Digital Commons Network^™

Business Operators’ Perception Of The Impact Of The Portuguese Way Of St. James, Paula Remoaldo, Eduardo Duque, Vítor Ribeiro, José Cadima Ribeiro, Hélder Silva Lopes, Sandro Ferreira, Cátia Faria

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This research aims to analyse business operators’ perception of the impact of the Portuguese Way of St. James and to assess the landscape situation along a total section of 115 kilometres. Perceptions were collected in a survey of 112 small operators between 2020 and 2021. The diversity and singular components of the landscape make it a pleasant route to experience, where pilgrims have the possibility to improve wellbeing, and enjoy the landscape. Operators have profited from the significant increase in the number of pilgrims walking along the Way and claim that they aim to continue their operations.

An Urban Vegetable Garden: A Blooming For The Food Memory Of The Future, Cynthia Luderer

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This work concerns an urban vegetable garden beyond 200 plots in Famalicão (northern Portugal) and aims to check out mnemic narratives circulating there linked to gastronomy and technical agricultural resources that have been used in the past. This research has been developed since last December/2022 and will check this environment for four seasons of the year. Its methodology is based on an ethnographic exercise, using flanerie dynamics and the application of interviews with open-ended questions. This analysis is supported by the Anthropology of Food, the concept of Collective Memory, by Halbwachs, and the Semiotics of Culture, by Iuri Lotman, approaching …

Towards A European Framework For Community Engagement In Higher Education – A Case Study Analysis Of European Universities, Emma O'Brien, Bojana Culum Ilic, Anete Veidemane, Davide Dusi, Thomas Farnell, Ninoslav Scukanec Schmidt

Articles

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the development and piloting of a novel European framework for community engagement (CE) in higher education, which has been purposefully designed to progress the CE agenda in a European context.

Design/methodology/approach – The proposed framework was co-created through the European Union (EU)-funded project towards a European framework for community engagement in higher education (TEFCE). The TEFCE Toolbox is an institutional self-reflection framework that centres on seven thematic dimensions of CE. This paper follows the development of the TEFCE Toolbox through empirical case study analysis of four European universities and their local communities.

Findings …

Evaluation Report Of The Irish Citizens’ Assembly On Gender Equality, Jane Suiter, Kirsty Park, Yvonne Galligan, David M. Farrell

Reports

This report presents some of the core findings from a project designed to track the process of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly, with particular focus on the quality of the deliberative process and the attitudes of the members towards the process.
The evaluation team observed all public sessions of the assembly, surveyed members each weekend and interviewed members as well as the organisation team. Overall we found a very well run process, with high deliberative quality and good levels of knowledge gain and understanding by members. The transition to online was well thought through and carried out efficiently. Throughout this report …

Reconfiguring Systemic Power Relations: A Collaborative Practice-Based Exploration Of Inequality With Young People And Adults In Dublin, Fiona Whelan

Doctoral

This collaborative art practice-based thesis mobilises the concept of power as an analytical lens to examine a decade-long collaboration (2007-16) between its author/artist and a Dublin-based youth organisation, Rialto Youth Project. In opposition to the depoliticisation of inequality and associated insidious ethics of social inclusion, a collaborative methodological framework is foregrounded, producing dialogical encounters in which multiple power relations are visualised, challenged and reconfigured and where freedom is recognised as a lived contingent practice. Working across disciplines and in response to lived experiences of systemic inequalities, a series of transgenerational projects were developed to critically examine and respond to power …

Using Drawings To Understand Perceptions Of Civic Engagement Across Disciplines: ‘Seeing Is Understanding’, Sharon Feeney, John Hogan

Articles

In this article, we wish to investigate if disciplinary differences exist among students when considering the topic of civic engagement. We use freehand drawing to create a learning environment in the classroom wherein students can seek to develop meaningful associations with civic engagement. The drawings examined here, produced by three different class groups, provide insights into how young adults perceive their society and their place in it, and thus communicate their understanding of civic engagement. Freehand drawing, in bypassing cognitive verbal processing routes, leads students to produce clearer and more holistic images. It allows them to put into visuals a …

Terrorism In The Middle East: Implications On Egyptian Travel And Tourism, Tamer Z.F Mohamed, Tamer S. Elseyoufi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper attempts to shed the light on challenging issues affecting travel and tourism industry especially in the Middle East such as political, socio-economic and security instability. Due to its geopolitical and historical importance, the paper focuses on the situation in Egypt as a descriptive case study. The methodology relies on historical review and impact assessment to understand the roots and extended branches of instability in the Middle East that led to the Arab Spring, by focusing on the Egyptian case in the last half century. The assessment explains the negative effect of Western and Egyptian policy on extending the …

Community Engagement In A Conflict Environment: Reflections On The Work Of The International Fund For Ireland 1986-2011, Paddy Harte

The ITB Journal

The International Fund for Ireland, which was set up by the British and Irish Governments in 1986 under the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, was funded by the United States of America, the European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The International Fund enjoys the support of 31 countries, which is truly remarkable. It is one of the most successful examples of the Irish Diaspora at work in a very tangible way; a point ably captured in the Fund’s 2002 Annual Report where Hon Russell Marshall from New Zealand notes “As a member of the Irish Diaspora, New Zealand was delighted …

Developing And Implementing Civic Engagement Programmes In Dublin 15, Breffni O’Rourke

The ITB Journal

Moss (1994) compares Applied Portfolios to job applications where the candidate has to convince a committee of the strengths on offer; In the Applied Portfolio the student has to convince the teacher of what has been learned and how effectively. The period February and March of 2013 were not unlike a job interview, the basic structure was known (for the Applied Portfolio) and there was a sense that anything could happen next. Similar to a job interview the Portfolio process requires you demonstrate examples of your learning in an applied setting, a key difference being you get to propose an …

‘Getting Children Outdoors Again’ - Outdoor Play For Children In A Rural North West Of Ireland Setting: A Civic Engagement Project, Michelle Mcgonagle

The ITB Journal

Children’s’ Outdoor play nowadays is the preferred approach to playing indoors which has become a constant focus of influences and powers of technology. Children spend hours on social media sites, isolated playing video games and lost in technologically powered screens (Larson et al, 2011). As a results of this disengagement with outdoors activities, children fall victims to many problems including obesity, social exclusion, and in some cases behavioural issues Fresh air and exercise are probably the two most common benefits associated with outdoor play by parents. However, many other advantages and beneficial of outdoor play including child’s social, cognitive and …

Community Civic Engagement As An Enabler Of Student Flourishing, Edel Randles, Bernie Quillinan

The ITB Journal

Civic Engagement is a process where people join together to conduct public work, it may be for political activism, advocating for social justice, consciousness raising, challenging and changing societal systems. It usually incorporates levels of social connectedness, coherence, shared philosophies, comradeship, social responsibility, compassion, courage and transcendence. Familiar civic engagement terms across Higher Education include, volunteering, service learning, community based learning/research, community engaged research and capacity building.

Apathetic Or Engaged? Exploring Two Paradigms Of Youth Civic Engagement In The 21st Century, Aideen Mccormack, Cormac Doran

The ITB Journal

The majority of academics studying the field of civic engagement would concurrently agree that there is a decline in conventional forms of civic engagement, such as voting, keeping informed with current affairs, or membership in civic organisation, especially among young people. However, disagreements begin when advocates for traditional forms of engagement discount evidence of new, evolving patterns in youth civic engagement. Reviewing literature on civic engagement, this paper offers an examination of the congested debate on the ‘two paradigms’ of youth civic engagement, the disengaged paradigm and the engaged paradigm.

Setting Up And Mentoring In Coderdojo Dublin 15, Arnold Hensman

The ITB Journal

Initilally beginning in Ireland, CoderDojo is a non-profit organisation that has grown rapidly into a global network of community based programming clubs. Mentors teach coding skills to young people aged between 7 and 17. All classes are free of charge and clubs operate entirely on a volunteer basis. The first Dublin 15 based CoderDojo began just over two years ago and continues to thrive during weekend sessions held at The Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB), which offers the use of its premises and resources for the sessions. This paper will chronicle the involvement of ITB staff and students with the …

Civic Engagement: Strategic And Implementation Perspectives Within A Higher Education Institution, Des Moore

The ITB Journal

This paper will give a brief overview of what Civic Engagement means in Higher Education in general with a particular focus on Knowledge Exchange, Service Learning, Community Based Research and Volunteering. Following this, emergent thinking on Civic Engagement in Ireland is presented. Given both the theoretical context and the strategic importance of ensuring Civic Engagement opportunities are offered in a Higher Education Institution some possible organisation arrangements regarding the structured development and implementation of Civic Engagement at strategic and implementation levels are proposed.

Evaluation Of The Community Safety Initiative: Assignment Of Rapid Co-Ordinators, Matt Bowden

Reports

No abstract provided.

Yes, It's Equality, But It's Not What It Used To Be, Edward Brennan

Articles

No abstract provided.

Mirrors: 'Bleeding' The Creation Of Alternative Organization Through A Liberating Ideology Of Transformative Humanism, Alia Weston, J. Miguel Imas, Paul Donnelly

Conference papers

In this paper, we propose a new way of explaining the everyday practices of communities who socially organize to create sustainable grass-roots engagement. We discuss how this collective engagement is based on principles and values of socio-economic engagement that are fundamentally different to those associated with capitalism. We theorise that these community engagements are sustained by an organizational ideology of 'transformative humanism' that is founded on an ongoing struggle for emancipation. Our perspective is constructed through a combination of Frantz Fanon's ideas on humanism, Manfred Max-Neef's barefoot economics, and Paulo Freire's pedagogies of hope and transformation. We suggest that movements …

A Reflective Conversation: Community And Hei Perspectives On Community-Based Research., Niamh O'Reilly, Catherine Bates

Staff Articles and Research Papers

This paper is a reflective correspondence between a community partner and a community-based research coordinator in a higher education institute (HEI). We asked each other questions about our experience of collaborating on two community-based research (CBR) projects, in order to share our learning from our collaboration, and to relate this to the wider context in order to develop recommendations for others – community partners and HEI staff – who would like to initiate CBR projects in the future.

An Exploration Of Volunteer Experiences For Third Level Students In Ireland From A Student Volunteer And Volunteer Manager Perspective., Caitriona Mcgrattan

Dissertations

Since the establishment of Campus Engage in 2007, student volunteering and student-led activities have received more attention on a national scale. Despite this, the area remains under researched; to date there has been no nationwide review of student volunteerism. This research aimed to explore the volunteer experiences of third level students across in a number of Higher Education Institutions in Ireland. For this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were carried out with five student volunteers and three volunteer managers across a spectrum of voluntary activity. The participants were asked to discuss their personal experiences and perceptions of student volunteering. The findings …

Using An Iconic Story To Bring Communities Together To Develop A Tourism Experience, Denise O'Leary, Mary Rose Stafford

Conference papers

Tourism destination governance is concerned with the development and management of a destination; who is involved and how they are involved. Although the term governance was traditionally associated with politics and government structures it has become more broadly applied in recent years to also describe more grassroots approaches involving various community stakeholders such as individual business owners in tourism product and service provision, business owners in other sectors, community leaders and community residents Morrison (2013). Turbulence in the market has forced the tourism industry to move away from centralised, government-led, hierarchical type of governance towards more participatory approaches where stakeholders …

Strategic Project/ Canteen Ireland, Yvonne Feehan

Students Learning with Communities

CanTeen Ireland is an organisation set up to support, empower and develop young people who have or have had cancer between the ages of 12 and 25. Set up in May 1990, the nationwide support group provides members with a place where they can simply be young people, away from the day to day pressures that come with living with cancer in the hospital or at home. Having no dedicated wards in Irish hospitals for teenagers with cancer, CanTeen is an important resource for the country and steps up where the HSE falls down. CanTeen does not rely on the …

An Exploration Of The Motivations Behind Committee Membership In Food Networks, Denise O'Leary, Mary Rose Stafford

Conference papers

Food Tourism has been recognised as a fast growing niche area where Ireland can gain competitive advantage. In recognition of the importance of collaboration among diverse stakeholders in the development of food tourism, networks have been identified as essential. This article presents findings from research conducted with three networks and reveals the motivations for committee membership. Data was gathered in 2012 through participant observation and interviews with steering committee members on three food networks using an action research approach.

A framework for examining motivations for collaboration is offered in this article which will contribute to effective network management. Motivations are …

Rhyme Or Reason:That Is The Question?, Jim Roche

Articles

Noting that “the aesthetic should not be limited merely to the way things look” the organisers of this conference sought “in part to address the discursive limitation in architecture and related subjects by broadening the aesthetic discourse beyond questions relating to purely visual phenomena in order to include those derived from all facets of human experience”.

So where does etchics come in? Well, the introductory brochure noted that most philosophical trained aestheticians will say that “the aesthetic is everything” hinting perhaps of the necessity for a more haptic experience of architecture. It also drew on Wittgenstein’s quote that “ethics and …

Transferring Knowledge And Life Experience Between Generations: The Potential Of Community Based Intergenerational Projects, Cathrina Murphy

Masters

In recent decades we have seen a trend towards greater age segregation in society. Changes in society such as family functions being assumed by age-specific institutions, changing family structures, the emergence of the beanpole family, increased longevity, increased geographical mobility, migration patterns and a shift from an industrial to a knowledge society are associated with a degree of disconnection among the generations. There is some research evidence to suggest that intergenerational projects can help reconnect the generations allowing for the transfer of knowledge and life experience and creating a greater understanding and tolerance between the generations. Although, small-scale intergenerational projects …

Don Duine Is Lú, Léitheoireacht Abú, Geraldine French

Reports

Tá sé mar aidhm ag Rannán Leabharlann Chomhairle Contae Fhine Gall feasacht a spreagadh maidir leis an tábhacht a bhaineann le luathlitearthacht agus conas is fearr luathlitearthacht a leasú i gcomhpháirtíocht le gníomhaireachtaí breisoideachais áitiúla, eagraíochtaí a bhfuil leas acu sna blianta luathfhorbartha, suíomhanna luath-óige, scoileanna agus coláistí. Tá Leabharlanna Fhine Gall, dá bharr, ag forbairt gníomhaíochtaí áirithe chun an pobal a chur ar an eolas d’fhonn tacú leis an leanbh liteartha. Sonraíonn an doiciméad seo Straitéis Litearthachta Luathbhlianta Leabharlanna Fhine Gall (dá dtagraítear Straitéis anseo amach anseo). Tosaíonn sé le creat de Chontae Fhine Gall go ginearálta agus Leabharlanna …

Connectedness In The Lives Of Older People In Ireland, Carmel Gallagher

Articles

This paper presents an analysis of the connectedness of older people in two sample areas, one urban and one rural in Ireland. The paper is based on a study of the communal participation of older people in two geographic localities, Rathmore, a suburban area of Dublin, and Rathbeg, a rural area in County Donegal, conducted between 2000 and 2005. A multi stage study that used both qualitative and quantitative methods examined significant communal interactions of older people across a range of arenas, including leisure interests, involvement in clubs, religious practices, voluntary work, relationships with kin, friends and neighbours, helping activities, …

Understanding, And Developing, Audience Engagement With Dctv, Eddie Brennan

Other

This research explores community members’ perceptions of Dublin Community Television (DCTV), its programming and its programme schedule.

Why We Don't Need An Academic Rebel Alliance, Edward Brennan

Other

As an intellectual, the first duty of the academic who wishes to engage with society is on the level of ideas, writes Eddie Brennan. Trying to build a new society within the institutions, language and politics of the nineteenth century is hopeless; what is needed from intellectuals and academics is rebellious thought.

Irish Healthcare; The Evidence On Communicating Policy., Vivienne Byers

Conference Papers

The complexity of the health care environment necessitates that health policy, legislative objectives, resource allocation models, and management structures be aligned to plan and deliver healthcare services strategically. Policy in the Irish health care system is guided by the National Health Strategy of 2001; in that there should be equitable distribution of health services focused on the need of the citizen-client. Though the Strategy uses the words ‘evidence based’, ‘population health’, ‘equity’, ‘people-centred’ and ‘health and social gain’, there is little evidence that these concepts have gained purchase in the present implementation of policy and planning in Irish health care …

Contribution Of Tertiary Education To Human Capital Development, Labour Market And Skills In The State Of Victoria, Australia, Ellen Hazelkorn

Articles

This chapter examines how effectively TAFE Institutes and universities in the State of Victoria contribute to meeting the social and economic needs of the population in terms of opportunities to study and relevance of the qualifications offered. It identifies some key achievements and areas for improvement. The chapter closes with a series of recommendations that include the need for a greater system approach to tertiary education in order to support sustainable regional development and the role that the State of Victoria can play in this strategy.