2013 Press Releases
ISS21 showcases new social research
The Institute for Social Sciences in the 21st century (ISS21) at UCC showcased its research at a one-day event recently, highlighting exemplary community-engaged and socially relevant funded research.
Topics addressed included a range of contemporary social questions and issues for the 21st century, including migration, education, childhood, racism, youth participation, domestic worker rights and transnational families. A major new project on gender equality in research and innovation was also launched at the event. The showcase day aimed to highlight the crucial role of social science research in understanding and addressing critical social issues for the 21st century.
ISS21 was established in UCC in 2008, when a team of social scientists was awarded a PRTLI4 grant to develop research capacity in the social sciences, in collaboration with national partners in the Irish Social Sciences Platform. Since then, ISS21 has grown into an international and interdisciplinary social science research institute in UCC that works to build, sustain and enhance research on social, economic and cultural issues that are shaping Ireland and Europe during the 21st century.
Since 2008, ISS21 researchers have established research projects funded by a range of agencies (including national and European sources such as the Irish Research Council and FP7). Its funding success rate has increased every year since its establishment; ISS21 researchers generated over €1 million in research funding for UCC in 2012 alone.
At the event on March 1, Dr Karl Kitching of the School of Education, UCC and ISS21 spoke about the need to address the complex issue of institutional racism in Irish education. According to Dr Kitching, “the lack of problematisation of these complex issues in Irish social and education policy is of deep concern. The need to understand their specific shape in the context of Ireland is urgent”. His recent report, Addressing the Concept and Evidence of Institutional Racism in Irish Education (https://cora.ucc.ie/handle/10468/816) takes a social and cultural approach to questions of power in the education system, and is intended provide a useful resource to practitioners and policy-makers working in the field.
Other research projects are making important contributions to understandings of contemporary issues such as youth participation in decision-making in Irish society and current emigration. Questions of social justice and human rights for immigrants are still very much on the agenda, with issues such as family reunification and domestic workers’ rights being explored in other projects. For example, research by Dr Angela Veale, Dr Allen White and colleagues on transnational childraising arrangements between Nigeria and Ireland seeks to understand the impact of family separations on migrant parents’ health, psychological wellbeing and job performance and on their children who have been left behind, and has important implications for immigration and family reunification policy at national and European levels.
ISS21 has recently secured EU Framework 7 funding for a major new project on gender equality in research and innovation, together with a team of European partners, led by University of Bradford. This four-year project will focus on the development of strategies to promote the advancement of the best European researchers, regardless of gender. The new project – GENOVATE – was launched by Professor Caroline Fennell, Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences at UCC, at the end of the event on March 1st. According to the project team, GENOVATE is a great opportunity for UCC to contribute to ongoing efforts at EU policy level to address the persistence of gender inequalities in research and innovation.