Open Journal Systems Trinity College Dublin
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Europe in Transition: The Future Place of the Environment in the European Union
Get PDFThe European Union recently celebrated 60 years since the Treaties of Rome were agreed. To foster debate about its future direction given the rise of populism and Brexit, the European Commission published the White Paper on the Future of Europe that identifies five alternative scenarios that inform how Europe could develop. Notwithstanding the European Union’s (EU) strong environmental credentials, the potentially significant climate and environmental implications arising from each of these scenarios for the EU27 Member States is not elaborated and there is no serious reflection on possible environmental implications. The implications of two scenarios could result in lower environmental standards. This policy commentary examines the consequences of a loss of EU competency concerning environmental policy
Being Human in Hell:: Practices of Existence in the Soviet Gulag and the Chinese Laogai
Get PDFIn The House of the Dead, Dostoevsky writes that the labour camp was “a world apart”, with “its own unique life.” His novel is set in Tsarist Russia, but his words are equally applicable to the Soviet Gulag and Chinese laogai. In these camps, the experience of being human was unique, grotesque, and transformative. To stay alive, never mind to stay human, was often impossible. Drawing on survivor memoirs from the camps, this paper examines the forces that shaped and remade the human experience in these places and analyses the responses to and results of these forces. By considering the Soviet and Chinese cases together, certain insights about being human in extreme circumstances are revealed, while highlighting the different adaptations that were made in varying conditions. The paper follows a three-part structure: the impact on human life of the economic logic that underlay the camps; the role of thought reform in reconditioning personalities, and the adaptations that people made in order to survive. The primary material is contextualised with reference both to the historiography surrounding the Gulag and laogai, and some of the theoretical writing on totalitarianism in the camps
Transnational Britain:: Local and Global Connections in History
Get PDFTransnationalism is often cited as a recent development, relating to the modern globalisation of economies and widespread movement of peoples, but historians have long-acknowledged that national entities are extremely young themselves. Suggesting that national borders are being increasingly transgressed is to ignore that regions shared languages, traditions, foods and goods prior to the development of modern nation-states. British history is characterised by invasions, immigrations and imports which question any cohesive narrative of a national history, despite popular claims to one now being stronger than ever. Britain is an example of the paradoxical notion that a nation can itself be transnational, referring both to a multicultural nation and to a culture which, particularly in the period of Empire, existed across varied spaces and combined global heritages. Where cultural transnationalism is often understood in terms of separate national cultures interacting, this essay proposes that they are transcendent. Concentrating on food culture, this essay demonstrates how Britain’s transnational identity expanded through its imperial pursuits from the Age of Discovery onwards. I focus on India as the home of the East India Company, one of the first conglomerates, from its initial attraction through the wealth attached to its spices to curry’s consolidation in British consumption from the eighteenth-century on
Inside the “Upside Down”: Estimating Ireland’s Output Gap
Get PDFThis paper attempts to identify estimates of Ireland’s output gap that are relevant for fiscal policy. In contrast to standard approaches, we focus on measures of domestic economic activity, given its relatively more tax-rich nature. We examine and test various methods based on univariate/multivariate filters and principal components analysis, comparing our estimates with those of the EU Commonly Agreed Methodology. We find that our results are stable; are less complex in structure; are able to explain price and wage inflation; and, most importantly, yield estimates that are more plausible for Ireland
Local Multipliers: IDA Supported Companies in the Irish Regions
Get PDFGlobal trends in foreign direct investment and trade have seen the Irish economy move from a high-tech manufacturing to a high-tech service driven foreign direct investment (FDI) model over recent decades. The nature of this investment has inevitably led to greater concentration of Industrial Development Authority (IDA) supported employment in a smaller number of urban cores. In this paper, we estimate the causal impact of local employment growth in IDA supported firms on local employment in firms in other sectors. To do so, we use a well-established instrumental variables method. In line with similar studies elsewhere this paper finds that the multiplier is significant. The results suggest that there are around three additional jobs created in a county for each job created in an IDA supported business in the same county. This suggests ongoing concentration of IDA supported employment will have significant implications for regional development
‘You Don’t Miss the Water ’til the Well Runs Dry’: Factors Influencing the Failure of Domestic Water Charges in Ireland
Get PDFAccess to safe drinking water and wastewater services is essential for public health, and wellbeing, but attitudes differ regarding how such services should be funded. In Ireland, the 2014 introduction of a domestic-sector, consumption-based, charging regime was met with public protests, leading eventually to the suspension of charges in 2016 and a subsequent recommendation by a parliamentary committee that they be abolished. Given that some form of domestic water charges exists in all EU countries, and that charges may still be required to comply with EU legislation, it is important to understand why the Irish domestic-charging policy failed. This paper presents five factors that were arguably influential in generating the opposition to such charges: whether water services are perceived as public, private or social goods; levels of public trust in government; personal values; ‘framing’ of the water charges policy; and the timing of the introduction of charges
Evaluating Post Leaving Certificate Provision in Ireland
Get PDFThis paper summarises the key findings of an evaluation of the Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) Programme, the largest full-time further education (post-secondary non-tertiary) programme in Ireland. This programme has multiple purposes – preparing people for employment, acting as a bridge to higher education and serving as a second-chance route for adult learners. Based on evidence from both administrative data and a unique specially-designed learner survey, we find positive results for the estimated counterfactual impact of PLC provision on employment at 16 per cent relative to similar individuals who entered the labour market directly on completion of their (upper secondary) Leaving Certificate, with a corresponding positive estimate for transitions to higher education standing at 27 per cent. Nevertheless, the evaluation found that PLC courses were often poorly connected to the labour market and that reforms could further improve the labour market prospects of leavers
The Digital Learning Movement: How Should Irish Schools Respond?
Get PDFThere is a significant movement towards digital learning internationally. However, policymaking in Ireland regarding the use of ICT in education, specifically second-level education, has been lacking. Students’ experience of technology at school varies hugely. The current debate has become device focussed rather than content focussed. This paper examines how the lack of clear policy by the Department of Education and Skills has led to resistance by many stakeholders in embedding the use of technology into schools, and particularly teaching and learning
The Irish Cultural Borderscape
Get PDFThis paper discusses the Irish cultural borderscape, or border region, as the epicentre for the development of cross-border cultural policy. Where PEACE projects have funded efforts that encourage the search for commonalities and a respect for difference, the paper posits that the Brexit process reasserts the differences that the Irish borderscape has been challenging for twenty years
Working with the Presence of a Border: An Artist’s Perspective
Get PDFDylan Quinn provides an artist’s perspective of working across the border region in the island of Ireland through discussion of the Here & Now project by Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre. Quinn describes the unique aspects of relationship-building and community engagement in a cross-border, crosscommunity context and calls for greater recognition of the voice of the artist in developing long term policy change for the arts and cultural sector