Scapegoating During a Time of Crisis
Irish
society continues to reel in the aftershock of the 2008 global financial
crisis, particularly since the government socialised the massive liabilities of
private banks. Sensitized to antagonistic social relations using group conflict
theory, frame analysis and Marxian informed critique, this paper reflects on
some of the corrosive social consequences of the crisis. In particular, we
interrogate hegemonic discourses which scapegoat various targets, such as
public sector workers and social welfare recipients. While scapegoating is
understood anthropologically as the ‘transference of evil’ our sociological
interest is in the transference of blame and privately accumulated debt as part
of a class project that has served finance capital and its representatives so
well. In conclusion, we suggest that Ireland serves as an example of the power
and dominance of the financial sector under late capitalism, and of the
ideological means by which its socially corrosive ends are currently
facilitated.