Suchergebnisse

peer-reviewed ; What can a song text and its performance tell us about society, privilege and the political sphere? Following on from Cashell's (2012) line of argument, I contend that British singer Billy Bragg (1957-) has employed his lyrics and activism to represent the struggles of the International working class and build a counter narrative to discourses which present the capitalist worldview as innate, 'natural' and inevitable. Centered on a deep textual reading of Bragg's song(s) "Ideology" / "The Clashing of Ideologies" (1986; 2006)2, the chapter is organized in five key sections. I begin by discussing the continuing importance of social protest and the use of song as a mechanism of protest. I then present a brief account of Billy Bragg – the artist and activist – to contextualize my analysis of his work. The third section of the chapter reflects on neoliberal understandings of meritocracy in order to situate "Ideology" / "The Clashing of Ideologies" (1986; 2006) as a sonic response to such understanding ; ACCEPTED ; Peer reviewed

non-peer-reviewed ; This thesis examines Irish housing policy, and legislation / policies introduced to address homelessness, and asks the question "how effective have Irish governmental policies been in alleviating the social exclusion of the homeless?" A qualitative study framed by social citizenship was undertaken. The data was collected from a purposive sample of ten respondents by means of interviews and a grounded theory approach was utilized as the method of data analysis. The study examines what homelessness, citizenship, and social exclusion are, the requirements for citizenship and exclusion from citizenship. It links exclusion from citizenship to homelessness, and its manifestation in Irish society. Ultimately it examines the effectiveness of how government policy has addressed the social exclusion experienced by the homeless as a result of the denial of citizenship rights. It finds that Irish housing policy has satisfied the majority of citizens, yet simultaneously it has unintentionally restricted the quality of citizenship for a sizeable minority. Additionally government policy has had a positive impact on alleviating the social exclusion of the homeless on a number of levels. However it appears to have reached its limit and needs to move the next level to continue the progress that has been made. ; PUBLISHED ; non-peer-reviewed

peer-reviewed ; In 2014 the prohibition of the hijab in sporting competition was abolished by FIFA. In response an initiative designed to encourage and support the participation of Muslim women in football was launched in Dublin. This paper seeks to understand Diverse FC players' experiences through utilizing a cultural studies approach bolstered by a theoretical framework focussed on cultural and social capital and micro level interactions in order to explore the politics of participation when that participation may be policed by community members monitoring behaviours in accordance with the groups preferred norms. The paper demonstrates that the Diverse City project delivers inclusion in and inclusion through football and underscores the importance of understanding the experiences of our participants when developing strategies for inclusion in sports management and in wider society, particularly in an international context where securitised practices and discourses are discouraging the socio-civic participation of young Muslims. ; ACCEPTED ; peer-reviewed

In this piece we document how a football club has proved to be an important mechanism of integration for young Muslim women in Ireland. As has been evidenced elsewhere, and discussed in this piece, Islamophobia is a reality in Irish society, whether as proximal lived experiences of hostility and discrimination, or as structural elements that deploy anti-Muslim tropes. In the face of such exclusion, young Muslim individuals, supported by local civil society actors, have taken it upon themselves to develop a platform, namely the Hijabs and Hat-tricks project, that not only enables inclusion, and develops meaningful integration, but also challenges head-on those tropes that cast them and their communities as 'other'. Football, in the form of Diverse City FC, forms the focal point of this platform. Based on the experiences of these young Irish Muslims, we argue that football, and indeed sport more broadly, can act as an incredibly effective mechanism for meaningful societal integration. Finally, we argue for the importance of not only understanding the experiences of marginalised groups, such as the Diverse City players, but of the importance of drawing from these experiences to design future strategies for inclusion in Irish society. James Carr, Experiences of Islamophobia: Living with racism in the neoliberal era (London: Routledge, 2016).

peer-reviewed ; Our paper argues that British singer Billy Bragg performs protest songs that cleverly draw upon musical forms underpinning his positioning as a voice of, and for, the ordinary person, ultimately disenfranchised by governmental adherence to neoliberal policies. While political songs are a product of their time, many of them can also transcend that historical moment and have a longer shelf-life in terms of their capacity to inform political thinking and action. Our song(s) of choice in this paper do so not just in terms of the relevance of their 'literal' message but also in how they draw upon traditional structures of feeling and generic elements of folk song to underpin this sense of 'grass-roots' critique via a modified, acoustic ballad form and a performance style. This serves to authenticate and legitimate the singer and his message and, in turn, allows Bragg to accumulate political and cultural capital. ; peer-reviewed

Abstract
Our paper argues that British singer Billy Bragg performs protest songs that cleverly draw
upon musical forms underpinning his positioning as a voice of, and for, the ordinary person, ultimately
disenfranchised by governmental adherence to neoliberal policies. While political songs are a product of their
time, many of them can also transcend that historical moment and have a longer shelf-life in terms of their
capacity to inform political thinking and action. Our song(s) of choice in this paper do so not just in terms
of the relevance of their 'literal' message but also in how they draw upon traditional structures of feeling
and generic elements of folk song to underpin this sense of 'grass-roots' critique via a modified, acoustic
ballad form and a performance style. This serves to authenticate and legitimate the singer and his message
and, in turn, allows Bragg to accumulate political and cultural capital.

The repeated circulation of anti-welfare discourses has served to encourage limited and often incorrect public understandings of issues pertaining to welfare. Central to these processes is the social construction of notions of 'deservedness' and 'undeservedness.' In this article we examine the 2017 'Welfare Cheats, CheatUs All' (original emphasis) campaign initiated by the Department of Social Protection in the Republic of Ireland. We present our analysis of the dominant discourses evident in the campaign itself and the in-house discussions in the lead up to the campaign. Our article shows that this Irish campaign rehearses a familiar international discourse which follows distinct patterns or rules, and we evidence, in keeping with other moral panics, the spurious nature of the data being used to exaggerate the scale and extent of welfare 'fraud'.

AbstractThis article examines the impact of territorial stigma in Limerick, a peripheral Irish city, and whether such stigma can be successfully resisted. It begins by exploring the development of the concept of territorial stigma and its five key characteristics. We reflect on how stigmatization has impacted communities in this city. We then utilize Katz's (2004) three dimensions of resistance—resistance (denoting an 'oppositional consciousness'), resilience (denoting coping with life under territorial stigma) and reworking (denoting the recasting of the objects of stigmatization through alternative interpretations) to make sense of how stigmatized identities are being challenged/erased/masked in the context of a top-down 'rebranding' of Limerick City. Ultimately the article argues that the capacity of grassroots resistance alone to alter discourses, which although locally focused are intermeshed with much larger ideological conflicts, is questionable.

peer-reviewed ; Link to published copy; https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/music-as-multimodal-discourse-9781474264426/ ; This chapter explores how a pop song can become (and remain) a critical site for counter-hegemonic expression, through the creative manipulation of discursive, structural, sonic, and somatic elements. 'The Slum Mums', by popular music artist Morrissey, deals with the contempt felt for lone female mothers on welfare in the UK under the New Labour governments of the 1990s and 2000s. Rather than providing a straightforward critique of this 'contempt', Morrissey deftly creates a song whose meaning relies on the ambiguous interrelationship between the socio-political context, the lyrical content, and musical structure and sound as they relate to issues of gendered embodiment in particular. To this end, we locate our work within what might be understood as a social constructivist approach, leaning into scholars who argue for embodied perspectives. We argue that it is through the careful subversion of expectations that the song provides a powerful critique of gendered, class disgust. ; ACCEPTED ; Peer reviewed

peer-reviewed ; Since the expansion of the European Union Ireland has experienced a significant increase in the proportion of immigrants from EU states (Quinn 2010). Between 2002 and 2006 the fastest growing category apart from Irish or UK nationals, were EU nationals (6.6% of the population). Polish nationals numbered 63,300 while the number of Lithuanian nationals was 24,600 (CSO Census 2006). This trend continued in the period to 2009: "Between 2005 and 2009 an average of 44 per cent of the immigration flow and 54 per cent of the non-Irish immigration flow has been made up of nationals of EU States that acceded in 2004 together with Romania and Bulgaria which acceded in 2006" (Quinn 2010, 3). The 2006 Census showed that Dublin South City had the highest concentration of foreign-nationals anywhere in the state, with the figure standing at 18.7% of the total population. Of this figure, 9.3% were EU citizens ; ACCEPTED ; Peer reviewed

Abstract
Limerick SoundScapes is a sound-mapping project that seeks to critically engage citizens of the multicultural, socially and economically divided post-industrial City of Limerick in the Republic of Ireland. Facilitated by an interdisciplinary team at the local university, citizens from all walks of life are encouraged to traverse the city, using hand-held recorders to capture a vast array of sounds and create soundscapes. Initially, we locate the project within the context of a city currently experiencing a state-sponsored programme of urban regeneration. The project is also understood in terms of top-down and bottom-up cultural initiatives, particularly in relation to Limerick's designation as National City of Culture 2014. In addition to looking at how Limerick SoundScapes was conceived and realized through a pilot programme in 2013, we focus specifically on two members of two local participating organizations as an example of how the project operates. Through the activities and experiences of these two volunteer recordists, we illustrate how the project is as much (if not more) focused on engagement and building social relations as it is on producing a finished product that seeks to sonically and culturally represent the city. Such projects have the capacity to promote real diversity and a critical and participatory citizenship through shared, creative goals and a dialogic of doing. However, we also show that culture is often understood in a particular way in Limerick, which we argue is to the detriment of investing in bottom-up projects that can potentially build 'institutional capacity' and boost 'civic creativity'.