Whitaker Institute

On 27 January 2021, the Whitaker Institute was delighted to host Negotiating Intercultural engagement in Ireland: Irish immigration policy and its impact on the day-to-day lives of migrants by Dr Orla McGarry. Interculturalism has become the dominant migration policy in Europe over the past two decades. In contrast with past policies of multiculturalism which are often seen as having created ‘parallel societies’, policy makers have embraced interculturalism as an approach that valorises ‘interaction’ across cultural frontiers. Interculturalism however, carries a dense and contested rhetorical baggage that is in need of distillation. Drawing on empirical research across multiple sites, this seminar provided a critical discussion of Ireland’s intercultural policy. It argued that the laissez faire nature of Ireland’s migration policies entrench inequalities among contemporary migrants and called for more cohesion and cooperation between migrant advocacy groups, academics and policy stakeholders.

On 27 November 2020, the Whitaker was delighted to host the live webinar COVID-19 and the Organization of Anthropocentricism. Recently there has been a lot of talk about the pandemic in academia. A compelling question not being asked, however, is ‘how on earth did we get here?’  More importantly, how can we stop ourselves from returning to such a situation in the future? We suggest that anthropocentricism (humans placing themselves at the centre of the world) lies at the heart of the multiple issues that created the conditions of possibility for COVID 19 to emerge.  Anthropocentrism is also linked to a profoundly patriarchal tendency to exercise domination over different Others and consider them as mere objects to be managed.

By drawing from different disciplines we may be able to disrupt and challenge damaging organizational and business practices, especially within the animal-industrial complex. Central to this is the question of whether academics in these disciplines are complicit in promoting a form of agnotology (the making and unmaking of ignorance) by endorsing approaches to corporate social responsibility, business ethics and sustainability, that obfuscate these issues.  The speciesism that underpins the animal-industrial complex has not received the attention that academia bestows on other ‘isms’. The consequences of this neglect are significant.

In this webinar we explore how posthumanist perspectives can be harnessed as an antidote to anthropocentricism and speciesism, to promote an awakening– or reconstitution– of how to live a good and sustainable life with all those we share planet earth with.  COVID 19 is one of many zoonotic diseases associated with our interference with animals specifically, and the biosphere in general. Such a disease was long predicted.  Without radical changes to destructive profit-maximising strategies, other zoonotic diseases will engender frequent and more severe pandemics, while the inseparable issue of climate change promises horrific events, even extinction.

The good news is that all these problems have been made by us, and so they can also be unmade by us.

The webinar included presentations from four experts followed by a question and answer period.

Speakers:
Charles Barthold
Senior Lecturer in HRM and Organisation Studies, The Open University, UK

Caroline Clarke
Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies, The Open University, UK

Daniel Nyberg  
Professor of Management and Organisation Studies, Newcastle Business School, Australia

Matthew Cole
Lecturer in Criminology, The Open University, UK

Chaired by Professor Kate Kenny
NUI Galway

On 19 November 2020, the Whitaker Institute hosted a live webinar Women, work and Covid-19: the beginning of the end for gender equality? As Covid-19 continues to affect the world of work, it is evident that the pandemic and its economic effects disproportionately affect women. Much of the pandemic’s unequal impact stems from the unequal distribution of unpaid caring work, exacerbated by the closure of schools and childcare facilities. Although these are now open again, children displaying potential symptoms of Covid-19 are likely to be excluded for several weeks, and schools and childcare facilities may also be closed at any time where there is a Covid-19 diagnosis, or where the government thinks appropriate. The ability to work therefore remains highly contingent for many women.

Women are also more likely to work in the sectors most affected by the pandemic, which are largely service-related, meaning that they are more likely to be impacted by lay-offs and job losses. However, even in less affected sectors, those with caring responsibilities have found it difficult to access work. Women’s overall employment participation is severely impacted, and the problem is compounded by women’s comparatively lower access to social security, which makes it harder for women to absorb economic shocks. For this reason, the International Labour Organisation has warned that Covid-19 could wipe out the ‘modest progress’ made on gender equality at work in recent decades.

While much attention has centred on the impact of Covid-19 on women’s employment generally, there has been less focus on other factors, such as disability and race, which significantly increase the disadvantage to some groups. Women with disabilities, Black women, and women from ethnic minorities are among the most likely to be excluded from employment at any time, and face particular challenges in the context of Covid-19. At a time when much of the focus is on simply ‘getting the economy running’ again, there is a danger that women will – yet again – be left behind, and that the compound disadvantage faced by some women will be overlooked entirely.

The webinar included presentations from four experts followed by a question and answer period.

Speakers

Prof Joanne Conaghan, University of Bristol
Dr Nata Duvvury, NUI Galway
Dr Sara Louise Muhr, Copenhagen University
Dr Ebun Joseph, Director, Institute of Antiracism and Black Studies

Chaired by Dr Lucy-Ann Buckley, NUI Galway

On 17 November 2020, the Whitaker Institute hosted a live webinar Sustainable Marine Tourism Trail Development – An Irish Perspective. The webinar discussed the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW), Ireland’s first long-distance coastal touring route, covering over 2,500 km along the West coast of Ireland. Launched in 2014 by Fáilte Ireland, the goal of the WAW is to further develop Ireland as a high-quality and competitive tourism destination in overseas tourist markets. As part of the EU Interreg project MOSES, researchers at NUI Galway used the WAW as a case study to examine what is required to develop sustainable coastal tourism trails. The webinar considered these issues from both the demand side perspective of the tourists travelling along the WAW and the supply side perspective of stakeholders at one point on the WAW. 

The webinar included presentations on:

An Introduction to the Wild Atlantic Way
Daithí Gallagher, Fáilte Ireland

Wild Atlantic Way tourists: A survey of spending, activities and attitudes
Daniel Norton, NUI Galway

Building a sustainable marine tourism trail through community voices: Rathmullan, Co. Donegal
Desiree Farrell, NUI Galway

This webinar was the first in the Moses webinar series, which seeks to understand and quantify the sustainability dimension of Blue Growth with respect to the potential environmental impacts of key strategic marine sectors across the EU Atlantic Arc member states.

The MOSES Project is funded by the EU INTERREG Atlantic V Programme (2014 to 2020), Priority 4 Enhancing Biodiversity and the Natural and Cultural Assets.

On 12 November 2020, the Whitaker Institute was delighted to host a live webinar, Adaptation of Agricultural and Rural Areas in the Atlantic Area to Climate Change. The webinar discussed findings from the recently launched report Farmers’ attitudes and preferences for climate change adaptation: An Irish Perspective as part of the RISKAQUASOIL project. The event included four presentations from members of the RISKAQUASOIL team and was followed by a Q&A session.

Farmers Attitudes and Preferences for Climate Change Adaptation: An Irish case study
Dr. Edel Doherty, Whitaker Institute, NUI Galway

Study of Local Communities Views for a New Culture of Risk in the Face of Climate Change
Julia James, The Climatologic Association of Middle Garonne and South-West of France (A.C.M.G)

Climate Change Media Communication in Ireland and Portugal
Neide P. Areina, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Soils in partnership
Dr. Laurence Couldrick, Westcountry Rivers Trust

The RISKAQUASOIL project aims to improve the resilience of the Atlantic rural areas to climate change.  The RISKAQUASOIL project contributes to better coordination for the detection, risk management and rehabilitation for rural territories (maritime and terrestrial areas), especially for agricultural purposes. RISKAQUASOIL is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Atlantic Area Cooperation Program.

On 12 October 2020, the Whitaker Institute hosted a live webinar titled Leadership, Organizations and COVID-19. The webinar discussed the challenges of being a leader against a backdrop of radical uncertainty including the need to make rapid decisions. Available information changes fast, and is often based on contested evidence. Meanwhile anxious employees and stakeholders seek guidance and some sense of certainty amid the challenges.

These challenges have impacts on people’s lives. In politics, the ambiguity accompanying Covid-19 continues to be exploited by populist leaders worldwide. In business, the corporate social responsibility initiatives that many have celebrated over the past ten years, are now being tested to their limits. Demands of those with short-term, profit-driven interests are pitted against longer-term concerns including the health and well-being of employees, customers and other stakeholders. In the public sector including education, the implicit contract of public service is likewise being challenged, as traditional funding sources dry up.

In the event, established leadership theories were also questioned. For some, the pandemic marks the end of the traditional, masculine model of leadership in which power ought to be centralized, and decision-making unilateral. Instead, we see examples of strong feminine leaders coming to the fore, with collaborative and empathetic approaches winning out. For others, such claims of a paradigm shift are premature.

We were delighted to welcome three experts in the field

Gazi Islam, Professor of Business Administration at Grenoble Ecole de Management.
Jackie Ford, Professor of Leadership and Organisation Studies, Durham University Business School
Dennis Tourish, Professor of Leadership and Organisation Studies, University of Sussex

The event was chaired by Whitaker Institute member Professor Kate Kenny, cluster leader of Work, Organizations and Society.

On Tuesday 8 September 2020, the Whitaker Institute was delighted to host a live webinar titled Organizations in COVID-19: Embodiment, ethics and lockdown. The webinar discussed the implications of COVID-19 for organizational ethics, with a focus on embodiment. Workers’ bodies are central to recent changes with health and safety now critical concerns for many working on the front line. In other sectors, bodies are removed from relations between workers as we witness a mass-move towards digital work. Questions of ethics and embodiment are central to the reorganization of work that has accompanied the spread of this virus, with important and far reaching impacts.

We were delighted to welcome 4 international panellists who are experts in the field of the theory and practice of ethics and embodiment.

Professor Alison Pullen, Macquarie University, Australia

Professor Carl Rhodes, University of Technology, Sydney Australia

Professor Iain Munro, Newcastle University Business School, UK

Professor Marianna Fotaki, Warwick Business School, UK

The event was chaired by Professor Kate Kenny, cluster leader of the Work, Organizations and Society cluster.

In this podcast Dr. Stephen Hynes, scientific director in the Whitaker Institute, discusses his own area of research in marine and environmental economics and policy and the broader work of the Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit in the Whitaker Institute. He reflects on why he first developed a passion for this area of research and why environmental economics is now so relevant in a world of ever increasing natural resource constraints. He also outlines what the ocean economy is and why there is a new policy interest in the development of marine industries at both a national and EU level. Recorded December 2015 by GK Media.

Dr. Patrick Collins, School of Geography and Archaeology and co-leader of the Creative, Liveable and Sustainable Cluster, Whitaker Institute at NUI Galway chats with Angela Sice about his work on the geography of economic development with a particular focus on the role of Culture. Patrick speaks about a number of his most recent projects and draws highlights from the importance of geography in the social, economic and cultural lives of places. Patricks most recent project entitled a Creative Momentum is supported by the EU’s Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme.

Recorded December 2015 by GK Media.

Dr. Niall Ó Dochartaigh, Senior Lecturer in Political Science and Sociology and leader of the Conflict, Humanitarianism and Security Research Cluster, discusses the origins of his research interests with Angela Sice and describes the key questions on power, conflict and territory that drive his research agenda. He details his work on the private papers of peace intermediary Brendan Duddy and discusses his forthcoming book on Negotiation in the Northern Ireland Conflict. He finishes by outlining his future plans for research on conflict, territory and new technologies.

Recorded December 2015 by GK Media.