The 12th Annual NERI Dónal Nevin Lecture took place in the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, D02 HH58 on Thursday 5 December 2024 from 18:00 - 19:45. Professor Mary Murphy, Department of Sociology, Maynooth University delivered the annual lecture as the keynote speaker.
The Lecture was followed by the launch of a special issue of the Studies quarterly journal from 20:00 - 20:15 at the drinks reception.
Find the agenda for the Lecture and Launch.
Please find Professor Mary Murphy, Maynooth Universities presentation and Dr. Larry O'Connell, NESC's response to Professor Murphy's keynote presentation.
The details as follows:
Title: 'A new all island social settlement; An eco-social future of care and equality'
Keynote speaker: Professor Mary Murphy, Department of Sociology, Maynooth University
Respondent: Dr. Larry O'Connell, Director of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC)
Chairperson: Ms. Katie Morgan, Head of Services & Enterprise Division, Fórsa
Date: Thursday 5 December 2024
Time: 18:00 - 19:45
Location: Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, D02 HH58
Lecture Format:
Professor Mary Murphy, Department of Sociology, Maynooth University made her presentation for 50-minutes. This will be followed by a 20-minute respondent discussion by Dr. Larry O'Connell, Director, NESC. The chairperson Katie Morgan, Fórsa chaired the Q&A session and put forward questions to both Professor Murphy and Dr. O'Connell.
Abstract:
Our present liberal model of development, north and south, is overly fixated on the market and economic growth, this determines labour market policy and informs its unequal outcomes. This gendered model was never and remains, unfit for purpose. From the perspective of both ecological sustainability and social well-being we need a different political economy. A new model of development would rebalance of state, market and society and, rather than growth and finance, would place care, equality and well-being at its centre. This new social settlement needs to have an eco-social logic, policy direction has to be steered by the intertwined goals of ecological sustainability and social equality, what is good for one policy goal has to be good for the other, neither can be pursued at the expense of the other. A sheco-social model has care of people and planet as its driving force, and highlights how prioritising an intersectional form of gender equality offer an effective compass point guiding towards the future. This future will be more place based and local but can be usefully framed in an all island democratic framework. Ensuring care, time, services, work, income, wealth, power and participation are more equally distributed will lead to greater ecological, social and political sustainability.
This lecture will first document how inequality is at the heart of debates about climate change, drawing particular attention to gendered dimensions of that dynamic and the everyday reality of our contemporary political economy in Ireland, North and South. Arguing for institutional imagination, while grounded in the present, the lecture then argues for a new social settlement to transform our economy, our labour market and our society. The argument is for an eco-social future where care and well-being replace growth as the central logic of our development. From a labour market perspective this requires shifting from productivist forms of work that contribute to carbon emissions to forms of work, paid and unpaid, that socially value social reproduction, that enable us collectively meet our needs and are less carbon emitting. Institutional innovation is needed but we must also draw on the seeds of existing strengths, North and South, as we move towards lasting transformative and systemic change; 5 guiding steps are briefly sketched:
- A Participation Income, north and south, a less productivist form of universal but conditional basic income support that socially values care, ecological and community work;
- Universal Basic Services, north and south, where the state regulates, plans, funds and monitors a plurality of diverse providers to provide collective services to meet needs (transport, health, libraries, housing, local ecologies, education, social services);
- Enabling institutions to support capacity and enhance citizens and resident’s navigational agency (education, community development, active labour market programmes, and above all local government and multi-actor local governance);
- Taxation – new and alternative forms of revenue compatible with an ecosocial future, in particular individualised systems focusing on taxation of environmental damages and inequalities;
- Care and well-being – shifting from the central logic of growth/GDP by reporting an all-island care and well-being indicator, an agreed mechanism to monitor progress towards an eco-social settlement.
The conclusion points to the need for inclusive democratic politics of transformation, and argues that especially in ‘the urgency of now’ we must prioritise the time for deep listening and for utilising all knowledges that can build this sustainable future.
Speaker details: