Options
Ruane, Joseph
Preferred name
Ruane, Joseph
Official Name
Ruane, Joseph
Research Output
Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
- PublicationA politics of transition in Britain, France and SpainThe decade of the 1990s saw the beginning of a new phase of globalisation and continuing European integration, the collapse of socialism and the triumph of neo-liberalism, the mainstreaming of cultural postmodernism and the intensification of identity politics. It was a period of transition in political institutions, demands and expectations. The political discourse associated with these changes was radical: this was a global age, hybrid, regionalist, postnationalist, and above all 'new'. But just how radical were the political changes, and did they signal a new convergence across European states? This book is a study of the changing forms of the state, and in particular of changing centre- periphery relations, in Britain, France and Spain. It analyses the character and extent of the changes and their causes and consequences, not just territorially but also institutionally in the area of policing. It identifies the degree of convergence in the three states.
407 - PublicationExplaining settlement in Northern Ireland : power, perception and path dependenceThis paper criticizes four typical explanations of settlement of internal conflicts, showing that they fail to give an adequate explanation of the 1998 settlement in Northern Ireland. Instead of inductively searching for recurrent proximate factors or proceeding deductively by applying general theoretical models to settlement processes, it suggests that it may be more fruitful to search for underlying path dependent processes which regulate how the factors highlighted in the other approaches function.
158 - PublicationContemporary republicanism and the strategy of armed struggleAssuming that the conflict of the past thirty years is now drawing to a close, we can, with a certain distance and detachment, attempt to map its parameters, examine its causes and consequences, and seek to learn from it. Why did the conflict initially break out, why did it last so long, and why did it end when it did? Has the Good Friday Agreement finally legitimated Northern Ireland as a political entity, and has violence now been de-legitimated as a weapon in Irish and in Irish-British politics? Is political violence likely to continue in some form and could it conceivably return on the scale of the past thirty years?
127 - PublicationFrom 'a shared future' to 'cohesion, sharing and integration': an analysis of Northern Ireland's policy framework documentsThe task set for the Institute for British Irish Studies, University College Dublin (IBIS) was to compare and contrast two policy documents: ‘A Shared Future: Improving Relations in Northern Ireland’ (March 2005) and the ‘Programme for Cohesion, Sharing and Integration’ (July 2010) and to comment on significant differences between the documents in light of current international scholarship and research on issues of identity, cultural difference and social division in conflict and post-conflict situations.
94 - PublicationProtestant minorities in European States and nationsLittle attention has been paid in the recent scholarly literature to Europe's old religious conflicts - particularly those that stem from the Reformation. Yet for a long time religiously informed conflict was the principal source of internal state division and the major perceived threat to state stability and security. This article looks at the institutional changes and cultural renegotiations that allowed traditional religious oppositions, rivalries and conflicts to fade in most contemporary European societies. Focusing on the Czech, French and Irish cases, it argues that neither modernisation, democratisation nor secularisation were enough to resolve deep-set tensions. The long-term resolutions involved a restructuring of polity and nation in a way consistent with minority, as well as majority, culture. In the past - and perhaps also in the present - such opportunities were rare and demanded choice, strategy and political fortune.
252Scopus© Citations 7 - PublicationMultiple temporalities in violent conflicts: Northern Ireland, the Basque Country and MacedoniaPolitical violence must be placed in its temporal context if we are to understand its causes, course, and the dangers that remain when it ends. Doing so reveals causal processes that are missed in wider and flatter generalisations – the social relations and structural processes of long provenance that increase the propensity to violence and determine the success or failure of settlement initiatives. Long-term structures can be changed, and small changes in them may make a big difference in outcome. The actors most able to change them are powerful states and international actors. This is a difficult and costly task and they may be tempted to stop when political agreement is reached. We have argued that much more is needed.
673 - PublicationIreland's Ethno-Religious Conflicts: Path Dependence and its LegaciesThis paper asks why Catholic-Protestant conflict has been so long- lasting in Ireland, and to what extent the Good Friday Agreement deals with the remaining conditions of conflict. It proposes an explanation for the persistence of conflict over the long term and in the two parts of Ireland since partition. It is offered as a tribute in a different disciplinary register to Professor W J Smyth, whose historical geography of the Irish longue durée has fascinated and challenged me for more than three decades. More personally, it is an expression of thanks for an equal number of years of collegiality and friendship.
143 - PublicationProtestant minorities in European states and nations(University College Dublin. Institute for British-Irish Studies, 2009)
; Europe’s traditional ethnic minorities and the conflicts over their place in the state and nation are the focus of continuing comparative research. In contrast, little attention is paid to Europe’s older religious conflicts, in particular those that stem from the reformation. Yet for long religiously informed conflict was the principal source of internal state division and the major perceived threat to state stability and security. This paper looks at the institutional changes and cultural renegotiations which allowed traditional religious oppositions, rivalries and conflicts to fade in most contemporary European societies. It concludes that neither modernisation, democratisation nor secularisation were enough to resolve deep-set tensions. The long-term resolutions involved a restructuring of polity and nation in a way consistent with minority, as well as majority culture. In the past – as perhaps also in the present - such opportunities were rare and demanded choice, strategy and political fortune.399