The latest NERI seminar, Some Lessons from the Crisis: Spatial Justice, Uneven Development and Future Choices, was held yesterday in the INTO Learning Centre. Gerry Kearns (professor of geography, Maynooth University) and David Meredith (senior research officer, Teagasc) outlined a concern that, as a society, we are lying the foundations for a return to a pro-cyclical economic merry-go-round resulting in further concentration of capital, social injustices and uneven spatial development. They highlighted the danger that despite the hardship and sacrifices that we ‘wasted a serious crisis’ (Rahm Emanuel).
In developing these ideas, the talk provided an overview of spatial changes in the composition of the labour force and youth migration patterns. This draws attention to the presence of long run trends towards economic agglomeration within some regions, weakening of others and the ultimate futility of repeating historical initiatives in the hope that this time the outcome will somehow be different.
The seminar drew on the presenters' recent book on the Irish Crisis: Spatial Justice and the Irish Crisis .
Slides
Gerry Kearns and David Meredith, "Some Lessons from the Crisis: Spatial Justice, Uneven Development and Future Choices" (NERI seminar, INTO Learning Centre, December 10, 2014)