Digital Commons Network^™

Submission To The Future Of The Media Commission, Brendan K. O'Rourke, Joseph K. Fitzgerald

Reports

Dr. Brendan K. O’Rourke is a Senior Lecturer at Technological University Dublin, where he focuses on learning in the area of discourses of the economy, in particular examining enterprise, policy and public discourses on the economy. His scholarly work has been widely published as chapters in edited volumes, encyclopedia / handbook entries and in over 20 peer-reviewed academic journals such the Critical Discourse Studies, Politics and Social Semiotics. More information on his work is available on www.brendankorourke.com . Dr. Joseph K. FitzGerald lectures in international strategy at Technological University Dublin and has published on topics such as how young men …

Using Cognitive Mapping To Longitudinally Examine Political Brand Associations, Ewan Macdonald, Roger Sherlock, John Hogan

Articles

This paper uses cognitive mapping techniques to understand how brand associations, an important aspect of political brand equity are formed, differ, and change, from the perspective of citizens, across the four largest Irish political parties between 2013 and 2016. The paper focuses in particular upon the strength, favourability and uniqueness of these brand associations. The results constitute a first attempt to longitudinally explore changing political brand associations through cognitive mapping techniques, using data generated with the participation of hundreds of citizens. Our findings suggest that this approach can contribute to our understanding of how and why political brand associations change …

Taxation For Whom?:A Diachronic Analysis Of Taxation In Ireland And The United Kingdom From 1970-2015., Ewan Macdonald, John Hogan, Brendan O'Rourke

Other

This paper explores the discursive development of taxation within budget speeches in two countries, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, from 1970 to 2015 by means of a corpus-assisted discourse analysis. We ask the following questions; how have discourses of taxation developed diachronically in both countries, what are the similarities and differences in the observable discourses across both countries, and for whom and how are these discourses legitimised? In answering these questions, this paper makes use of Corpus linguistics, a methodological approach which utilises computational analysis of large bodies of text to draw statistically significant conclusions about the …

Using Cognitive Mapping Techniques To Measure Longitudinally The Brand Equity Of Irish Political Parties, Ewan Macdonald, Roger Sherlock, John Hogan Dr

Articles

This paper applies cognitive mapping techniques to understand how political brand equity is formed, differs, and changes, across the four largest Irish political parties, between 2013 and 2016. It assesses the fundamental aspects of branding and brand equity in the marketing and political marketing literatures and offers an insight into the Irish political environment. Primary data was generated through the participation of 232 citizens in the brand elicitation stages in 2013 and 2016 and a further 76 and 105 citizens respectively were involved in the construction of the cognitive maps of brand equity. In all, across both time points, 614 …

The New Ruins Of North Cyprus, Jim Roche

Articles

This article is a critical commentary on the speculative physical development that occurred in North Cyprus in the period following the defeat of the Kofi Annan Plan (2004) for a political settlement for the islanders.

The rejection of the Annan V Plan by Greek Cypriot voters, and its acceptance by Turkish Cypriots, was interpreted and manipulated by certain political forces and vested interests in the TRNC as a carte blanche to ‘improve’ by development, property with Greek Cypriot title deeds. After the failed referendum the physical development of North Cyprus escalated at a gigantic rate. According to one ex-patriot: “In …

Understanding Policy Change Using A Critical Junctures Theory In Comparative Context: The Cases Of Ireland And Sweden, Paul Donnelly, John Hogan

Articles

Utilizing a new theory for examining critical junctures, we seek to better understand the nature of industrial policy change in Ireland during the 1950s and macroeconomic policy change in Sweden in the 1980s. Did these policy changes constitute critical junctures, or something less, and if so why? The theory consists of three elements – economic crisis, ideational change, and the nature of the policy change – that must be identified for us to be able to declare with some certainty if a policy change constitutes a critical juncture. Herein, we will be examining the roles of a variety of change …

Payback: The 1920/1921 Agib Sltu Strike In The Dublin Building Industry, John Hogan

Articles

In late 1920 a strike began in the building industry in Dublin that was to last until June of the following year. It effectively shut down building sites all across the city. The primary protagonists involved in the dispute were the Ancient Guild of Incorporated Brick and Stonelayers Trade Union (AGIBSLTU) and the building employers association, the Dublin Building Trades Employers’ Association (DBTEA). Both of these bodies had fought a bitterly contested lockout 15 years before, which had almost destroyed the union. In 1920, by dint of wider economic circumstances, and a belligerent determination, the union was to have the …

Economic Crises And The Changing Influence Of The Irish Congress Of Trade Unions On Public Policy, John Hogan

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter examines the dramatic changes in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ (ICTU) influence over public policy during the latter half of the twentieth century. The chapter focuses upon the impact economic crises have had on the ICTU’s role in policy-making. The chapter concentrates, in particular, upon four periods, the late 1950s, 1970, the early 1980s and 1987, when the ICTU found its influence over public policy radically transformed. By the late 1950s the trade union movement was invited into the policy-making process by a government desperate to revive a sclerotic economy. During the following decade the ICTU played …

Identifying Critical Junctures In Macroeconomic Policy - The Cases Of Mexico And Sweden In The Early 1980s, Ana Haro Maza, John Hogan

Articles

Abstract: This paper utilizes a new critical junctures framework to help understand the nature of the changes in macroeconomic policy. The framework consists of three elements which must be identified in sequence to be able to declare, with some certainty, if an event was a critical juncture. These are crisis, ideational change, and radical policy change. Utilizing the critical juncture framework, we will determine whether changes to Mexican and Swedish macroeconomic policy in the early 1980s constituted clean breaks with the past, or were continuations of previously established policy pathways, and why that was.

Locked Out: The 1905 Dispute Between The Agibsltu And The Master Builders Association, John Hogan

Articles

When the issue of a lockout in Dublin comes up for discussion, invariably, the Great Lockout of 1913 springs to mind. This event, in both its scale 4 and scope, has tended to crowd out the examination of all other lockouts that occurred in the city in the early years of the 20th century. Beside the Great Lockout contemporary industrial disputes have tended to pale in comparison. As a result of its magnitude, the 1913 lockout has provided a vast reservoir of research material that has been heavily mined. However, this concentration on 1913 could lead to the erroneous conclusion …

Macroeconomic Policy Change: Ireland In Comparative Perspective, John Hogan

Articles

This paper sets out to develop an improved framework for examining critical junctures. This a priori framework is a significant improvement over existing critical juncture frameworks that lack any predictive element. It is an advance for historical institutionalism in particular, and political science in general. After the new framework is set out in detail here, it is tested. The framework is used to examine a number of potential critical junctures in macroeconomic policy, drawn from Ireland, Sweden, Britain, and America in the latter half of the twentieth century

Remoulding The Critical Junctures Approach, John Hogan

Articles

This paper improves our understanding of critical junctures, a concept employed in historical institutionalism for exploring change. However, the concept lacks rigour, weakening our ability to define critical junctures. Of late, academics have utilized other mechanisms to identify change in historical institutionalism. Thus, it is within this context that the critical junctures approach is remoulded through the specification of standards, hence reducing uncertainty as to what constitutes a critical juncture. The remoulded approach is employed here in examining change in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ ~ICTU! influence over public policy in 1987.