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This book draws on the voices of sex workers and their clients to critically assess the criminalization of prostitution in favour of decriminalization. It does so by contrasting their voices with the claims made by prohibitionists: those advocating the prohibition of prostitution or, at least, the prohibition of the purchase of sexual services, and notes scholarly research that gives context to those accounts and claims. Each chapter is dedicated to a particular issue which is given currency in academic and public debates on sex work. The first part of each chapter reviews the state of research and publicly-aired contentions and the second part compares sex workers' voices with claims from prohibitionists. It highlights the gap between what many sex workers have to say about themselves and what theorizing prohibitionists say about all prostitution. It argues that there is often a striking contrast in attitude, perspective, interpretation and valuation. This books speaks primarily to prohibitionist thinking and sex work stereotyping and, secondarily, to the debate on decriminalization of sex work.
Ireland and the Politics of Change provides a timely assessment of the fundamental changes that have occurred in Irish society over the last several decades from the standpoint of their political significance. There is a particular concern with the leadership role of government and other political institutions in stimulating, managing and responding to the changes taking place that are of fundamental importance to understanding contemporary politics and today's Ireland in the world community. Considerable social, economic, demographic and international change has taken place within Ireland (and Northern Ireland) and without in relation to the rest of the world, and particularly in response to the association with the European Union. Ireland and the Politics of Change examines institutional developments, economic forces, demographic and attitudinal profiles and group-based (religious, gender, class) concerns as they have evolved and assesses their significance for policy enactment and political representation.
In 1991, the people of Ireland elected Mary Robinson, a women's rights crusader who supported legalized birth control and divorce, as their president. The country seemed poised for massive social and legal change, but it became apparent that even though Ireland at the dawn of the 21st century would be very different from the Ireland of the past, many fundamentals would remain the same. This book examines Irish abortion and divorce law in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts. Its main focus is on the well-publicized referenda and court cases of the 1980s and 1990s, with special attention given to their roots and potential long-term effects on the communitarian Irish culture and opportunities for Irish women. The author identifies and discusses three forces that have affected Irish law and mores, especially those relating to abortion and divorce: economic insecurity; a sense of group loyalty and identification, particularly within families and churches; and Catholic teaching about the common good.
This study - written from an anthropological viewpoint - focuses on women's lives in Northern Ireland. It examines the lives and work of a range of women, and illustrates some of the historical and political backdrop. It discusses a number of women's initiatives in the voluntary sector to illustrate the work they are doing to achieve a peaceful outcome to the age-old problems. Interviews were conducted with women, ecumenical groups, Belfast City Council members, Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, and human rights activists. The book should interest those involved in women's studies, peace studies, and Irish studies.
Offering a unique account of identity formation in Ireland and Central Europe, this book explores and contextualises transfers and comparisons between Ireland and the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It reveals how Irish perceptions of borders and identities changed after the (re)birth of the small states of Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia and the creation of the Irish Free State. Adopting a transnational approach, the book documents the outward-looking attitude of Irish nationalists and provides original insights into the significance of personal encounters that transcended the borders of nation-states. Drawing on a wide range of official records, private papers, contemporary press accounts and journal articles, Imagining Ireland Abroad, 1904-1945 bridges the gap between historiographies of the East and West by opening up a new perspective on Irish national identity.
In the early 1970s accompanying the current wave of globalization, conservative nationalist religious movements began using religion to oppose non-democratic and often western oriented regimes. Reasserting patriarchal gender relations presumably authorized by religion has been central to these movements. At the Fourth United Nations Congress on Women in Beijing in 1995, Muslim and Catholic delegations from diverse countries united to oppose provisions on sexuality, reproductive rights, women's health, and women's rights as human rights. In this book, scholars from eight different Muslim and Catholic communities analyze the political strategies that women are employing in these contexts ranging from acceptance of traditional doctrines to various forms of resistance, religious reinterpretation, innovation, and political action toward change and equal rights.
This book argues that we have got it wrong in the West in our pursuit of what we consider to be 'self': an autonomous, self-driven, entrepreneurial entity, always on, always positive and always improving. This is a neoliberal self, a being stripped of the social. In a radical critique, this book argues that this is a deeply harmful view and is the source of much of our suffering. More, through what is called the 'therapy culture', life hacks and self-improvement programmes, we have learned to endlessly dig deeper into this view to try and 'fix' ourselves, resulting in increased suffering. The book suggests that we need a conceptual jail-break from this view and that Zen Buddhism, in its clea...
Neither naively optimistic nor hopelessley pessimistic, this collection of writings by experts on the history of the troubles in Northern Ireland paints a realistic picture of the peace processes that have dotted the province's landscape.
This book concentrates on Ireland's public policies, cases and laws on women after 1922. It examines the policies in place before 1972 and the extensive changes heralded by the 1972 Report of the Commission on the Status of Women: equal pay, employment and social welfare. In the 1980s and 1990s the debate shifted from the formal equality of women to issues of equity, fairness, opportunity and participation, as emphasized by the Report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women (1993). The constitutional issues of divorce and abortion as well as the changes in family law, violence, education, health, and political and economic opportunity are tracked through government reports up to 2000.