Kirby's case study of
Ireland shows how different countries with different positions in the world economy and
different social and economic structures connect in different ways with the globalization
process...This study advances our understanding of the complexity and pitfalls of the
globalization phenomenon in general; and it provides a sound basis for rethinking
Ireland's and the EU's future in the light of the Irish vote against the Nice treaty.'-
Professor Robert W. Cox, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Social and Political
Thought, York University, Toronto
Ireland's Celtic Tiger
economy has been held up as a model of successful development in a globalized world,
offering lessons for other late developing countries. It interrogates the principal
theoretical approaches which have been used to analyze the Celtic Tiger, particularly
neo-classical economics, and finds them inadequate to capture its ambiguities or address
its developmental deficit. Elaborating an alternative approach, drawing particularly on
the work of Karl Polanyi, the book offers an interpretation which captures more fully the
ways in which the Irish State has made itself subservient to market forces. The options
now facing Irish society are mapped out through a critical examination of globalization,
identifying possibilities for development and social action.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Introduction
PART I: THE CELTIC TIGER
Pre-History
Nature and Causes
Impact
PART II: UNDERSTANDING THE CELTIC TIGER
Mainstream Explanations
Critical Explanations
Elaborating Theory
PART III: TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY OF IRELAND'S DEVELOPMENT IN THE 1990s
State
Market
Society
PART IV: FUTURES
Options
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
Author Biographies
PEADER KIRBY is Senior
Lecturer in the School of Communication at Dublin City University, Ireland. A former
journalist with The Irish Times and Noticias Aliadas (Lima, Peru), he has written a number
of books on development, Ireland and Latin America.
260 pages