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How is public morality understood in the twenty-first century, and what effect does this have on legislation and social policy? Public Morality and the Culture Wars is a strictly non-polemical analysis of the intellectual and ideological conflicts at the heart of the 'culture wars'. Taking debates on human nature, sexuality, gender identity, abortion, censorship, and free speech, Bryan Fanning offers an accessible analysis of modern public morality, identifying a 'triple divide' between conservative, liberal and progressive viewpoints. A nuanced analysis of 'culture wars' now dividing Anglophone democracies is badly needed. Public Morality and the Culture Wars makes a vibrant and invigorating contribution to the debate, essential reading for scholars and students in the fields of social policy, law, politics, philosophy, sociology and social justice.

The development of social policy in Europe is explored in this accessible intellectual history and analysis of the welfare state. From the Industrial Revolution onwards, the book identifies three important concepts behind efforts to address social concerns in Europe: social democracy, Christian democracy and liberalism. With guides to the political and ideological protagonists and the beliefs and values that lie behind reforms, it traces the progress and legacies of each of the three traditions.

The Republic of Ireland has changed much in the last few decades. It has become much more socially liberal, urban, secular and wealthy. It has also experienced large-scale immigration during a period when other Anglophone and many other European countries mainstream political parties have witnessed the exploitation of anti-immigrant nativism by some political mainstream parties as well as by the far right. Diverse Republic examines, as part of a wider focus on how immigration has changed Irish society, the emergence of antiimmigrant far-right groups through a focus on some key figures within these. It also considers the response of mainstream politics to immigration and examines efforts to encourage the integration of newcomers. The first part of the book examines how Irish society and identity has changed since the foundation of the state. This is relevant to the second part, which examines how and to what extent far right anti-immigration politics are likely to flourish or not in the Irish case. The second part of the book examines the appeal of far-right political responses to immigration in a context where some Irish citizens no longer appear to be represented by the political mainstream and where nativist populists lay claim to the symbols and heroes of the Republic. Diverse Republic makes the case for proactive measures to promote immigrant integration and social cohesion through citizenship, social policy and community development. It engages with shifting nationalist understandings of Irishness and makes the case for taking these seriously even if anti-immigrant nativist nationalism has found only fringe support in Irish politics to date. The symbols and history of what has become a diverse Republic should not become the property of those who would exclude some of its citizens. --

Bryan Fanning traces the development of European welfare states in this accessible analysis of social change from the Industrial Revolution onwards. The book explores evolutions through the lens of three traditions - social democracy, Christian democracy and liberalism - with insights into the people and beliefs that influenced each.

Irish Adventures in Nation-building is a collection of essays examining the debates and processes that have shaped the modernisation of Ireland since the beginning of the twentieth century. Vantage points examined include those of prominent revolutionaries, cultural nationalists, clerics, economists, sociologists, political scientists, public intellectuals, journalists, influential civil servants, political leaders and activists who weighted into debates about the condition of Ireland and where it was going. For the most part the focus is on influential arguments and critiques of these set out in seminal periodicals, books and government reports. Collectively these essays chart the main shifts in dominant ideas and shifting cultural, economic and political circumstances during the last hundred years. Topics considered range from why Patrick Pearse's ideas about education were ignored to why Ireland has been recently so open to large-scale immigration, from the intellectual conflicts of the 1930s to the future of Irish identity. This is a genuinely multi-disciplinary book that draws on sociology, political economy, political science as well as upon debates within Irish historiography and Irish Studies to offer a coherent overview of how Ireland and what it means to be Irish has changed during the last century. -- Publisher description

This book provides a short introduction to the emergence and development of sociology in Ireland until the present day. While there were some early nineteenth century forerunners, the institutionalization of sociology as an academic discipline came relatively late. For a long time the development of sociology was strongly influenced by the Catholic Church, and Catholic sociology remained the dominant paradigm until a slow secularization process phased this out. From the 1970s onwards the discipline witnessed periods of growth and professionalization. However, these development and achievements were never conflict-free and by the mid 1980s, sociology in Ireland entered a period of critical self-reflection in which old established paradigms were questioned and new themes and topics emerged.--Provided by publisher