Research
The department has an active programme of policy-relevant and theory- and method-pluralistic research both within Ireland and in collaboration with partners in Europe and around the globe.
Our core research areas listed below are at the cutting edge of the discipline, are central to Trinity College’s and the School’s Strategic Plans, and are essential for sociology to remain relevant and contribute to public debate.
GLOBALISATION AND DEVELOPMENT
The study of globalisation processes was developed as a leading interest in the department by Professor Emeritus Robert Holton (whose work on cosmopolitan globalisation is internationally known) since he took up the Chair in 2001. Several members of the department are affiliated to the Institute of International Integration Studies. The focus on globalisation dialogues with the department’s long standing interest in development issues.
Two further important departmental specialisations within the area are research in global migration processes and in cultures and identities within a globalising world. Three members of the department, Dr Ronit Lentin, Prof James Wickham and Dr Peter Mühlau are founder members of the interdisciplinary research programme, the Trinity Immigration Initiative (2007-10).
Staff working in these areas include Dr Barbara Bradby, Dr Daniel Faas, Dr Andrew Finlay, Dr Anne Holohan, Dr Elaine Moriarty, Dr Antje Roeder, Dr Ronit Lentin, Dr Peter Mühlau and Prof James Wickham. Several sociology doctoral students are researching various aspects of globalisation and migration.
IRISH AND EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
Sociology staff have research interests in aspects of social change in Ireland and Europe. The department has contributed to international understandings of Irish and European social change in relation to: employment, business organisation and labour markets (the contribution of the Employment Research Centre, directed by Prof Wickham, has been significant here); urban transport and citizenship; migration and multiculturalism; changing social relations around changing gender relations and policies; and education: policies, links between migration and education, and comparative education.
Staff involved in this area include: Dr Barbara Bradby, Dr Daniel Faas, Dr Margret Fine-Davis, Dr Ronit Lentin, Dr Antje Roeder, Dr Peter Muhlau and Prof James Wickham. Hilary Tovey, whose specialism is encironmental sociology and consumption has retired in September 2010.
ETHNIC AND NATIONAL CONFLICT
Together with colleagues from Law, the Irish School of Ecumenics and History, Sociology staff are founder members of the Trinity Centre for Postconflict Justice. The Centre links to longstanding research interests in the Department: Dr Ronit Lentin's and Dr David Landy's in Israel/Palestine, Dr Andrew Finlay’s in the Good Friday Agreement and other consociational models, and Dr Anne Holohan’s in Kosovo. Several doctoral students are researching in this area.
KNOWLEDGE, SCIENCE, REGULATION
Several members of the department share a research interest in the emergence of a knowledge-based society. These include relations between forms of knowledge within environmenal management and sustainable development; technology, knowledge elites within a knowledge economy; the development of information technology, its network impacts and conditions.
Staff working in these areas include Dr Anne Holohan and Prof James Wickham.
Major research initiatives include:
Contact: socio@tcd.ie | Last updated: Jan 31 2012 | Back to top