Mary P. Corcoran

Urban agriculture, civil interfaces and moving beyond difference: the experiences of plot holders in Dublin and Belfast

Recent literature suggests that a “shared politics of place” attained through joint activities fosters social integration and provides people with a means to practise co-operation [Baumann, G., 1996. Contesting culture: discourses of identity in multi-ethnic London. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Sanjek, R., 1998. The future of us all: race & neighbourhood policies in New York City. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press; Sennett, R., 2012. Together: the rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. UK: Penguin]. Such a “shared politics of place” is most likely to occur in the context of public space conceptualised broadly as “the setting for everyday spatial behaviour of individuals and communities, emphasizing ordinary activities of citizens” [Lownsbrough, H. and Beunderman, J., 2007. Equally spaced? Public space and interaction between diverse communities. London: Demos, p. 8]. Here we explore one element of such public space – urban agriculture sites – with a view to identifying the extent to which a “shared politics of place” can be created and nurtured among the cultivating citizenry. The paper draws on data collected on allotment gardening sites in two urban contexts: Dublin (Ireland) and Belfast (Northern Ireland) over the period 2009–2013. We demonstrate the centrality of allotment cultivation to the generation of solidarity, mutuality and trust among participating citizens. Individuals engaging in allotment gardening in both Dublin and Belfast create and sustain civil interfaces – dismantling barriers, exchanging knowledge, challenging stereotypes, generating empathy and getting on with the business of simply getting on with their lives. The modus operandi of allotment gardening is predicated on a willingness to disregard social and ethno-national categorisations while on site. This is not to deny that such differences exist and persist, but allotments offer a “space of potential” where those differences are, at least for a time, rendered less salient.

Ties that Bind? The Social Fabric of Daily Life in New Suburbs

The greater Dublin conurbation has now reached the 1.5 million mark. Over the last 15 years, most urban growth has taken place not at the core of the city, but on its periphery. The word ‘suburbs’ refers to those residential areas that are found around the periphery of urban centres. Suburban residents were previously thought to depend upon the urban core for work, shopping, and recreational and cultural pursuits. But this dependence on a centre is no longer seen as a crucial feature of suburbs. As Figure 11.1 clearly illustrates, Dublin has been characterised by peripheral urban development since the early 1990s. While the Dublin urban core grew only minimally between 1991 and 2002, the city expanded into the hinterland creating new suburban neighbourhoods. The further one travels from the city centre, the more marked this suburban growth. A negative view of the suburbs infuses the sociological literature and the public imagination. The suburbs are frequently represented as places of homogeneity and uniformity, of stifling conformity, of social atomisation and isolation, of withdrawal from public life into the privacy of domestic life. Indeed, although people move to the suburbs in order to enhance the quality of family life, sociologists and other commentators have portrayed suburbs as negative environments for the family, due to the isolation of the nuclear family from the support that wider kinship networks provide, both in inner city and rural environments. This portrayal of suburban life is found in some of the specialised literature on the subject (for instance, Baumgartner, 1988; Fishman, 1987, and, less directly, Sennett, 1970), but

Portrait of the ‘Absent’ Father: The Impact of Non-Residency on Developing and Maintaining a Fathering Role:

This paper reports on an exploratory study conducted with non-resident fathers, to elucidate the key issues affecting the development and maintenance of a fathering role after a relationship has ended. In particular, the paper focuses on the contingent nature of fatherhood for young marginalised men in Dublin. The extent to which fathers identify with a fathering role is explored and comparisons are drawn between the experiences of estranged, committed and activist fathers. Key factors that militate against fathers maintaining an active role in their childrens lives are identified. The paper concludes that while the experiences of fatherhood vary across different categories of fathers, the majority of them aspire toward and value their fathering role. However, their capacity to adopt a positive fathering role is affected by a range of institutional, economic and social barriers.

‘God’s Golden Acre for Children’: Pastoralism and Sense of Place in New Suburban Communities

This paper is based on an empirical case study of four suburbs in the Dublin city hinterland. It is argued that pastoral ideology plays an active role in constituting these new suburbs and helps to inculcate a sense of place. This sense of place in turn helps to cement social embeddedness which acts as a bulwark against isolation and alienation. Pastoral ideology is invoked by suburbanites even when the pastoral dimension of the suburb is under threat or has disappeared. The village or ‘main street’ acts as an important anchor for new suburban residents as does the surrounding ‘rural’ landscape and their own collective memories. However, the study reveals a gap between how some newer suburbs are represented and imagined, and how they are experienced in everyday life. This raises questions about the long-term viability of suburbs that lack a sense of place.

The 'miracle' of Fatima: Media framing and the regeneration of a Dublin housing estate

This article examines media coverage of one local authority housing estate in Dublin with a difficult past. Fatima Mansions was built between 1949 and 1951 as part of a government policy to re-house the city’s poor. The estate enjoyed a relatively unremarkable history up until the 1970s. A heroin problem developed in the estate in the 1980s and contributed to its negative media construction, such that by the end of the 1990s the estate was widely viewed as being in crisis. Beginning in the early 2000s and recently completed, a major regeneration project has seen the estate transformed with the potential finally to dislodge the negative stereotyping embedded in the estate’s past. An empirical analysis of two media spaces that represented this change process shows how the media tuned into the change agenda promoted by local residents, in the process widening its frame of reference and allowing for representations with a more positive valence. The article argues that media representations of social problems may not be authoritative and media agenda-setting is more provisional and open ended than is commonly assumed.

Society, Space and the Public Realm: Beyond Gated Individualism

A feature of late modern society is the economisation and privatisation of social life resulting in a decline in the public realm. Judt has observed that we are drifting toward a society of ‘gated individuals who do not know how to share public space to common advantage’ (2010: 216). Similarly Oldenburg (1989) has expressed concerns about the sustainability of third places – places that occupy the space between the marketplace, workplace and home place – in the modern era. He argues that ‘third places’ are being replaced by ‘non-places’ – places where individuals relate to each other purely in utilitarian terms. Non-places promote civil disaffiliation rather than civil integration. This article argues for an exploration of the ‘spaces of potential’ within the public realm of the city that can help to promote relationships of trust, respect and mutuality. Acknowledging and promoting such ‘spaces of potential’ amounts to a challenge to the privatisation and economisation of social life. Moreover, it creates the possibility of a reinvigorated public sphere and an enhancement of civil integration.

The End Of Irish America? Globalisation and the Irish Diaspora

Germany, Poland, Spain and Switzerland), distinguishing between mobile and non-mobile people as well as among those engaged in various types of such movement (termed ‘recent relocators’, ‘longdistance commuters’, ‘overnighters’ and ‘multimobiles’, i.e. people combining at least two such types of mobility). The first volume presented descriptive findings with regard to these mobility flows and the characteristics of job-mobile people in each of the participating countries. It concluded that almost half of the population surveyed had in one way or another been job-mobile at least once in their working lives and that people generally prefer to commute rather than relocate. Furthermore, differences in terms of mobility are attributable to differences between social groups (e.g. between the highly skilled and the unskilled, between men and women, between childless people and parents) rather than to those between countries. Set against this background, this second volume aims to determine the various causes and consequences of job-related spatial mobility. Framed by an introduction and a chapter on the project’s research design at the beginning and a summary with some policy implications at the end, each of the other chapters deals with a specific aspect related to such movements. An analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of job-related mobility as perceived by the individuals is followed by chapters which look at the relationship between mobility and ‘motility’ (a concept coined by Vincent Kaufmann in order to capture an individual’s propensity to mobility), gender, social class, occupational careers and previous mobility experiences. Processes of becoming mobile and employers’ support of jobmobile people are investigated as well as attitudes towards such movements and the consequences of job-related spatial mobility for family life, friendship ties and quality of life. The volume thus provides a comprehensive overview of all the important questions usually asked in relation to job-related mobility phenomena. Given the range of topics covered, only a few findings can be highlighted here. It appears, for instance, that there is a certain gendered element to mobility: mobile women are more likely to be without partner and children than non-mobile ones, and male mobility seems to reinforce traditional divisions of household labour. Furthermore, the top levels of the occupational hierarchy were found less likely to be mobile than the middle ranks; this is somewhat contrary to the usual images of a super-mobile business élite. And interestingly, jobmobile people do not per se suffer from a lower quality of life than those who have never been confronted with the need to be mobile for job reasons. Despite these and other interesting findings, there is a slight tendency to introduce a multitude of variables in the different analyses, without always making clear which of these variables really can be considered as significant in a statistical as well as a theoretical sense. While some authors use some form of regression technique to delineate the effect of one variable while controlling for others, there are also cases where only percentages for a combination of characteristics, based on weighted data, are given. Thus, many findings remain on a rather descriptive level and are somewhat inconclusive when looked at as a whole. Another aspect which remains unresolved is the question of the direction in which causality is assumed to operate with regard to the relationships found. Are people mobile due to their high motility or do they dispose over such, because they are mobile? Are prestigious jobs the result of spatial mobility or are such movements only a concomitant of belonging to the more privileged social strata? Admittedly, the authors openly acknowledge this problem by referring to the survey’s cross-sectional data structure which does not allow for dealing with the question empirically. But in order to come closer to an answer, mobility research will need to develop theoretical concepts to help explain why spatial mobility has (or has not) specific causal effects. Mobile Living Across Europe II has prepared the ground for this by empirically pointing out the range of possible consequences of job-related mobility.

Book Review: Planet of SlumsDavisMike, Planet of Slums. London and New York: Verso, 2006. 228 pp. ISBN:1-84467-022-8 (hb); 1-84467-160-7 (pb)£16/£9.

retaining their way of being. While not a book for easy reading, it is a invaluable academic resource for those involved with social policy, sociology, history and politics and for those dealing with Traveller issues. It provides comprehensive listings of relevant legislation in the Republic of Ireland since 1922 and clearly explains the severe consequences for the Traveller communitys well-being. Its photos of Travellers and their horse drawn carriages during the 1950s, from the National Library archives, provide a nostalgic glimpse of how life was for them before our consumer-mad society took over. Breathnachs book exposes our societys blatant disregard for those who do not conform to a single image. It reminds us all of our long overdue duty to heed the voices and concerns of the Traveller community, or be doomed to continue making unnecessary and illconsidered policy decisions that will benefit nobody in the long run.