Description
How can we understand how moral transformation which Ireland has undergone over the course of half a century? While the problem of how to explain social change, and the closely related question of continuity (Patterson, 2004), remains central to sociology, it appears to have receded from the fore of theoretical debate. This perhaps reflects the retreat of determinist explanation, so prevalent in the twentieth century, whether in Marxist or structural functionalist form. The poststructuralist turn, with its hostility to ‘grand theorising’, appears to have deflected debates concerning the drivers of change, as attention turned to questions of radical indeterminacy and decentred, non-hierarchical, accounts of power. Nevertheless, we continue to face the question of how to explain the sources of significant social change, beyond immediate contingencies and pressures. This paper aims to address this question through a focus on the case of Ireland, giving due regard to the creativity of political actors in driving change, but at the same time avoiding an overly-narrow focus on contemporaneous political campaigns and movements as the sole driver of change.This paper considers alternative perspectives on social change, ranging from perceiving it as a limited phenomenon which protects the underlying stability of any social system, to the view that change has become a permanent and radically destabilizing feature of late modern societies. A processual perspective, treating both continuity and change as ordinary, is adopted. The quality of change is understood as contingent on the degree of normative revision generated through responses to historical events.
| Period | 09 May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Sociological Association of Ireland : 52nd Annual Conference |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Cork, IrelandShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |