Doing

 There are a myriad of ways in which the sociological perspective can be brought to bear in everyday life and in the wider world. Research is one important vehicle for developing sociological insights and analysis. Find out more about research projects and initiatives here….

Research symposia

Our most recent event provided a show case for work being done on migration and transnationalism at NUI Maynooth

 Research clusters

We are active in a wide range of research areas with particular areas of strength in:

Critical Political Thought, Activism, and Alternative Futures

Globalisation, Identities and Cultural Practices

Historical and Comparative Sociology Cluster

Political Economy, Work and Working Lives

Urban/ Suburban Studies

Participatory Action Research

Content to be added

Featured Project

“Transnational living and the remediation of the local. Polish migrant encounters with the media in Ireland” A.Kerr, R.King-O’Riain, G.Titley et al.

Since May 2004 the Polish community in Ireland has grown to become the second largest immigrant group in the country, after UK immigrants. Reports based on the 2006 census estimated that there were a total of 63,276 Poles in the country that year (CSO, 2008). The size of this community has meant that national, community and minority media outlets have competed to develop new programmes, new products and new services for them and have attempted to develop diversity programming policies. Most of the policies and new forms of content developed by mainstream media are based on little knowledge of, or engagement with, the Polish or other migrant audiences. However, they are based on a belief that the media have a role to play in terms of integration and social cohesion. This research examines new and traditional media use by Polish migrants in both urban and rural Ireland and is based on the analysis and findings from 7 focus groups conducted with a total of 45 Poles between March 2008 and February 2009. The focus is on their varied experiences of media production and consumption, their engagement with transnational and other forms of media and their perception of how the Polish community and cultural diversity more generally are represented in the media. The dynamism of their media use sheds new light on the role of the media in migrant lives both in terms of settling in and living transnational lives. Further, the findings complicate our understanding of the local, the national and the transnational as constructed by and through the media.

The research on which this excerpt is based was funded by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, now the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and is part of a larger project entitled ‘Mapping and Visioning Cultural Diversity in Irish Media’ which also examines the media experiences of Chinese and Nigerian migrants living in Ireland. [Link to Broadcasting Commission of Ireland website for access to full report]

IQDA

Is a central point of access for qualitative social science data including interviews, pictures, and other non-numerical materials. It frames the parameters and standards for archiving qualitative data in the Irish research community. One recent addition to the IQDA is the Growing Up in Ireland qualitative data set, details of which can be found at www.growingup.ie

For more details about IQDA and their holdings see www.iqda.ie