it being acquired by SAGE, a stable production schedule, the maintenance of a wide editorial board to offer quality review, progress toward the allocation of an impact factor, and not least the high quality scholarship it curates, with 31,750 downloaded papers in the past 12 months (Sage Journals, 2021). The thud of the IJS after it has been pushed through the letter box, and tearing off the plastic to see the article titles is one of the rituals through which one communes with fellow sociologists. Its debates pieces (such as recent ones on the Covid-19 pandemic) and special issues (such as the recent edition: Advancing Social Justice for Sex Workers), alongside a consistent stream of research on social policies, have demonstrated the connection of the journal to pressing societal issues. But it has equally attracted work from leading figures in social theory and sociology internationally. This is remarkable in a way, as
周年纪念日是值得反思的时刻。“爱尔兰社会学”(用引号来强调这个概念的模糊性是非常必要的)定期反思性地审视自己，问我们是什么，甚至我们是什么(Conway, 2006;Fanning and Hess, 2015)。《爱尔兰社会学杂志》是社会学学科实现自身现实的主要机构之一，庆祝该杂志创刊30周年是一件美妙的事情。我想说，在这个时刻，最值得庆祝的事情之一是制度建设的辛勤工作。在过去的三十年里，连续的编辑团队进行了艰苦的、通常不为人知的、偶尔也没有得到充分认可的工作，将版本出版，维持了思想传统和研究人员集体的焦点。这种艰苦而隐蔽的工作使这门学科在两代人的时间里得以发展。它的成功见证了它被SAGE收购，稳定的生产计划，广泛的编辑委员会的维护，提供高质量的审查，在影响因子的分配方面取得进展，尤其是它策划的高质量奖学金，在过去的12个月里有31,750篇论文下载(SAGE期刊，2021)。IJS被塞进信箱后发出的砰的一声，撕下塑料看文章的标题，是一个社会学家与同事交流的仪式之一。它的辩论文章(如最近关于Covid-19大流行的文章)和特刊(如最近一期:推进性工作者的社会正义)，以及一系列关于社会政策的研究，都表明了该杂志与紧迫的社会问题的联系。但它同样吸引了国际社会理论和社会学领域的领军人物。这在某种程度上是了不起的，因为
{"title":"Constructing sociology: The IJS and academic institution building","authors":"J. O’Brien","doi":"10.1177/07916035211054770","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07916035211054770","url":null,"abstract":"Anniversaries are moments to reflect. ‘Irish sociology’ (with the inverted commas very much necessary to highlight the nebulousness of the concept) has periodically reflexively looked at itself to ask the question of what are we about, and even what are we (Conway, 2006; Fanning and Hess, 2015). The Irish Journal of Sociology is one of the primary institutions through which the discipline of sociology gives reality to itself and it is wonderful to mark 30 years of the journal. I would propose that one of primary things to celebrate at this moment is the hard work of institution building. Over three decades, successive editorial teams have performed the laborious, generally unseen and occasionally insufficiently recognised work of bringing editions to press, sustaining a focal point for a tradition of thought and collective of researchers. Such hard and hidden work has developed the discipline over two generations. Its success is witnessed by it being acquired by SAGE, a stable production schedule, the maintenance of a wide editorial board to offer quality review, progress toward the allocation of an impact factor, and not least the high quality scholarship it curates, with 31,750 downloaded papers in the past 12 months (Sage Journals, 2021). The thud of the IJS after it has been pushed through the letter box, and tearing off the plastic to see the article titles is one of the rituals through which one communes with fellow sociologists. Its debates pieces (such as recent ones on the Covid-19 pandemic) and special issues (such as the recent edition: Advancing Social Justice for Sex Workers), alongside a consistent stream of research on social policies, have demonstrated the connection of the journal to pressing societal issues. But it has equally attracted work from leading figures in social theory and sociology internationally. This is remarkable in a way, as","PeriodicalId":52497,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Sociology","volume":"29 1","pages":"282 - 285"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47159911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-09DOI: 10.1177/07916035211046143
L. Coakley
The Government of Ireland has published its plan to reorder the infrastructure it uses to accommodate and support migrants seeking International Protection (IP) in Ireland. This policy document - entitled The White Paper to End Direct Provision and Establish a New International Support Service - was published on 26th February, 2021. The White Paper proposes to replace Ireland's current but discredited system with a new IP accommodation and support process – to be entitled Ireland's International Protection Support Service. This new system is intended to “treat all applicants to the process with dignity and respect” (Government of Ireland, 2021: 7). Dissonances exist, however. The discursive framing of the IPSS and the spatialities inherent in the proposals suggest a potential rearticulation of state control rather that a diminution of same. I turn to the work of scholars inspired by Giorgio Agamben to help situate the spatialities of this shift, and suggest that the current ‘white paper’ should simply be seen as a mechanism deployed the Government of Ireland to ensure that its bio-political command and control processes can migrate from the spatially-defined set of control environments currently in effect to a diffuse construction of a spatially networked series of deterritorialised indistinctions.
{"title":"Ireland's White Paper to End Direct Provision and Establish a New International Support Service (2021) and the ‘sticky’ discourse of control","authors":"L. Coakley","doi":"10.1177/07916035211046143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07916035211046143","url":null,"abstract":"The Government of Ireland has published its plan to reorder the infrastructure it uses to accommodate and support migrants seeking International Protection (IP) in Ireland. This policy document - entitled The White Paper to End Direct Provision and Establish a New International Support Service - was published on 26th February, 2021. The White Paper proposes to replace Ireland's current but discredited system with a new IP accommodation and support process – to be entitled Ireland's International Protection Support Service. This new system is intended to “treat all applicants to the process with dignity and respect” (Government of Ireland, 2021: 7). Dissonances exist, however. The discursive framing of the IPSS and the spatialities inherent in the proposals suggest a potential rearticulation of state control rather that a diminution of same. I turn to the work of scholars inspired by Giorgio Agamben to help situate the spatialities of this shift, and suggest that the current ‘white paper’ should simply be seen as a mechanism deployed the Government of Ireland to ensure that its bio-political command and control processes can migrate from the spatially-defined set of control environments currently in effect to a diffuse construction of a spatially networked series of deterritorialised indistinctions.","PeriodicalId":52497,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Sociology","volume":"30 1","pages":"110 - 115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65179019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-24DOI: 10.1177/07916035211051243
Socheolaíocht, Ricca Edmondson, Markus H. Woerner
{"title":"Corrigendum to “Bean feasa agus cara dilís: An tOllamh Eolaíocht Pholaitiúil agus Socheolaíocht, Ricca Edmondson”","authors":"Socheolaíocht, Ricca Edmondson, Markus H. Woerner","doi":"10.1177/07916035211051243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07916035211051243","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52497,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Sociology","volume":"29 1","pages":"352 - 352"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43458551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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