Social Representations and Social Change: Addressing Immigration in Ireland

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Social Representations and Social Change
Addressing Immigration in Ireland

• Caoimhe Ryan
• MSc Dissertation

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Presentation Outline

• Contemporary Ireland Radical social change
• Social Representation A theoretical framework
• Dissertation Methodology
• Focus groups
• Outcomes of pilot
• Analysis

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Contemporary IrelandRadical 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

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From emigration to immigration
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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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, its easy for us
  not to be racist
• Role of Irish history
• Youd expect us to bear it in mind, to affect
  how we treat immigrants, but it doesnt.
• Polish as the New Irish

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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