- Date(s)
- November 17, 2022
- Location
- Hybrid event
- Time
- 12:00 - 13:30
- Price
- Free
Three of our PhD students presenting their work:
Damian McIlroy
Title: Re-union-ification: Tackling Constitutional Conflict and the Climate Crisis through Inter-Isles Bioregionalism.
Abstract:
For that last two decades the United Kingdom has been in a state of constitutional flux. In this regard, the prospect of referenda for an independent Scotland and a reunified Ireland is now increasingly likely over the next decade. However, within the same timeframe the earth is likely to surpass 1.5 degrees of global warming. As the renegotiation of place and space occurs on the island of Ireland and Britain regarding different constitutional futures, how can these processes be reconciled with the reality of climate breakdown and rapid biodiversity loss? The paper will suggest that the potential for new constitutional arrangements in Ireland and Britain premised on the economics of eco-social harm (capitalism), only embeds conditions for future conflict. Instead, the paper will argue for development of Inter-Isles Bioregionalism - a radical and necessary structural proposition. This novel form of territorial reorganisation will be commonly negotiated to promote balanced interaction between reinhabited and reconstituted geo-political regions within the two islands. In so doing, the paper will outline two models (1) Moderate Bioregionalism: That allows for the development of different constitutional futures, and (2) Dense Bioregionalism: That involves the significant negotiation of new sovereignties and territoriality for maximum eco-social balance.
Niall Robb
Title: Assessing interest group influence in the Brexit negotiations: toward a methodological and theoretical approach
Abstract: How to conceptualise and measure interest group influence is one of the key debates in the field. This presentation outlines a constructivist methodological and theoretical approach to doing so in the case of the Ireland/Northern Ireland dimension of the UK's withdrawal negotiations from the EU. The project integrates semi-structured interviews and document analysis into a formal process-tracing methodology. A causal mechanism for interest group influence is hypothesised drawing on theoretical insights from literature on interest groups as well as trade and public policy. It proposes an influence mechanism which takes account of the wider social embeddedness of interest groups in policymaking, adopting critical realist insights to link methodology with ontology and practical theory.
Frances Nielson
Title: Articulating an Exit from Europe: The Spectator’s Coverage of Brexit and the Northern Ireland Blindspot, 2016-2020
Abstract:
The Spectator has endorsed the Conservative Party in all general elections since 2010 and backed the Leave Campaign in the 2016 Brexit Referendum, re-using its 1975 headline that supported the UK leaving the EEC: ‘Out - and Into the World’. The link between The Spectator and the Tories is also through past editors who have become leading anti-EU Tory politicians, most notably Nigel Lawson and Boris Johnson. This paper will critically examine the magazine’s coverage and commentary of Northern Ireland during the Brexit period, January 2016 – January 2020. Although articulating a range of views, including frequent contributions from ‘Remain’ journalists, The Spectator published numerous articles advocating for a no-deal Brexit without reference to the implications of this for Northern Ireland, and its own editorials backing ‘Leave’ ahead of the referendum made no mention of the region. As the UK negotiated its exit from the EU, it became apparent that the Tory Party had similarly given little thought on how to avoid a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland. This paper seeks to show how The Spectator’s mainly pro-Brexit views and its blind spot to Northern Ireland both reflect and inform Tory Party views on these subjects. In doing so, it seeks to explain the entanglement of Britain’s ‘Irish’ and ‘European’ Questions, and the profound political consequences created by unclear thinking on both.This is a hybrid event, in person in Peter Froggatt Centre/02/011 and online on MS Teams
| Name | Dr Michele Crepaz |
| m.crepaz@qub.ac.uk |