From boom to bust

Just three years ago Ireland was the place that every developing country wanted to emulate. It had transformed itself from a poor, peripheral country on the edge of Europe (in 1987 its GDP was 67% of the EU average) to one of the richest nations on the planet (with a GDP 139% of the EU average in 2004). For over a decade GDP growth per year was over double that of nearly every other European country. Employment rose from 1.16m people in 1991 to 1.99m people in 2005, and unemployment dropped from 15% in 1993 to run at about 4% between 2000-2005. Standands of living and quality of life rose rapidly, as did propert prices, and the population grew by 17% between 1996 and 2006 (from 3.62m to 4.23m). In turn there was a cultural transformation away from social conversativism to liberalism and consumerism. Ireland seemed to be a conundrum with low personal and corporate taxes, high indirect taxes, yet with a public health system and free education at all levels - to use Mary Harney's phrase it resided 'somewhere between Boston and Berlin', blending European social welfarism with American neoliberalism. And then the global financial crisis occured and Ireland's boom rapidly heads for bust with plummeting house prices, rapidly rising unemployment, personal tax hikes, and salary cuts across the private and public sector.

In 2006 I co-edited 'Understanding Contemporary Ireland' with Brendan Bartley. The book consisted of 22 chapters examining all aspects of society and economy, written by a collection of leading social scientists, all of whom challenged the myth that the Celtic Tiger had done nothing but good and were sceptical as to government policy and the sustainability of the economy. I don't think any of those writing anticipated the wheels coming off Ireland Inc. quite so spectacularly though. We were probably all hoping for a soft landing even if we feared the worst. What we're experiencing is anything but soft, although it's still a long way from Iceland's demise (and certainly the joke that Ireland was Iceland but for one letter and six months has not come to pass). I thought it was about time I got beyond the newspaper reports and started to read some of the analysis that seeks to explain what went wrong. To that end I went and bought a number of books over the weekend (from The Reading Room) which I'll be reviewing over the coming weeks as I get myself back up to speed with the state of contemporary Ireland.







I'm also co-organising a one day workshop on Nov 23rd entitled 'Geography after NAMA' (the government's plan to buy the bad property debts off the banks) and it'll be interesting to see what other social scientists make of what is occuring.

The Lazy Sunday Service

Posts I enjoyed this week
Good writing, redux: Hooray for Hollywood - Crime Always Pays
So you want to be a crime writer - Crime Watch
It's all material - Do Some Damage
Researching place - Do You Write Under Your Own Name
Forgotten Book: Murder at the Villa Rose - In Reference to Murder
The Plundering PO8 - The Rap Sheet
The state of the crime novel - Huffington Post
Archetypes: Unvailing the mentor - Adventures in Writing
What I read in October - Big Beat from Badsville

My posts this week
Review of If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr
October reviews
Necessary Evil?
Review of Rubble by Jeff Byles
What is family?
Saturday Snippet: The Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp

Saturday Snippet: The Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp (2006, Allison and Busby)

LAPD detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs are investigating the death of a lowlife paedophile who was getting his kicks fondling young children whilst working as Rambunctious Rabbit, the signature mascot of the global entertainment conglomerate Lamarr Enterprises. Whilst a relatively straightforward police procedural, Karp tries to spice things up with a little humour, particularly through the laddish banter between cops. For example, Lomax and Biggs’ boss can’t help employing rectal references whenever he’s moaning about something.

He threw a computer printout on Kilcullen’s desk.
“We ran his prints. He’s been a busy little pervert.”
Kilcullen stood up. “Jesus, Lord, how in Christ’s name does a fucking pedophile get a job hugging and fondling kids all day?”
“He must’ve interviewed really, really good,” Terry said. Kilcullen, the father of six, ignored the crack. “What do you got so far?”
“We got dick,” I said. “Murder weapon and a sicko calling card. Terry was thinking that it could be a serial killer stepping up to the plate.”
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph, that is exactly what they’re shitting bricks about. They’re afraid some bozo is going to start picking off their cartoon characters one at a time. Biggs, I was just telling your partner, this one is on you boys. In fact, if you have anything else to do, like eat, sleep, or wipe your ass, cancel it.”
Brick shitting and ass wiping. Kilcullen was usually good for at least three scatological references.
“Yes, Sir,” Biggs said, answering for both of us.
“Good, because I’ve got the Governor of Cali-fucking-fornia crawling up my butt,” he said, completing the trinity of rectal references.

And a couple of hundred pages later.

“No problem,” Kilcullen said. “Fuck the asshole D.A.’s Office and their stupid fucking rules. Ike Rose can pay my goddam proctology bill if it will help solve these murders and get the Governor out of my rectum.”
Three anal references in five seconds. The man was in rare form. “Anything else?” he said.

My review can be found here.

What is family?

Our critical thinking reading course has spent the last three weeks engaging with a handful of articles that examine a key sociological concept - the family. As with most key concepts there seems to be much contention as to what the term refers to, let alone what theoretical lens to examine it through (e.g., feminism, Marxism, postmodernism, poststructuralism). As a result, it seems as if much of the disagreement between social scientists studying family and its importance in social relations is definitional, with the effect that researchers are studying highly related but subtly different relations. To add my two pence in, it seems to me based on the articles and our discussion, that sociologists think of family in at least 15 ways:

1) Genealogically - who one is related to
2) Biologically - as a foundational unit of parents plus children
3) Legally - defined by legal contracts (e.g., marriage, custodianship)
4) Economically - as a mode of production for making capital
5) Institutionally - defined by the institutions that regulate social relations
6) Organisationally - as a set of organisational rules
7) Culturally - based on established, historical norms
8) Functionally - what purpose the family serves
9) Household - who lives within the same premises
10) A set of practices - family is what family does
11) Ideologically - family is a set of interlocking ideas
12) Morally - as a moral set of familial relations, natural law
13) Normatively - what should a family consist of
14) Lifestyle choice - a desirable set of relations that we pick and consume
15) Affectively - as a set of emotional relationships

And they're just the ones I came up with from a few minutes reflection. Of course, how you conceive and study families is dependent on which one (or set) of these definitions you subscribe to. Add into the mix theoretical lens and its no wonder that those working in the field seem to clash or talk past each other!

Review of Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition by Jeff Byles (Three River Press, 2005)

Rubble is a popular history of sorts of the industry of demolition. In many ways it’s a curious book, blending high brow magazine writing with quasi-academic verse, thus mixing newspaper-style reporting, and its emphasis on facts, figures and spectacle, with the high philosophy of Walter Benjamin, Jean Baudrillard, and others. The style of writing kind of works, but it does drift into pretentiousness in more than a few places. Some of the case material is fascinating, for example in relation to the Haussmann clearances of Paris, the razing of Pruitt-Igoe ghetto in St Louis, and urban clearances of Detroit where 161,000 buildings were demolished between 1970 and 2000. However, the book suffers from a number of problems that made it quite difficult to persevere with (though I did make it to the end). First, the structure is quite chaotic, jumping backwards and forward in history within and between chapters. In fact, I could see no logic to the ordering of the material. Second, the book is almost exclusively focused on the U.S. with the occasional foray into demolition elsewhere, notably Paris and Britain. The kinds of ‘urbicide’ discussed have been widespread across the Western world and elsewhere such as in Eastern Europe, particularly in the period of Soviet control. Third, the book concentrates on demolition in the twentieth century. This is perhaps unsurprising given it was in this time period that it grew to become a well organised, multi-billion dollar industry. That said, people have been building and then knocking things down and clearing the debris away for as long as they’ve been urban dwellers and it would have been useful to delve much more into demolition in the period prior to the twentieth century (which admittedly would require widening the geographical remit significantly beyond the US).

Necessary evil?

"We should look at ourselves in the mirror every morning and recite: 'I know I'm an evil, but am I a necessary evil?'"

This was quoted - originally said by Sir Edward Boyle in 1976 - in last week's Time Higher Education Supplement* in relation to university managers. As someone who runs a research institute I'm left wondering whether I am a necessary evil or just plain evil? I have a horrible feeling it is probably a mix of both and it would difficult to say the above to my reflection with convinction most mornings. Perhaps I'll aspire to becoming a necessary evil. That should raise some eyebrows when I put that down on my next staff appraisal form.

* Allen, D. (2009) Collegiate spirit drives us to help advance the academic enterprise. Times Higher Education Oct 22-28, pages 24-25.

October reviews

Another good month's reading, but the highlight was Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone.

The Lime Pit by Jonathan Valin ****
Satan's Lambs by Lynn Hightower ***
The Killing of Strangers by Jerry Holt **
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett ****
The Irish Sports Pages by Les Roberts ***
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell *****
The Devil Met a Lady by Stuart Kaminsky ****
The Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp ****
Mrs D'Silva Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta by Glen Peters ***
The Small Back Room by Nigel Balchin ****

Review of If The Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr (Quercus, 2009)

It’s only eighteen months since the end of the Weimar Republic and unable to stomach working for the Nazi regime homicide detective Bernie Gunther has quit the police force and taken a job as the house detective at the world famous Adlon Hotel, just a stone’s throw from the Brandenburg Gate. There are rumours of impending race laws, but the Jewish population are already suffering daily humiliation and discrimination, including being expelled from all German sporting organisations. Such anti-Semitism looks like it might draw international condemnation and pressure with the Americans in particular threatening to boycott to the 1936 Olympics, but inexplicably the American delegate visiting Berlin reports to Roosevelt that stories concerning anti-Jewish actions are overly hyped. Two American guests at the Adlon have a vested interest in the decision – the beautiful Noreen Charalambides, a Jewish journalist and aspiring novelist who wishes to expose the truth, and Max Reles, a Chicago gangster, friendly with several high-ranking Nazis, who wants to repeat the mob’s success at the Los Angeles Olympics at rigging the construction contracts. Gunther has problems of his own – he’s managed to accidentally kill a cop and he needs his Jewish grandmother to be airbrushed from history – but he’s also soon unwittingly caught between the two Americans and has two murders to solve – that of a German businessman and a Jewish boxer. The only problem is, very few people want them solved. Twenty years later, having managed to survive the war, Gunther is hiding out in Cuba on an Argentine passport when the ghosts of the case reappear, only the Chicago mob have swapped deals with the Nazis for Batista’s regime.

Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series has a lot of things going for it. First, Kerr’s narrative is colourful and engaging, and he tells a well plotted story. Second, he expertly blends fiction with real people, places and historical events. Third, the books are politically astute and targeted, whilst at the same time being multi-layered, complex and ambiguous. Kerr is vehemently anti-Nazi, but he recognises that post Weimer Republic Germany was a cauldron of competing ideologies and that personal relationships often over-rode ideological differences. So, for example, former colleagues who have become pro-Nazi are prepared to help Gunther out as a personal favour, and vice versa, even though they know his political views. Fourth, in Bernie Gunther he has created one of the finest characters in crime fiction. Gunther is no black and white character with little depth. Rather he’s a resonant, luminous, multi-coloured, complex, compromised and flawed individual. While his heart is roughly in the right place, Gunther is morally suspect on many levels with his personal desires, head strong nature and smart mouth clouding his decision making, often placing him in situations where lying, cheating, stealing, killing, etc. is a necessary solution.

If The Dead Rise Not is a solid addition to the series, but in my view is not quite as good as some of the others in the series (which given the very high standard of the previous books is always going to be a tough challenge). The dialogue was, as ever, sharp and often caustic and very funny. The characterisation was excellent. The story was interesting. My issue was with pacing and coincidence. For me the 1934 period of the book, which was effectively the back story for 1954 period, was too long and drawn out and the 1954 period too short and underdeveloped. My sense was that the balance needed to be shifted to at least a fifty-fifty split in length, with the Cuba part of the plot extended and deepened to cover more of the politics of the time and the mob connections, and provide more details of Gunther’s life post-Argentina (following on from the last book – A Quiet Flame). The ending was also too swift. In addition, the plot hinges on a coincidence in which three characters who have not seen each other in twenty years meet in the one location (on a different continent) in the space of a few hours. I had a hard time buying that. Despite these two issues, the book was still a highly enjoyable read and I look forward to the next instalment in the series.

The Lazy Sunday Service

Posts I've enjoyed this week
Fair thee well then, 'good writing', I hardly knew ye - Crime Always Pays
D is for Deverell, William - Crime Watch
Everybody knows - the paperback - Do Some Damage
No more mister nice guy - International Crime Authors
Brother Grimm, Craig Russell - Mysteries in Paradise
The Trojan Dog - Reactions to Reading
Getting re-sentitised to violence - Confessions of an idiosyncratic mind
Taking it laterally - Killer Covers
The Broken Teaglass - Murder, Mystery and Mayhem

My posts this week
It was a dark night ...
Review of Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts by Glen Peters
Planning for a sustainable Ireland
Seeking Armenian fiction
Forgotten Friday - The Small Back Room by Nigel Balchin
Saturday Snippet - The Devil Met a Lady by Stuart Kaminsky

Saturday Snippet: The Devil Met a Lady by Stuart Kaminsky (ibooks, 1993)

The Devil Met a Lady blends facts concerning Bette Davis’ life with the fictional world of private investigator Toby Peters (my review here). Kaminsky’s dialogue is snappy and smart, and the book would easily translate into a retro-noir movie or be updated to be set in the present.

The emergency room nurse patched up Jeremy’s head with iodine and strips of gauze held down with tape, and then she took care of me. She was dressed in white, smelled like rubbing alcohol, and reminded me of my ex-wife Anne. The nurse’s name was Joanne Writz. Her hair was yellow, her body thin. She didn’t look the least bit like Anne, but she noticed that my wounds were not fresh and she looked at me with the disapproving eyes of someone who expected no better from men.

‘I saw them enter the hotel,’ Jeremy explained as he watched me being cleaned and chastised. ‘I wasn’t sure it was them or I would have come inside.’

‘We’ll find her,’ I said.

‘You sure you want me to hear this?’ asked Joanne the nurse.

‘You plan to talk to anybody about it?’ I asked.

‘Only if I’m asked,’ she said, touching a rib. ‘Body’s not bad, if you ignore the scars.’

‘You like movies?’ I asked her.

‘Sure,’ she said, wrapping tape around my chest. ‘Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in For Me and My Gal?’ I tried.

She looked at Jeremy and then at me. ‘Are you asking me for a date?’ she said, putting her hands on her hips.

‘Says ‘Miss’ on your name tag,’ I answered with a grin.

‘I don’t go out with suicidals and children,’ she said.

‘I’m not suicidal.’

The nurse looked at Jeremy.

He looked back at her and nodded. ‘I’m sorry, Toby,’ he said. ‘But she may be right.’

‘Anne used to say I wouldn’t grow up,’ I said, as Joanne stepped back to survey her work.

‘Hmm,’ she said, satisfied.

‘Anne’s my ex-wife,’ I explained.

‘From what I can see, she’s a wise woman,’ said Joanne. ‘You can go now. Come back when you grow up.’