Meanings of Life in Contemporary Ireland Webs of Significance
The struggle to create and sustain meaning in our everyday lives is fought using cultural ingredients to spin the webs of meaning that keep us going. To help reveal the complexity and intricacy of the webs of meaning in which they are suspended, Tom Ingli
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venting Evidence in Social Inquiry Richard Biernacki Central Bank Independence Carlo Tognato Liberal Barbarism Erik Ringmar Social Tragedy Stephanie Alice Baker Meanings of Life in Contemporary Ireland: Webs of Significance Tom Inglis
Meanings of Life in Contemporary Ireland WEBS
OF
SIGNIFICANCE
TOM INGLIS
MEANINGS OF LIFE IN CONTEMPORARY IRELAND
Copyright © Tom Inglis, 2014. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 ISBN 978-1-137-42912-4
All rights reserved. First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-49171-1
ISBN 978-1-137-41372-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137413727
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Inglis, Tom. Meanings of life in contemporary Ireland : webs of significance / Tom Inglis. pages cm.—(Cultural sociology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–1–137–42912–4 (hardback) 1. Values—Ireland. 2. Meaning (Philosophy) I. Title. BD431.I465 2014 306.09415—dc23
2014019086
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First edition: November 2014
For Carol
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Contents Series Editor’s Preface
ix
Preface
xi
Acknowledgments
xvii
1. Webs of Significance
1
2. Culture as Meaning
17
3. Place, Family, and Identity
41
4. Money and Success
65
5. Politics
87
6. Sport
107
7. Religion
123
8. Love
155
9. Conclusion
181
Appendix
193
Notes
207
Index
239
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Series Editor’s Preface Contemporary cultural sociology emerged three decades ago, struggling against macro-sociologies that conceived society in external, objectivist, and deterministic ways. The search for theories and methods to reconstruct the meanings of social life has meant looking on the inside, at the subjective sense of things, at actors’ own views of themselves and their worlds. Yet, as the project of creating a cultural sociology advances, it must resist the danger of turning inward, neglecting the external environments of action. The Meanings of Life in Contemporary Ireland avoids the Scylla of objectivism and the Charybdis of subjectivity. Tom Inglis shows that open-ended, in-depth interviews, selectively conducted and theoretically informed, can provide data for a historically informed, cultural-sociological account of an entire society. He also demonstrates that phenomenological and semiotic reconst
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