Preface for 30th Anniversary Edition of Irish Journal of Sociology

Abstract

The occasion of the publication of a special 30 year issue of the Irish Journal of Sociology must indeed be a celebratory one. I was honoured to receive an invitation to write a Preface for this edition, and I can, with the greatest sincerity and appreciation for their work, pay tribute to all those who have sustained the journal over three decades, and indeed all of those who have worked, and continue to work, in advancing a sociological perspective in times of great challenge and change. Ireland is fortunate to have teachers, researchers, students in the field of sociology who can now engage with European and global theorists at an excellent level. Yet, however, one must worry as to the absence of the sociological perspective in crucial areas of policy formulation and administrative practice in Ireland and indeed the European Union. Whenever I write of the need for theoretical and policy work that represents a collaboration between theorists in ecology, economics and the social studies, I am very conscious of how appreciation of the value of the insights of the latter is missing in crucial areas. Over the decades, sociology has been displaced by a hegemonic push from a narrow version of economics; one over influenced by Hayekism perspectives and the Friedmanist crudities of the Chicago School. Living as we have been with the disastrous consequences of the policies they advocated in recent times, it is striking to note how the promoters of such view have run