The era of neoliberalism has given rise to
inequalities on a scale that is perhaps unprecedented in the history of our
species. The advent of the global economic crisis has served to amplify the
already quite staggering disparities in wealth that exist within societies like
our own. Austerity measures introduced on either side of the Irish Sea have
eroded the living standards of working class communities at a time when the
resources at the disposal of the wealthy continue to accumulate. While there is
abundant evidence that social class remains a critical and growing fault line
within contemporary society, this is rarely acknowledged in the academy. Over
the last generation, class analysis has been largely consigned to the margins
of the sociological imagination. In this roundtable discussion, a range of
speakers will consider the contemporary significance of class as a source of
human experience and as a frame for social scientific analysis. The
contributors will consider whether recent academic work on social class marks a
genuine revival of the issue within the social sciences, examine the impact of
austerity on the social fabric of both Ireland and the United Kingdom and
explore whether the ongoing economic crisis offers an opportunity for the
germination of class politics in the Irish and British contexts.
Participants:
Dan Finn, Deputy Editor, New
Left Review
Martin Power, University of
Limerick
Lisa McKenzie, London School of
Economics
Chair: Colin Coulter, MU