REPORT

Summary

The School brought 27 business and humanities students and 26 faculty together as part of the President of Ireland‟s ethics initiative. This residential school ran for six days at Blackwater Castle, and quickly created its own relaxed collegiate atmosphere. The ambition of the School was to broaden and round PhD researchers. Given the School‟s success, we aspire to run the 2nd E+S Summer School 11-15 May 2015. The Summer School was designed around three different kinds of learning formats and interaction: By providing these three different formats we sought to enhance a structured, interactive but also informal way of discussing broader issues around each individual‟s research.

(i) Key notes given by invited faculty followed by discussions (ii) Short dialogical presentations usually delivered in thematically selected pairs (iii) Small breakout reading groups based on selected key readings, functioning as small tutorial sessions on the talks and their relevance to

student‟s work

18 Keynote talks from : Tom Boland (WIT) | Ed Byrne & Ger Mullally (UCC) | James Fairhead (UCC) | William Forbes (WIT / Loughborough) | Ray Griffin (WIT) | Niamh Hourigan (UCC) | Kieran Keohane (UCC) | Carmen Kuhling (UL) | Tristan Laing (York, Canada) | Niamh Maguire & John O‟Brien (WIT) | Rowena Pecchenino (NUIM) | Tom O‟Connor (CIT) | Neil Robinson (UL) | Colin Sage (UCC) | Jackie Sheehan (UCC) | Arpad Szakolczai (UCC) | Manusos Marangudakis (Aegean) | Peter McMylor (Manchester) | Sheila O‟ Donohoe (WIT)

Organisers

Dr Tom Boland (WIT), Dr Lorcan Byrne (UCC), Dr John O‟Brien (WIT) &

Dr Ray Griffin (WIT)

Founder

Dr Kieran Keohane (UCC)

Schedule

Early 9-11am

Mid-morning 11.30-1pm

Lunch s

itting a

t 1pm

Early afternoon 2-3.45pm

Mid

afte

rnoon b

reak

Late afternoon 4.15-6pm

Din

ner s

itting a

t 7pm

Evening time

Parallel sessions Plenary Session Plenary Session

Mon 12th Arrival,

registration & welcome

Mid

mo

rnin

g b

rea

k

Opening Round Table Prof. William Forbes (WIT /

Loughborough) “The abuses of reason in finance

research”

Peter McMylor (Manchester

University) “The moral self in market culture”

Bonfire

gathering with party pieces

Tues 13th Reading Groups

Prof Neil Robinson (UL): “Oil, Democracy & Autocracy”

Prof. Arpad Szakolczai (UCC) “On the Genealogy of

Fairground Capitalism ”

Prof. Rowena Pecchenino (NUIM) “Hope, Despair and the Design of

Socio-Economic Policy”

Live music in the bar

James Fairhead (UCC): “Voegelin

and Neo-liberalism”

Wed 14th Reading Groups

John O’Brien & Niamh Maguire (WIT): “The Night-time

economy”

Niamh Hourigan (UCC) “Everyday Morality and

Work in Austerity Ireland”

Carmen Kuhling (UL) “Zombies and the Post-crisis Political

Imaginary”

Piano bar

Hill-walk

Tristan Laing (York, Canada)

“Neoliberalism Externalised”

Thurs15th Reading Groups

Tom O‟Connor, (CIT) “Austerity in Ireland, State Spin & Societal

Indifference to Social Destruction”

Prof. Manusos Marangudakis: [University of the Aegean]

“Religion and Economic Ethic”

Tom Boland (WIT) “Job-seeking: Making a self for the labour

market”

Movie Night

Sheila O‟ Donohoe (WIT) “In Praise of Finance”

Fri 16th Collaborative

writing exercises

within reading

groups

Ray Griffin (WIT) “We have

never been liberal and there are no free markets”

Ed Byrne, Ger Mullally,

Colin Sage, (UCC) John Barry, (QUB) “Alternative

Economies and Societal Innovation”

Closing Round-Table

School Closes: 5pm

The School was a response to The President of Ireland‟s Ethics Initiative, a project to stimulate discussion across all sectors of society on the challenge of living together ethically.

The School commenced with a description of the President‟s call, and responses from the conveners. The question posed at the start of the School was – do we, business and humanities scholars, have business together. As 'market' and 'society' have become separated as spheres of action and discourse, the School‟s principal concern will be to re-articulate an ethical relationship between them. Framing this were early keynotes on Hayek/Keynes and MacIntyre/Bauman; which rolled out thoughtfully nuanced academic histories of the territory. Balance was sought throughout the remainder of the keynotes between business and the humanities, with each talk challenged to create a bridge between the two consanguine strangers. It clearly emerged,

that whilst our research tends to share the same methodological approaches, and traverse the same theoretical ground, the „othering‟ that arises between the two is a more a thoughtless professional practice- unfamiliarity has bred contempt. The papers that attempted the bridge between the sociological imagination and the market allowed things to move forward, papers without an inclination found the discussions challenging, assumptions unpicked. Underpinning the series of keynotes were reading groups- small tutorial sessions that chewed over the talks, prescribed readings for the school and most importantly researchers own work.

Without forcing a satisfying conclusion, for there was not one; those who took part in the school universally felt that its takes a good deal of effort to bridge the disciplines. Bringing an unsympathetic, hackneyed view of the other discipline to our work limits the scope of impact; strictly discipline-based inquiry can bring a formulated, scripted research performance; one that appeals to disciplinary, canonical and intellectual elites from our home turf; and works to limit the conduct of inquiry; as well as the possibilities of reflection and change. In these times and because of the uses and abuses of the various truths academic research produces, the unintended consequences of the commodificiation, essentialisation and bowdlerisation of academic ideas and

ideals; the academy should become much more critical about how we produce and use knowledge, and what we as academics are doing in society.

Reading Groups

List of participants

Name Stay type Institution Participation

Áine Murphy 6 days WIT Student

Aisling Tuite 6 days WIT Student

Amy Clare Buck 6 days UCC Student

Arpad Szakolczai 3 days UCC Visiting lecturer

Beatrice Nabajja 6 days UCC Student

Blazej Kaucz 6 days UCC Student

Brendan Martin Molloy 6 days UCC Student

Carmen Kuhling 3 days UL Visiting lecturer

Catherine Kelleher 6 days UCC Student

Ciara Walsh 6 days UCC Student

Clare Watson 6 days UCC Student

Colin Sage Day Visitor UCC Visiting lecturer

Donie Fell 6 days NUIM Student

Ed Byrne 2 days UCC Visiting lecturer

Elaine Desmond 6 days UCC Student

Ger Mulally 2 days UCC Visiting lecturer

James Cuffe 4 days UCC Organiser

James Fairhead 6 days UCC Lead

Jill O'Mahony 2 days WIT Student

John O'Brien 6 days WIT Organiser

Kieran Keohane 6 days UCC Organiser

Kimberly Murray 6 days Oklahoma Student

Kirsty Doyle 6 days WIT Student

Lorcan Byrne 6 days UCC Organiser

Manusos Mangudarakis 6 days Aegean Visiting lecturer

Monkia Kadam 6 days WIT Student

Neil Robinson 2 days UL Visiting lecturer

Niamh Hourigan Day Visitor UCC Visiting lecturer

Niamh Maguire Day Visitor WIT Visiting lecturer

Oskana Doherty 6 days WIT Student

Peter McMylor 3 days Manchester Visiting lecturer

Ray Griffin 6 days WIT Organiser

Rowena Pechenino Day Visitor NUIM Visiting lecturer

Shamiso Chigorimbo 6 days UCD Student

Shane Tobin 6 days UCC Student

Sheila O'Donohoe 6 days WIT Lead

Stephan Maier 6 days Graz Student

Tina Kinsella 6 days Trinity Student

Tom Boland 6 days WIT Organiser

Tom O'Connor Day Visitor CIT Visiting lecturer

Triona Cohen 6 days NUIM Student

Tríona Ní Shíocháin Day Visitor UL Visiting lecturer

Trish McGrath 6 days UCC Student

Tristan Lang 6 days York Lead

William Forbes 6 days WIT Lead

Zach Roche 6 days UL Student

Total 52