European Sociological Review Advance Access published online on December 18, 2006
European Sociological Review, doi:10.1093/esr/jcl025
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Levels and Patterns of Material Deprivation in Ireland: After the ‘Celtic Tiger’
Bertrand Maître, The Economic and Social Research Institute, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Correspondence: Christopher T. Whelan (to whom correspondence should be addressed), The Economic and Social Research Institute, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland. Tel.: +353 1 8632000; Fax: +353 1 8632100. Email: Chris.Whelan{at}esri.ie
In this article we use the first full wave of the Irish component of the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey to evaluate conflicting interpretations of levels and patterns of material deprivation in Ireland after the ‘Celtic Tiger’. Radical critics of Irish economic policies have seen the Irish case as a particularly good illustration of the tendency for globalization to be accompanied by widespread economic vulnerability and marginalization. Here, employing a multidimensional perspective we identify one fifth of the population as being economically vulnerable and one in 14 as vulnerable to maximal deprivation, in that they exhibit high risks of deprivation across a range of life-style deprivation dimensions. Current levels and depth of material deprivation are a good deal more modest than suggested by radical critics of the Irish experience of economic globalization.
Manuscript received: April 1, 2006.