The Society, Economy, and Culture Research Centre:

• Studies the manner in which the development of the modern global economy, driven by unlimited technological growth and an unbridled profit motive damages the very tissue of social life;
• Through research and teaching suggests novel ways to stop this process by re-ethicizing the social fabric that is necessary in order to live a healthy, meaningful and ethical life;
• Organizes courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, that promote an education oriented towards a responsible, meaningful, healthy and hopeful life.
• Conducts research in and with communities and civil society organisations using participatory, creative,  biographical, feminist and ‘non procedural’ methods and methodologies

It is evident that Ireland, just as the rest of the world is experiencing a very fundamental social, political and cultural crisis, which incorporates environmental crises and climate breakdown as well. Any claim that this crisis can be overcome by the standard means, and therefore soon we can return to business as usual, is not sound practical reason, but an irresponsible evasion of facing reality.

We have to reckon that we, altogether, have reached an impasse, or even paralysis. It is necessary to find a way forward, but for this we must be able to overcome some deeply ingrained ways of thinking. In the words of John Maynard Keynes, who faced a similar situation, ‘the difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds’.

The Centre takes its mission from, amongst other sources, Max Weber’s writings from an historical period that has troubling similarities to our own; namely, Weber’s formulation of the problem of escaping the seemingly watertight, irresistible and irreversible ‘iron cage’ of the present age of rationalized acquisitiveness; the comprehensive intellectual, political and moral programme that Weber set out in Economy & Society; and the hopefulness of ‘Politics as a Vocation’ where he says: “It is perfectly true, and confirmed by all historical experience, that the possible cannot be achieved without continually reaching out towards that which is impossible in this world”.

Our annual event – the Economy + Society Summer School is now open for applications. This year’s theme is | Returning: Out of the digital and into the dialogue –

Returning, getting back, starting again – these are the themes of our times as we hope to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of crisis. Yet, even as the pandemic crisis seems to abate, economic crises of inflation, social crises of mental health, political crises of populism or polarisation and geo-political crises loom, without mentioning the ever-deepening ecological crisis. And yet, we return, to try again, to think anew, to hope for better days.

Deadline April 30th!