Social Representations and Social Change:

Addressing Immigration in Ireland

Caoimhe Ryan

MSc Dissertation

Presentation Outline

Contemporary Ireland: Radical social change Social Representation: A theoretical

framework Dissertation Methodology

– Focus groups– Outcomes of pilot– Analysis

Contemporary Ireland:Radical Social Change

A legacy of emigration:

“We live in a country that exported our people… not by the boatload… or by the planeload… but by the generation.”

- Enda Kenny, Fine Gael Leader

• From emigration to immigration:

•A changed Ireland

– Since EU expansion in 2004, over 300,000 immigrants have arrived in Ireland

– Previously an relatively homogenous society, Ireland now has an immigrant population of over 10%

– Arguably the greatest, and most rapid social and cultural change in recent generations

Social Representations: A theoretical framework

Representations and change

Social representations are a constitutive part of newly emerging social, cultural and political realities

Emphasis on the dynamic relationship between individuals and changing societies

Identifying the functions of emerging/changing social representations gives insight into the changing needs of a community or society

Social Representations (continued)

Power Social representations are permeated by relations of

power, allowing for investigations of existing/shifting power relations

Representational polyphasia The existence of contradictory/conflicting sets of

representations– Can give insight into the different needs served by different

representations

Dissertation: Research Questions

What can an investigation of social representations tell us about the impact of immigration on the life-worlds of Irish people?

What can such an investigation tell us about the dynamics, structure and functions of social representations?

Dissertation: Methodology

Focus groups Topic “Contemporary Social Relations in Ireland

– Discussion following brief presentation

Natural groups– Pre-exiting clubs, committees etc

Generational approach– Separate groups of teenagers through to retirement age

Outcomes of pilot focus group

Hierarchical attitudes– “Definitely! It goes: Western European, Eastern European, Asian,

African.”– Differentiation between asylum seekers and EU citizens

Level of contact with immigrants– “…us in our university bubble, it’s easy for us not to be racist”

Role of Irish history– “You’d expect us to bear it in mind, to affect how we treat

immigrants, but it doesn’t.”– Polish as the “New Irish”

Dissertation: Analysis

Thematic analysis of the data

Investigation of the dynamics, structure and functions of social representations of Irish people in relation to immigration by examining:

– Transformations, transpositions of social representations

– Consistencies and inconsistencies across and within systems of representations

– Newly emergent, unique representations