National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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A Feasibility Study on the Introduction of a Community Court in Ireland Based on a comparative analysis of the Neighbourhood Justice Centre in Australia and the North Liverpool Community Justice Centre in England.
No full textThis doctoral thesis assesses the feasibility of introducing a community court in Ireland – based on a comparative analysis of the Neighbourhood Justice Centre (NJC) in Australia and the North Liverpool Community Justice Centre (NLCJC) in England – and provides evidence-based recommendations to inform policymakers of the approach that is needed to successfully implement this innovative court model.
Building on the two previous proposals to introduce a pilot Irish community court, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in Australia, England, and Ireland, and an online survey of Tallaght residents, this thesis concludes that a community court is feasible in Ireland, and that such an initiative, if adequately resourced and structured, would have the capacity to transform high-crime communities and improve the quality of life of residents. The thesis also argues that it is the optimal time for Irish policymakers to reconsider the community court model, but that in doing so, close attention must be paid to the key recommendations made within this thesis which serve as a guidebook for how to successfully implement a community court.
The best practice guidelines set out for the establishment of a community court in this thesis include: adequate resourcing, funding of dual staff members, built-in mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation based on relevant indicators of success, accessible placement in a high-crime area with established support services, a standalone and purposefully designed building in which the court is not the main focus, a strong commitment to the principle of community justice, intensive community consultation and continuous community involvement, creation of political champions and advocates at every level of the criminal justice system, a single judge with experience in therapeutic jurisprudence, and the on-site co-location of criminal justice agencies and support services. Furthermore, it is suggested that Tallaght is a prime location for a pilot community court as it is an area with a large population, high crime rates, a strong sense of community, and an existing foundation of established support services.
On the whole, the thesis demonstrates that an ill-conceived community court risks becoming a waste of vast resources, but that if these evidence-based recommendations are carefully followed, the community court model can have a truly transformative impact on high-crime communities
A Small Country with a Huge Diaspora, Ireland Navigates Its New Status as an Immigration Hub.
No full textFor the first time since 1851 (during the Great Famine), the Republic of Ireland’s population exceeded 5 million people in 2022, a tremendous growth from fewer than 4 million in 2002. This change is in part due to changing patterns of migration. More than 1.6 million people immigrated to Ireland over those 20 years, with net inward migration of around 520,000 people.
Historically a country of mass emigration, Ireland has rapidly emerged as a new immigrant destination. It is home to significant numbers of immigrants from other EU Member States and beyond, as well as a growing population of immigrants’ children who are contributing to greater racial and ethnic diversity. While emigration of Irish citizens and foreign nationals alike continues, the issue of immigration has in recent years received more political, policy, and public attention
Revised OSL chronology of the Kisiljevo loess-palaeosol sequence: New insight into the dust flux in the eastern Carpathian Basin during MIS 3 - MIS1
No full textThis study presents a detailed investigation of the Kisiljevo loess-palaeosol sequence in north-eastern Serbia, offering a refined understanding of its paleoenvironmental dynamics. Contrasting our updated OSL chronology with a previous study, reveals discrepancies, particularly at 400 cm depth, where a considerable age underestimation is evident. While variations in sampling depth and methodology may contribute to some differences, the substantial deviation raises concern about the reliability of the earlier chronology. Our robust age-depth model constructed using Bayesian modelling, and the consistent increase in ages with depth suggest a potential underestimation in the uppermost layer of the earlier study, possibly due to partial bleaching or post-depositional mixing. The Bayesian age-depth model portrays a continuous sedimentation history from the later stages of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) to the present day. The patterns in the calculated Mass Accumulation Rates reveal distinctive peaks during MIS 3 and the middle of MIS 2, deviating from typical dust deposition models. The MIS 3 peaks in dustiness could be attributed to regional factors such as increased transportation rates, enhanced trapping efficiency, or elevated palaeowind intensity. This research not only enhances our understanding of the Kisiljevo LPS but also provides valuable insights into regional paleoenvironmental dynamics. The study emphasizes the importance of considering local geological variations in reconstructing past climates from sediment archives and sets the stage for further investigations into the factors influencing dust deposition in north-eastern Serbia. The MAR trends established here serve as a crucial reference for broader paleoclimatic interpretations in the Carpathian Basin
CROSSDRO: Cross-sectoral Drought Impacts in Complex European Basins
No full textDroughts are pervasive and hazardous events that impact multiple domains, including agriculture, water resource management, ecological management, infrastructure, waterway navigation and forestry. A drought in Ireland in 2018, had severe socio-economic and environmental impacts across sectors: agriculture suffered from reduced grass growth, fodder shortages and decreased crop yields, peatlands faced increased wildfire risk and ecological degradation and water management was challenging amid supply issues. In addition, canals, waterways, and rivers experienced weed growth, navigation problems, fishing restrictions and reduced fish health and forestry saw increased tree deaths, especially in peatland plantations. The CROSSDRO project collated a network of river flow gauges across Europe, covering the period 1962–2017, for the analysis of hydrological drought
How Cognitive Bias Prevents Serendipity in New Product Development (and What to Do About It)
No full textThe purpose of this article is to identify practical
strategies that new product development (NPD) managers can
undertake to increase the likelihood of serendipity within the NPD
process by focusing on overcoming the barriers presented by cognitive bias. We adopt an alternative methodological approach based
on analogical reasoning to develop a series of propositions that
explain the relationship between cognitive biases and serendipity.
We present a process model of how serendipity unfolds within NPD.
We provide a detailed analysis of cognitive bias within NPD, and
identify those categories of biases that are most likely to hinder the
occurrence and realization of serendipity in NPD. Finally, we propose a strategy of debiasing NPD activities to enable serendipity and
thereby improve new product performance. This article concludes
with a research agenda and discusses implications for firms
'A Joycean Smutmonger': Echoes of Joyce in Máirtín Ó Cadhain's Rural Modernism
No full textThe abstract is included in the text
Intra-EU Sustainable Careers: A qualitative study and interpretation of the transnational career sustainability of intra-EU migrants in Germany, Ireland, and Spain.
No full textThis dissertation explores the career sustainability of forty-two European Union (EU) citizens living and working in another EU country. It examines how sustainable careers can be pursued, achieved, and maintained in a transnational context over time. The countries of focus are Ireland, Germany, and Spain, considered both as home and host countries for the study participants.
Adopting a social constructionist philosophical paradigm, this predominantly inductive study analyses the participants' intra-EU mobility experiences, viewing them both from their own migration realities and from the broader perspective of intra-EU geographical labour mobility as a phenomenon. The research employs a whole-life perspective (Litano & Major, 2016; Hirschi et al., 2020) to analyse the transnational career sustainability of intra-EU migrants.
The analysis integrates literature from international human resource management (IHRM), expatriation, and career studies, alongside interdisciplinary literature on migration and transnationalism. This approach aims to provide a deeper understanding of how participants construct and interpret their career experiences within a dynamic transnational context. The findings contribute to existing research on international careers and the sustainable career construct from a transnational perspective. Transnationalism is defined as "the processes by which immigrants build social fields that link together their country of origin and their country of settlement" (Glick-Schiller et al., 1992, p.1), operationalised here as transnational living, where participants maintain "sustained and similarly significant attachments, interactions and presences in two or more societies separated by national borders" (Carling, Erdal & Talleraas, 2021, p.2).
In this dissertation, the constituent components of transnational living—social integration, social organisation, complementarity, rhythm, and balance—are detailed in Chapter Four (section 4.4, pp. 81-85), empirically explored in Chapter Six (section 6.3, pp. 124-145), and further discussed in Chapter Eight. Theoretically, this work establishes the case for applying the conceptualisation of transnational living—originating from the migration field—within the international business domain. The discussion chapter integrates the five dimensions of transnational living with the levers of a sustainable career to present a structuring mechanism
of a transnational sustainable career (section 8.2.3, p. 208-214), which has been empirically validated in this PhD research undertaking.
By integrating the concepts of transnational living and sustainable careers, this dissertation presents an organising framework for studying the sustainability of transnational careers, offering a novel perspective on dynamic inter-country career movements. The study reveals that the three indicators of a sustainable career—happiness, health, and productivity—intersect with and are influenced by the complementarity dimension of transnational living. These complementarities, which can be professional, relational, or related to general well-being in the host country, vary across different career and life stages, highlighting the temporal nature of both sustainable careers and transnational living.
Empirically, this PhD dissertation provides a snapshot of intra-EU migrants' career experiences and their continuous associations and engagement with their home and host countries over time and space. In a world characterised by globalisation and mobility, this study describes how and discusses why internationally mobile individuals maintain ties with their home countries while residing in a host country, normalising the experience of living with a "foot in both camps." The study contributes to the international career and mobility literature by introducing the concept of "transnational living," which holds potential value for management and international HRM scholars. While this study looked specifically at the geographical setting of the EU, there may be other examples of particular settings facilitating transnational living (e.g. Australia to New Zealand). The main contribution of this study is the provision of an overarching framework of contemporary transnational sustainable careers which can be used to investigate the rise of transnational living as a phenomenon, beyond the EU, and transnational living as a contemporary means of adjustment
Crises, Coloniality, and Energy Transformations in Puerto Rico.
No full textIncreased attention to inclusive processes and distributed engagement is essential to
ensure injustices are not perpetuated during energy transitions (Bennett et al. 2019;
Markard, Geels & Raven 2020; Newell & Simms 2021; Sovacool 2021). Energy
system change that focuses narrowly on transforming the technical components of
the system without transforming the underlying socio-political dynamics reinforces
power differentials, preventing a more just and equitable future (Stephens 2019).
Crises and disasters provide opportunities for re-envisioning energy systems, but
despite the “windows of opportunity” that such moments present, the changes
brought on by disruptive events are not guaranteed to lead to more just futures
(Birkland 1997; O’Donovan 2017; Ellis 2020; Kinol & Kuhl 2023). The conditions
that make either re-entrenchment or transformation more likely are not well understood, particularly in contexts of coloniality in which power dynamics are highly unequal and decision-making authority is external to the local context. Coloniality
refers to the “long-standing patterns of power that emerged as a result of colonialism, but that define culture, labor intersubjective relations, and knowledge production well beyond the strict limits of colonial administrations” (Maldonado-Torres 2007, p. 243) and, as de Onís (2018) articulates, energy is a critical system in which coloniality operates, particularly due to the extractive nature of energy production (de Onís 2018). Especially after disasters when change is perceived to be “urgent”, transformation may reinforce existing power dynamics and exacerbate inequalities (Blythe et al. 2018; Jones, Kuhl & Matthews 2020; Schipper et al. 2021).Through a case study of Puerto Rico, this chapter explores the ways that crises
have influenced the visions of the future of the energy system for different actors, acknowledging that visioning is a critical component of the transformation process.
This chapter seeks to understand the role of crises in shaping narratives of energy
transitions, and to engage with the literature on climate coloniality to better understand challenges for energy transformation under contexts of coloniality. Hopkinset al. (2020) and Ghosh et al. (2021) call for sustainability transitions scholarship to engage more deeply with post and de-colonial scholarship, and McGowen and Antadze (2023) reflect on how attention to coloniality and the “dark side of trans-
formations” (Blythe et al. 2018) reshape their own previous analysis of sustainability transitions
Empowering Adult Educators: Consideration of How We Can Create Sustainable Communities of Practice for Critical Reflection to Develop Transformative Teaching Practices.
No full textThis research explores how critical reflection in community of practices can drive transformative learning, promoting personal development and fostering socially just practices.
The research question 'Empowering Adult Educators: Consideration of How We Can Create Sustainable Communities of Practice for Critical Reflection to Develop Transformative Teaching Practices,' was investigated using Participatory Action Research through collaborative enquiry as part of a CoP. The aim is to co-create knowledge, critically reflecting on our practices leading to action for change.
The cyclical nature of action research was structured around Stephen Brookfield’s four lenses of critical reflection: student feedback, colleagues’ perspectives, personal reflections, and educational theories. The literature review covered theories from prominent scholars like John Dewey, Donald Schon, Stephen Brookfield, Jan Fooks, Jack Mezirow, Paulo Freire, Lave and Wenger, and Barbara Larrivee, focusing on differentiating critical reflection from general reflection and its role in transformative learning.
The study concluded the value of critical reflection for personal and professional growth and development. Effective professional development requires a supporting culture and relevant and engaging strategies. Vital to the success of this is flexible organisational policies. Recommendations include encouraging the understanding of critical reflection through structured models for reflection. Fostering a culture of critical reflection within the work environment through the implementation of communities of practice and professional development programs.
The research underscores the importance of critical reflection in transforming educational practices through enhancing professional development. This will ultimately contribute to more inclusive and socially conscious teaching methodologies
Access to inner language enhances memory for events.
No full textEvents are temporally bounded experiences involving people, objects, and actions that can be segmented into sequences of smaller, meaningful events (e.g., steps involved in constructing a piece of furniture), but the role of inner language in remembering such events has been unclear. We investigated whether inner language enhances memory for events in a naturalistic, nonverbal task where participants constructed simple models from memory. Across three experiments, we used linguistic suppression in a dual-task paradigm to test whether inner language improved overall memory performance and completion time, additionally exploring the number of events that could be recalled. We found that access to inner language at encoding consistently affected memory performance: when inner language was disrupted at encoding, participants were poorer at recalling the models and remembered fewer events. This effect was present whether or not the number of events to be recalled exceed event memory capacity (estimated as approximately seven to eight events). Critically, linguistic suppression impaired memory performance to a greater extent than a control secondary task that did not affect access to language; that is, impairment was not solely due to dual-task interference. The results support the proposal that inner language enhances event memory via a mechanism of linguistic bootstrapping, which makes event representation more efficient by allowing more information to be encoded in an event model even when language is not being used in the task. These findings therefore extend theories of event memory and add to a growing body of evidence that inner language is a highly valuable cognitive tool