Economic Stress and the Great Recession in Ireland: Polarization, Individualization or ‘Middle Class Squeeze’?

Following an unprecedented boom, since 2008 Ireland has experienced a severe economic crisis. Considerable debate persists as to where the heaviest burden of the recession has fallen. Conventional measures of income poverty and inequality have a limited capacity to answer this question. Our analysis, which focuses on economic stress and the mediating role of material deprivation, provides no evidence for individualization or class polarization. Instead we find that while economic stress level are highly stratified in income class and social class terms in both boom and bust periods, the changing impact of class is contingent on life course stage. The affluent income class remained largely insulated from the experience of economic stress. However, it saw its relative advantage overthe income poor class decline at the earlier stage of the life-course. At the other end of the hierarchy, the income poor experienced a relative improvement in their situation in the early life course phases. The precarious income class experienced some improvement in its situation at the earlier life course stages while the outcomes for the middle classes remain unchanged. In the mid-life course stages the precarious and lower middle classes experienced disproportionate increase in their stress levels while at the later life-cycle stage it is the combined middle classes that lost out. Additional effects over time relating to social class are restricted to the deteriorating situation of the petit bourgeoisie at the middle stage of the life-course. The pattern is clearly a good deal more complex that suggested by conventional notions of ‘middle class squeeze’ and points to the distinctive challenges relating to welfare and taxation policy faced by governments in the Great Recession.

Devolution, Social Policy and Education: Some Observations from Northern Ireland

Many commentaries on social policy in the UK assume that policy as developed in England applies to the constituent countries of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, the advent of political devolution in the last five years is slowly being reflected in the literature. This paper takes education policy in Northern Ireland and discusses recent policy developments in the light of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The Agreement, it is suggested, is providing a framework which promotes equality, human rights and inclusion in policy making. Some early indications of this are discussed and some of the resultant policy dilemmas are assessed. The paper concludes that accounts of policy development
in the UK, which ignore the multi-level policy-making contexts created by devolution, do
a disservice to the subject.

Contact as a Policy Mechanisim in Integrated schools in Israel and Northern Ireland

Policy initiatives in inter-group education evolved in Northern Ireland and Israel at around the same
time. In each jurisdiction, the emphasis is on improving relations between protagonist groups in
ethnically divided societies. Central to this objective and at the core of integrated education
(Northern Ireland) and bilingual/bi-national education (Israel) is sustained contact in a shared
learning environment. Based on qualitative research in four schools, this paper examines the nature
of the contact experience in two integrated schools in Northern Ireland and two bilingual/binational
schools in Israel. Through comparative analysis, and with reference to contact theory, it
illuminates some of the contextual and process variables that seemingly mediate the quality and
moderate the effectiveness of contact in each school setting.