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Dr. David Ralph

Dr. David Ralph

Assistant Professor, Sociology

3531896 2701

Biography

My main research interests are in the fields of migration studies and family studies. Currently I am researching a form of post-crisis migration in Europe that I term "Euro-commuting". By Euro-commuting I mean EU citizens who live in one EU country, but work in another, and circulate back-and-forth between the two. Also, I am working on a project about return migrants to the Republic of Ireland. This involves re-interviewing return migrants I initially interviewed for my PhD dissertation seven years ago. As such, it is a longitudinal study, and seek to examine how return intentions and re-integration experiences shift (or not) over time.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • David Ralph, 'Who should do the caring'? Involved fatherhood and ambivalent gendered moral rationalities among cohabiting/married Irish parents, Community, Work & Family, 19, (1), 2016, p63 - 79Journal Article, 2016, DOI
  • David Ralph, Work, Family and Commuting in Europe: The Lives of Euro-commuters, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 1 - 150ppBook, 2015, DOI , URL
  • David Ralph, Always on the Move, but Going Nowhere Fast: Motivations for Euro-commuting between the Republic of Ireland and Other EU States, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41, (2), 2015, p176 - 195Journal Article, 2015, URL
  • David Ralph, 'Equally at home on Beacon Hill and Hill 16'? Transnational identities among Irish-born return migrants from the United States, Global Networks, 14, (4), 2014, p477 - 494Journal Article, 2014, DOI
  • David Ralph, 'It was a bit like the passover': recollections of family mealtimes during twentieth century Irish childhoods, Children's Geographies, 11, (4), 2013, p422 - 435Journal Article, 2013
  • David Ralph, Managing sameness and difference: the politics of belonging among Irish-born return migrants from the United States, Social & Cultural Geography , 13, (5), 2012, p445 - 460Journal Article, 2012, DOI
  • David Ralph and Lynn A. Staeheli , Home and Migration: Mobilities, Belongings and Identities, Geography Compass, 5, (7), 2011, p517 - 530Journal Article, 2011, DOI
  • David Ralph, Home is where the heart is? Understandings of home among Irish-born return migrants from the United States, Irish Studies Review, 17, (2), 2009, p183 - 200Journal Article, 2009, DOI
  • Jane Gray, Ruth Geraghty and David Ralph, Young grandchildren and their grandparents: a secondary analysis of continuity and change across four birth cohorts, Families, Relationships and Societies , 2, (2), 2013, p289 - 298Journal Article, 2013, DOI
  • 'One of the best members of the family': Continuity and Change in Young Children's Relationships with their Grandparents in, editor(s)Linda Connolly , The 'Irish' Family, London, Routledge, 2015, [Ruth Geraghty, Jane Gray and David Ralph]Book Chapter, 2015
  • Jane Gray, Ruth Geraghty, David Ralph, Family Rhythms: The Changing Textures of Family Life in Ireland , Manchester University Press, 2016Book, 2016, URL
  • David Ralph, 'New Orleans, Present Simple', Dublin Review , 2015, -Fiction and creative prose, 2015
  • David Ralph, 'The Vortex: A visit to the world of positive thinking ', Dublin Review, 2012, -Fiction and creative prose, 2012
  • David Ralph, 'An African Land Rush', Dublin Review, 2012, -Fiction and creative prose, 2012, URL
  • David Ralph, Abortion and Ireland: How the 8th Was Overthrown, 2021Book, 2021
  • David Ralph, "The Unsung Heroes of Ireland": Masculinity, Gender, and Breadwinning among Ireland's "Euro-Commuters", Men and Masculinities, 2020, p702-724Journal Article, 2020
  • David Ralph, `Between a whisper and a shout': repealing the eighth and pro-choice Irish women's abortion testimonies, Gender, Place and Culture, 29, (2), 2022, p201 - 221Journal Article, 2022, URL
  • Commuter Marriages in, Macmillian Encyclopedia of Families, Marriages, and Intimate Relationships, 2019, [David Ralph]Book Chapter, 2019
  • David Ralph, 'It's Just Hair, Right?' From Loss of Identity to Building a New Man in Young Men's Accounts of Male Pattern Baldness, Journal of Men's Studies, 34, (2), 2026, p365 - 386Journal Article, 2026, DOI
  • David Ralph, ''Sore Winner'', Fish Anthology 2025, Fish Publishing, 2025, -Fiction and creative prose, 2025
  • David Ralph, ''My Two Best Gals'', Dublin Review, 89, 2023, -Fiction and creative prose, 2023
  • David Ralph, ''When Everything Is Urgent'', Banshee, Banshee Press, 2023, 43 - 52Fiction and creative prose, 2023
  • David Ralph, Review of Between Foreign and Family: Return Migration and Identity Construction among Korean Americans and Korean Chinese, by Helene K. Lee , American Journal of Sociology, 125, (2), 2019, p603-605Review, 2019

Research Expertise

Drawing on the fields of migration studies, family sociology and gender studies, my research to date has made key interventions in three interlinked areas: 1.) families in the context of migration; 2.) reproductive politics and pro-choice activism; 3.) and the so-called 'masculinity crisis'. In the first of these areas, my work has examined those involved in commuter relationships and how this impacts intimate life and gender roles within the household. The second strand looks at narrative story-telling around abortion experiences as a mobilizing tactic for pro-choice advocates. And the third investigates concerns to do with men and masculinity, specifically around male vulnerabilities and the body and changes to dating norms and cultures in post-feminist societies.

In a series of books and journal articles, my research findings have opened up novel avenues for advancing insights into shifts and realignments of the gender order in contemporary society. I show how changes to the social, cultural and economic foundations of neoliberal Western democracies have led to sometimes surprising adaptations, reinventions and resistance to the gender regimes operational there. Alongside my theoretical contributions, my research also demonstrates methodological flair in that I integrate the standard techniques of qualitative inquiry with newer digital ethnographic approaches to my research designs. This twinning of the 'real world' with the 'virtual world' is significant as it better captures the lived experience of gender and family life in today's increasingly digitally-mediated societies.

Taking my earlier and my most recent work together, I have shaped academic debates on how gender and family continue to be structured by normative values around marriage, breadwinning, and mothering and fathering. My future research agenda will further these discussions by focussing on the ways in which altered gendered expectations for boys and men are provoking a kind of reactive, 'neotraditional' masculinity in some.

  • Title
    Family Rhythms
    Summary
    The "Family Rhythms" project looks at continuity and change in the Irish family over the course of the 20th century. A secondary qualitative data archive project, it examines the domains of parenthood, childhood, grandparenthood, as well as family forms and structures.
    Funding Agency
    Irish Research Council
    Date From
    2011
    Date To
    2012
  • Title
    Revisiting Return Migration
    Summary
    This project re-visited two projects carried out originally on return migration to "Celtic Tiger" Ireland. In collaboration with Dr Caitriona Ni Laoire from UCC, this project re-interviewed return migrants we had originally interviewed during the boom years. The aim was to examine the re-integration trajectories of returnee in the context of ongoing austerity and recession. Had our original interviewees re-settled fully now that they were back in their origin country for several years? Or was return just one more sojourn on an ever lengthening migratory career? How would return migrants mobilise their mobility capital in the face of economic contraction?
    Funding Agency
    Irish Research Council
    Date From
    01-01-2015
    Date To
    01-09-0215
  • Title
    Euro-commuters
    Summary
    This project examines a form of post-crisis migration that I term "Euro-commuting" - that is, where an EU citizen lives in one EU country, but works in another, commuting back and forth between the two routinely. The project examines the impacts of this form of mobility on both the cross-border commuter as well as their "left behind" family members.
    Funding Agency
    European Commission
    Date From
    2012
    Date To
    2014
  • Title
    Working Class Encounters With Elite Education
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    Research Ireland
    Date From
    2022
    Date To
    2025

Sociology and related studies,

Recognition

  • Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship 2014-2015
  • Fulbright Award to New School for Social Research September 2005-September 2006
  • Full PhD Scholarship, University of Edinburgh 2006-2010
  • European Sociological Association Ongoing
  • Sociological Association of Ireland Ongoing
  • British Sociological Association Ongoing
  • Regular journal reviewer for: Journal of Bodies, Sexualities and Masculinities; Masculinities and Social Change; Gender, Place and Culture; Community, Work and Family 2017-ongoing
  • Trinity representative on the Executive Committee of the Sociological Association of Ireland 1 January 2017-ongoing
  • Provide peer-reviews for full manuscript submissions to: Bloomsbury Publishing; Springer Nature/Palgrave 2024-ongoing