Diversities and Inequalities (DI)

Members of the DI Group at an event in MoLI

Members of the Diversities and Inequalities research group at Museum of Literature, Ireland (MoLI)- January 2024

Global societies are increasingly becoming more diverse and pluralistic in terms of gender, ethnic and religious identities, some of the changes relating to immigration. These diversities may turn to inequalities and, therefore, posit exciting sociological challenges. Besides, as ending inequalities and discrimination are key goals of the United Nations, we investigate topics connected to these goals such as violence against LGBT people; ethnic, racial and religious discrimination; gender equality, abortion and women’s movements; cross-border immigration, asylum seeking in Ireland and abroad; and contested national identities. Moreover, we are interested in understanding how intersecting inequalities related to migration status, religious affiliations, and sexuality affect people’s attitudes towards immigration and social cohesion. We use a wide range of methods from biographical and narrative interviews and ethnography to surveys and experiments. Our research reflects on policies, social movements, the societal and political discourse in these fields, and combines critical, historical, global and postcolonial perspectives.

(opens in a new window)EqualStrength is an ongoing 3.4 million EUR Horizon Europe project. The endeavour is inherently collaborative and enjoys the contribution of a broad (opens in a new window)consortium of researchers across Europe. The overall coordinator and PI is (opens in a new window)Mathew Creighton in the School of Sociology and the administrative home is the Geary Institute for Public Policy.

The main contribution of EqualStrength is to investigate cumulative and structural forms of discrimination, outgroup prejudice and hate crimes against ethnic, racial and religious minorities from a cross-setting and intersectional perspective. Ethnic, racial and religious minorities experience discriminatory behaviour and prejudicial attitudes in multiple life domains, which accumulates across the life course. This continuous exposure perpetuates minorities’ subordinate position across generations. We deploy innovative, targetted and effective methods, which include field experiments, population-level secondary survey data, meso-level policy analysis and targeted data collection to include the perspective of minority groups who directly confront discrimination.

For more details see (opens in a new window)www.equalstrength.eu.

Allen, Kieran. 2021. 32 Counties: The Failure of Partition and the Case for a United Ireland. London: Pluto Press.
Boucher, Gerard, and Iarfhlaith Watson. 2017. “Fortress Europe as Empire and Ireland’s National Diaspora Centre.” Visual Studies 32(3):273–83. doi: 10.1080/1472586X.2017.1358105.
Carol, Sarah, and Karsten Hank. 2019. “Natives’ and Immigrants’ Gender Preferences for Children in Germany.” European Journal of Population 36(2):235–46. doi: 10.1007/s10680-019-09527-y.
Clancy, Patrick, and Sara O’Sullivan. 2020. “Gender Parity in Higher Education Enrolments: Trends and Paradoxes.” Irish Educational Studies 1–18. doi: 10.1080/03323315.2020.1779107.
Chakravarty, Dyuti, Alice Feldman, and Emma Penney. 2020. “Analysing Contemporary Women’s Movements for Bodily Autonomy, Pluriversalizing the Feminist Scholarship on the Politics of Respectability.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 21(7):170–88.
Creighton, Mathew J, Frances McGinnity and Éamonn Fahey (forthcoming) Immigration, identity and anonymity: Intentionally masked intolerance in Ireland, International Migration Review.
Eichsteller, Marta. 2018. “Guest, Trader or Explorer: Biographical Perspectives on the Experiences of Cross-Border Mobility in Europe.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 41(5):977–95. doi: 10.1080/01419870.2017.1315152.
Kondakov, Alexander Sasha. 2021. “Challenging the Logic of Progressive Timeline, Queering LGBT Successes and Failures in Ireland and Russia.” Sexualities 13634607211051556. doi: 10.1177/13634607211051555.