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Sociology Responds to the Crisis

Events in the 2012 Sociology Lecture Series, titled Sociology Responds to the Crisis, were as follows:

Mar 07, 2012 - Bringing gender into the story of the Irish economic, banking and fiscal crisis

Feb 07, 2012 - Documenting the social suffering (with an emphasis on health) resulting from the economic crisis and austerity in Europe

Feb 02, 2012 - Roots and Dynamics of the Ongoing Revolutionary Upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa

Bringing Gender into the Story of the Irish Economic, Banking and Fiscal Crisis

  • Speaker: Dr Mary Murphy, Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth
  • Venue: JM Synge Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, TCD
  • Date: Mar 07, 2012

Presentation Overview

Nancy Fraser draws attention to the relationship between redistribution, recognition and representation.  This short input continues this tradition by making the links between women’s political inequality and Irish responses to this economic and fiscal crisis. It draws attention to power and discourse, to media and the public narrative of crisis as well as the gendered nature of the the policy responses and the distributional consequences and outcomes of Irish responses to crisis. Put simply policy responses that focus on public expenditure cuts are worst for women while a strategy that focused on enhancing revenue capacity results in more income equality for women. Government had and has clear choices but continues to choose policies that exacerbate gender inequality and wider inequality in Ireland.

Speaker Biography

Mary P. Murphy B.A., PhD (DCU) is a lecturer in Irish Politics and Society in the Department of Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth. She primarily works in the field of political sociology. Her work has covered globalisation and welfare states; the politics of redistribution; power and civil society and gender and social security.  She has published widely, her most recent publication (with Peadar Kirby) is Towards the Second Republic: Irish Politics after the Celtic Tiger  (Pluto Ireland, 2011). Prior to academic life she worked full time in social justice campaigning groups and continues to be an active advocate for social justice in the media and in initiatives that promote a more equal sustainable Ireland.

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Documenting the social suffering (with an emphasis on health) resulting from the economic crisis and austerity in Europe

  • Speaker: Dr David Stuckler, Department of Sociology, Cambridge
  • Venue: Robert Emmet Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, TCD
  • Date: Feb 07, 2012
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Roots and Dynamics of the Ongoing Revolutionary Upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa

  • Speaker: Prof Gilbert Achcar, Department of Development Studies, SOAS, University of London
  • Venue: Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, TCD
  • Date: Feb 02, 2012

Presentation Overview

This lecture assessed the social-economic and political roots of the ongoing revolutionary process in the MENA region, pointing to features that are common to the region's countries as well as to differences in social structures and types of states that determine different social and political dynamics. It also reflected on the perspectives of the process at the regional level.

Speaker Biography

Professor Gilbert Achcar is Professor of Development Studies and International Relations in the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Gilbert has degrees in Philosophy (ESL, Beirut), Social Sciences (UL, Beirut) and Social History/International Relations (University of Paris-VIII). He taught and/or researched in various universities and research centres in Beirut, Berlin and Paris. Gilbert's research interests and publication topics include: the political economy and sociology of globalisation, the global power structure and grand strategy, empire theory and the unfolding of US hegemony globally and in the 'Broader Middle East', politics and development economics of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, the sociology of religion in general, of Islam and Islamic fundamentalism in particular, social change and social theory. His latest books are :