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Marx’s writings on Ireland are widely known, but less appreciated is theircentrality to the formation of his ecological thought. We show how Marx’s understand-ing of metabolic rift evolved in line with his writings on colonial Ireland, revealing a con-cept more holistic than the“classic”metabolic rift of the soil. We recover and extendthis concept to thecorporealmetabolic rift, showing how both are inherent in Marx’svarious writings on Ireland. Whilst the rift of the soil concerns the extraction and con-sumption of organic soil constituents, the corporeal rift describes processes of depopula-tion, and their effects on demography and family formation. These“rifted”processesare interconnected such that depleted soil impacts on the health of those who consumefood grown on those“rifted”soils. We argue that the presence of these rifts substanti-ates Ireland’s inability to sustain itself both economically and organically, which deter-mined its persistent post-Famine underdevelopment.

Marx’s writings on Ireland are widely known, but less appreciated is theircentrality to the formation of his ecological thought. We show how Marx’s understand-ing of metabolic rift evolved in line with his writings on colonial Ireland, revealing a con-cept more holistic than the“classic”metabolic rift of the soil. We recover and extendthis concept to thecorporealmetabolic rift, showing how both are inherent in Marx’svarious writings on Ireland. Whilst the rift of the soil concerns the extraction and con-sumption of organic soil constituents, the corporeal rift describes processes of depopula-tion, and their effects on demography and family formation. These“rifted”processesare interconnected such that depleted soil impacts on the health of those who consumefood grown on those“rifted”soils. We argue that the presence of these rifts substanti-ates Ireland’s inability to sustain itself both economically and organically, which deter-mined its persistent post-Famine underdevelopment.

While the concept of a ‘financial elite’ has become prominent within politics and the social sciences, it is not clear what value it holds for the analysis of inequalities of income, wealth and power under financial capitalism. Who are the financial elite, and what distinguishes them from other economically powerful groups? We delineate ‘distributive’, ‘categorical’ and ‘relational’ approaches to financial elites, arguing that various unresolved tensions have hampered clarification of the differentia specifica of the concept, and blunted its normative significance. We develop a new concept of financial elites that combines insights from elite studies and financialisation studies. We argue that the financial elite possess not only high incomes, but income primarily derived from ‘rentier’ channels, as endowed by the institutional structures of financialisation. Financial elites demonstrate the capacity not only to capitalise on these new accumulation channels, but to shape the institutional and regulatory landscapes in which they operate.

In a context of mistrust in public health institutions and practices, anti-COVID/vaccination protests and the storming of Congress have illustrated that conspiracy theories are real and immanent threat to health and wellbeing, democracy, and public understanding of science. One manifestation of this is the suggested correla- tion of COVID-19 with 5G mobile technology. Throughout 2020, this alleged correlation was promoted and distributed widely on social media, often in the form of maps overlaying the distribution of COVID-19 cases with the instillation of 5G towers. These conspiracy theories are not fringe phenomena, and they form part of a growing repertoire for conspiracist activist groups with capacities for organised violence. In this paper, we outline how spatial data have been co-opted, and spatial correlations asserted by conspiracy theorists. We consider the basis of their claims of causal association with reference to three key areas of geographical explanation: (1) how social properties are constituted and how they exert complex causal forces, (2) the pitfalls of correlation with spatial and ecological data, and (3) the challenges of specifying and interpreting causal effects with spatial data. For each, we consider the unique theoretical and technical challenges involved in specifying meaningful correlation, and how their discarding facilitates conspiracist attribution. In doing so, we offer a basis both to interrogate conspiracists’ uses and interpretation of data from elementary principles and offer some cautionary notes on the potential for their future misuse in an age of data democratization. Finally, this paper contributes to work on the basis of conspiracy theories in general, by asserting how – absent an appreciation of these key methodological principles – spatial health data may be especially prone to co-option by conspiracist groups.

As economies continue to grow in the face of global climate change, international policy is focusing on the combined pursuit of social and environmental development, or ‘sustainable development goals’. Whilst such goals are often framed from the perspective of high-income countries, low-income countries struggle to balance their carbon-intensive growth strategies with poverty alleviation, and carbon emission reduction. Combined with the prospect of economic growth driving income inequality higher, the potential for a vicious cycle to emerge in low-income countries in particular is considerable. Whilst the negative association between economic growth and poverty is well established, the efectiveness of growth-based programmes as a poverty reduction strategy in the context of climate change and inequality is less certain. We explore the prospects of balancing these development goals and their consequences using an international dataset, and generalized method of moments estimators. We fnd that although economic development reduces poverty, carbon emissions (from carbon-intensive growth) coupled with inequality, exacerbates poverty. Secondly, we fnd that in terms of poverty reduction, poor countries are negatively impacted by both carbon emissions and income inequality, while rich countries are primarily impacted by income inequality. Finally, we fnd the efect of emissions on poverty is stronger for countries at higher poverty levels, suggesting that international policies aimed at achieving equitable emissions reduction should consider the potential for disproportionate negative impacts on poorer countries.

As economies continue to grow in the face of global climate change, international policy is focusing on the combined pursuit of social and environmental development, or ‘sustainable development goals’. Whilst such goals are often framed from the perspective of high-income countries, low-income countries struggle to balance their carbon-intensive growth strategies with poverty alleviation, and carbon emission reduction. Combined with the prospect of economic growth driving income inequality higher, the potential for a vicious cycle to emerge in low-income countries in particular is considerable. Whilst the negative association between economic growth and poverty is well established, the efectiveness of growth-based programmes as a poverty reduction strategy in the context of climate change and inequality is less certain. We explore the prospects of balancing these development goals and their consequences using an international dataset, and generalized method of moments estimators. We fnd that although economic development reduces poverty, carbon emissions (from carbon-intensive growth) coupled with inequality, exacerbates poverty. Secondly, we fnd that in terms of poverty reduction, poor countries are negatively impacted by both carbon emissions and income inequality, while rich countries are primarily impacted by income inequality. Finally, we fnd the efect of emissions on poverty is stronger for countries at higher poverty levels, suggesting that international policies aimed at achieving equitable emissions reduction should consider the potential for disproportionate negative impacts on poorer countries.

In a context of mistrust in public health institutions and practices, anti-COVID/vaccination protests and the storming of Congress have illustrated that conspiracy theories are real and immanent threat to health and wellbeing, democracy, and public understanding of science. One manifestation of this is the suggested correla- tion of COVID-19 with 5G mobile technology. Throughout 2020, this alleged correlation was promoted and distributed widely on social media, often in the form of maps overlaying the distribution of COVID-19 cases with the instillation of 5G towers. These conspiracy theories are not fringe phenomena, and they form part of a growing repertoire for conspiracist activist groups with capacities for organised violence. In this paper, we outline how spatial data have been co-opted, and spatial correlations asserted by conspiracy theorists. We consider the basis of their claims of causal association with reference to three key areas of geographical explanation: (1) how social properties are constituted and how they exert complex causal forces, (2) the pitfalls of correlation with spatial and ecological data, and (3) the challenges of specifying and interpreting causal effects with spatial data. For each, we consider the unique theoretical and technical challenges involved in specifying meaningful correlation, and how their discarding facilitates conspiracist attribution. In doing so, we offer a basis both to interrogate conspiracists’ uses and interpretation of data from elementary principles and offer some cautionary notes on the potential for their future misuse in an age of data democratization. Finally, this paper contributes to work on the basis of conspiracy theories in general, by asserting how – absent an appreciation of these key methodological principles – spatial health data may be especially prone to co-option by conspiracist groups.

While the concept of a ‘financial elite’ has become prominent within politics and the social sciences, it is not clear what value it holds for the analysis of inequalities of income, wealth and power under financial capitalism. Who are the financial elite, and what distinguishes them from other economically powerful groups? We delineate ‘distributive’, ‘categorical’ and ‘relational’ approaches to financial elites, arguing that various unresolved tensions have hampered clarification of the differentia specifica of the concept, and blunted its normative significance. We develop a new concept of financial elites that combines insights from elite studies and financialisation studies. We argue that the financial elite possess not only high incomes, but income primarily derived from ‘rentier’ channels, as endowed by the institutional structures of financialisation. Financial elites demonstrate the capacity not only to capitalise on these new accumulation channels, but to shape the institutional and regulatory landscapes in which they operate.

This paper deals with two principal questions, drawingclosely on the experience of Ireland. First, it addresses adeficit in our knowledge of resource governance institutionsand land tenure systems as moderators of the impact offamine. We have known for some time of the extent ofcommon-pool resource systems in districts of 19th-centuryIreland and wider Europe, but their role in determininglevels of ecological risk exposure is less understood.Knowing that both food insecurity and common tenancywere higher in marginal Irish districts, this represents a gapin our understanding of the geographical impact of theGreat Irish Famine. Second, although current thinking oncommon-pool resource governance suggests that suchsystems were potentially robust to ecological stress, whydid this not translate into greater resilience in Ireland? Tomake sense of this contradiction, we must consider boththe local behaviour of ecological stressors and wider con-text of Irish colonialism. Using local clustering analysis andgeographically weighted regression, we see how the impactof key stressors varied geographically. These findingssuggest that analyses of the role of common-pool resourcegovernance in conferring ecological resilience must be tem-pered with a fuller appreciation of geopolitical context.

This paper deals with two principal questions, drawingclosely on the experience of Ireland. First, it addresses adeficit in our knowledge of resource governance institutionsand land tenure systems as moderators of the impact offamine. We have known for some time of the extent ofcommon-pool resource systems in districts of 19th-centuryIreland and wider Europe, but their role in determininglevels of ecological risk exposure is less understood.Knowing that both food insecurity and common tenancywere higher in marginal Irish districts, this represents a gapin our understanding of the geographical impact of theGreat Irish Famine. Second, although current thinking oncommon-pool resource governance suggests that suchsystems were potentially robust to ecological stress, whydid this not translate into greater resilience in Ireland? Tomake sense of this contradiction, we must consider boththe local behaviour of ecological stressors and wider con-text of Irish colonialism. Using local clustering analysis andgeographically weighted regression, we see how the impactof key stressors varied geographically. These findingssuggest that analyses of the role of common-pool resourcegovernance in conferring ecological resilience must be tem-pered with a fuller appreciation of geopolitical context.

With financialization now acknowledged as one of the most potent threats to income equality, can finance-driven inequality be explained by a singular causal argument? Taking the case of top incomes across the OECD, this paper addresses the standard causal narrative of financedriven inequality, where rising top income inequality is explained as a function of deregulation, financial sector growth, and a parallel weakening of the role of trade unions and the government. Applying fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to a time-series dataset (1975–2005), it assesses the ways in which configurations of institutions combined in different ways prior to the recent financial crisis, to create policy contexts conducive to top income growth. It does this by adopting a time-series approach to QCA, involving calibration and analysis of data at three successive historical waves. Results suggest that top incomes in the era of finance-driven capitalism were subject to a diversity of causal paths which generated similar outcomes in different contexts, in a manner which departs substantially from the standard narrative. In doing so, it elaborates on the application of time-series approaches to case-based analysis, and uses its results to discuss the ways in which institutions may combine in different ways to generate similar, or divergent outcomes

The share of national income going to workers has decreased steadily across Europe since the 1980s. This apparently uniform decrease in labour’s share conceals differences amongst states however—in ‘liberal’ Ireland, this fall has been drastic, while that of ‘social democratic’ Denmark has been moderate. This article presents a parallel time series analysis of institutional and structural factors shaping labour’s share in Ireland and Denmark. Our results show that factors common to the study of variation in labour’s share operate in different ways in different countries, both in magnitude and causal mechanism. We find that stressors such as global trade, foreign investment and high-tech growth produce different effects in each location. Equally, protections such as unionization, leftist cabinets and welfare spending display contradictory effects in both locations. We conclude that ‘power resource’ models of labour share should be supplemented with comparative approaches that emphasize how institutionalized socio-political logics mediate returns to labour.

With financialization now acknowledged as one of the most potent threats to income equality, can finance-driven inequality be explained by a singular causal argument? Taking the case of top incomes across the OECD, this paper addresses the standard causal narrative of financedriven inequality, where rising top income inequality is explained as a function of deregulation, financial sector growth, and a parallel weakening of the role of trade unions and the government. Applying fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to a time-series dataset (1975–2005), it assesses the ways in which configurations of institutions combined in different ways prior to the recent financial crisis, to create policy contexts conducive to top income growth. It does this by adopting a time-series approach to QCA, involving calibration and analysis of data at three successive historical waves. Results suggest that top incomes in the era of finance-driven capitalism were subject to a diversity of causal paths which generated similar outcomes in different contexts, in a manner which departs substantially from the standard narrative. In doing so, it elaborates on the application of time-series approaches to case-based analysis, and uses its results to discuss the ways in which institutions may combine in different ways to generate similar, or divergent outcomes

The share of national income going to workers has decreased steadily across Europe since the 1980s. This apparently uniform decrease in labour’s share conceals differences amongst states however—in ‘liberal’ Ireland, this fall has been drastic, while that of ‘social democratic’ Denmark has been moderate. This article presents a parallel time series analysis of institutional and structural factors shaping labour’s share in Ireland and Denmark. Our results show that factors common to the study of variation in labour’s share operate in different ways in different countries, both in magnitude and causal mechanism. We find that stressors such as global trade, foreign investment and high-tech growth produce different effects in each location. Equally, protections such as unionization, leftist cabinets and welfare spending display contradictory effects in both locations. We conclude that ‘power resource’ models of labour share should be supplemented with comparative approaches that emphasize how institutionalized socio-political logics mediate returns to labour.

This paper deals with two principal questions, drawing closely on the experience of Ireland. First, it addresses a deficit in our knowledge of resource governance institutions and land tenure systems as moderators of the impact of famine. We have known for some time of the extent and distribution of common tenancy systems in districts of 19th-century Ireland and across wider Europe, but little has been written about their role in determining levels of ecological risk exposure. Knowing that both distress and common tenancy were higher in marginal, impoverished Irish districts, this is an omission of some concern. Second, although current thinking on common-pool resource governance suggests such systems were potentially robust to ecological stress, why did this not translate into greater resilience in the Irish case? The paper argues that to make sense of this contradiction, we must consider both the local behaviour of ecological stressors, and the wider context of Irish colonialism. Using local clustering analysis and geographically weighted regression, it shows how the impact of key stressors varied geographically. It concludes by suggesting that narratives and analyses of the role of common-pool resource governance in conferring ecological resilience must be tempered with a fuller appreciation of geopolitical context.

This paper deals with two principal questions, drawing closely on the experience of Ireland. First, it addresses a deficit in our knowledge of resource governance institutions and land tenure systems as moderators of the impact of famine. We have known for some time of the extent and distribution of common tenancy systems in districts of 19th-century Ireland and across wider Europe, but little has been written about their role in determining levels of ecological risk exposure. Knowing that both distress and common tenancy were higher in marginal, impoverished Irish districts, this is an omission of some concern. Second, although current thinking on common-pool resource governance suggests such systems were potentially robust to ecological stress, why did this not translate into greater resilience in the Irish case? The paper argues that to make sense of this contradiction, we must consider both the local behaviour of ecological stressors, and the wider context of Irish colonialism. Using local clustering analysis and geographically weighted regression, it shows how the impact of key stressors varied geographically. It concludes by suggesting that narratives and analyses of the role of common-pool resource governance in conferring ecological resilience must be tempered with a fuller appreciation of geopolitical context.

The rundale system has held a certain fascination for Irish geographers and historians due to its prevalence in the cartographic record and comparative absence from historical record. As a system of cultivation and landholding characterised by share allocation through collective governance, popular conflicting accounts have interpreted it both as a functional adaptation to the ‘ecological niche’ of the Irish Western Seaboard or, controversially, as a modern survival of an archaic mode of production of great antiquity. To date, little attempt has been made to impose conceptual clarity on the rundale system, and agreement on its essential characteristics is absent. Beginning with an overview of the current state of knowledge, this article presents a critical assessment of the manner in which rundale has been conceptualised, and the dominant methodologies employed in its study. This assessment reveals a number of features and mechanisms which researchers have identified as its defining characteristics. As a result, many have tended to present it as the product of singular ‘prime movers’ such as its unique demography, or to characterise it in strictly spatial terms as a morphological oddity. Following this critical appraisal, and drawing upon recent works in resilience ecology, an alternative model of rundale is presented in terms of its institutional, spatial, and historical complexity. This model suggests that the rundale system be defined as a configuration of spatial and social-structural characteristics, varying according to place and time.

The rundale system has held a certain fascination for Irish geographers and historians due to its prevalence in the cartographic record and comparative absence from historical record. As a system of cultivation and landholding characterised by share allocation through collective governance, popular conflicting accounts have interpreted it both as a functional adaptation to the ‘ecological niche’ of the Irish Western Seaboard or, controversially, as a modern survival of an archaic mode of production of great antiquity. To date, little attempt has been made to impose conceptual clarity on the rundale system, and agreement on its essential characteristics is absent. Beginning with an overview of the current state of knowledge, this article presents a critical assessment of the manner in which rundale has been conceptualised, and the dominant methodologies employed in its study. This assessment reveals a number of features and mechanisms which researchers have identified as its defining characteristics. As a result, many have tended to present it as the product of singular ‘prime movers’ such as its unique demography, or to characterise it in strictly spatial terms as a morphological oddity. Following this critical appraisal, and drawing upon recent works in resilience ecology, an alternative model of rundale is presented in terms of its institutional, spatial, and historical complexity. This model suggests that the rundale system be defined as a configuration of spatial and social-structural characteristics, varying according to place and time.

The study of rundale has slowly graduated from a relatively isolated debate within Irish historical geography, to a subject of wider consideration amongst anthropologists, sociologists, agricultural scientists, archaeologists, and historians. This widening of the scope of debate has brought renewed attention not only to the social, cultural, and geographical features of rundale, but to the variety of sources brought to bear on its study. As a result, the incorporation of new source materials, and new approaches to analysis, has breathed life into an important aspect of Irish social history for which further discovery doubtless remains. Since the publication of Estyn Evan’s foundational paper ‘Some Survivals of the Irish Openfield System’ in 1939, subsequent major works in the field have revealed additional layers of complexity to rundale which, rather than closing down debate, have served merely to keep it alive by raising new questions. The publication of works beyond the field of Irish studies has also placed the study of rundale in comparative context, as social scientists pay greater attention to historical modes of production across Europe and beyond. By revealing historical systems similar to rundale in operation in locations as diverse as Germany, Romania, and Russia, renewed attention is being paid to fundamental questions regarding the evolutionary precursors of our modern capitalist society.

This article examines the impact of financialization on the income shares of the top 1% from 1990 to 2010, through a panel analysis of 14 OECD countries. Drawing together literatures stressing the dependence of income inequality on the structural bargaining power of capital relative to labour, and of the dependence of accumulation on underlying institutionalized modes of state regulation, it shows that financialization has significantly enhanced top income shares net of underlying controls. Whilst the income shares of the top 1% appear responsive to variables typical of wider studies of personal income inequality, we emphasize distinctive mechanisms of top income growth linked to the rising dominance of financial instruments and actors, facilitated by a historically specific regulatory order. These conditions were key to the emergence of a state of ‘asymmetric bargaining’ which disproportionately enhanced the fortunes of the wealthy. Results thus emphasize the importance of class-biased power resources and underlying regulatory structures, as determinants both of income concentration and of the distribution of economic rewards beyond growth capacity alone.

The study of rundale has slowly graduated from a relatively isolated debate within Irish historical geography, to a subject of wider consideration amongst anthropologists, sociologists, agricultural scientists, archaeologists, and historians. This widening of the scope of debate has brought renewed attention not only to the social, cultural, and geographical features of rundale, but to the variety of sources brought to bear on its study. As a result, the incorporation of new source materials, and new approaches to analysis, has breathed life into an important aspect of Irish social history for which further discovery doubtless remains. Since the publication of Estyn Evan’s foundational paper ‘Some Survivals of the Irish Openfield System’ in 1939, subsequent major works in the field have revealed additional layers of complexity to rundale which, rather than closing down debate, have served merely to keep it alive by raising new questions. The publication of works beyond the field of Irish studies has also placed the study of rundale in comparative context, as social scientists pay greater attention to historical modes of production across Europe and beyond. By revealing historical systems similar to rundale in operation in locations as diverse as Germany, Romania, and Russia, renewed attention is being paid to fundamental questions regarding the evolutionary precursors of our modern capitalist society.

This article examines the impact of financialization on the income shares of the top 1% from 1990 to 2010, through a panel analysis of 14 OECD countries. Drawing together literatures stressing the dependence of income inequality on the structural bargaining power of capital relative to labour, and of the dependence of accumulation on underlying institutionalized modes of state regulation, it shows that financialization has significantly enhanced top income shares net of underlying controls. Whilst the income shares of the top 1% appear responsive to variables typical of wider studies of personal income inequality, we emphasize distinctive mechanisms of top income growth linked to the rising dominance of financial instruments and actors, facilitated by a historically specific regulatory order. These conditions were key to the emergence of a state of ‘asymmetric bargaining’ which disproportionately enhanced the fortunes of the wealthy. Results thus emphasize the importance of class-biased power resources and underlying regulatory structures, as determinants both of income concentration and of the distribution of economic rewards beyond growth capacity alone.

Explanations for the causes of famine and food insecurity often reside at a high level of aggregation or abstraction. Popular models within famine studies have often emphasised the role of prime movers such as population stress, or the political-economic structure of access channels, as key determinants of food security. Explanation typically resides at the macro level, obscuring the presence of substantial within- country differences in the manner in which such stressors operate. This study offers an alternative approach to analyse the uneven nature of food security, drawing on the Great Irish famine of 1845–1852. Ireland is often viewed as a classical case of Malthusian stress, whereby population outstripped food supply under a pre-famine demographic regime of expanded fertility. Many have also pointed to Ireland’s integration with capitalist markets through its colonial relationship with the British state, and country-wide system of landlordism, as key determinants of local agricultural activity. Such models are misguided, ignoring both substantial complexities in regional demography, and the continuity of non- capitalistic, communal modes of land management long into the nineteenth century. Drawing on resilience ecology and complexity theory, this paper subjects a set of aggregate data on pre-famine Ireland to an optimisation clustering procedure, in order to discern the potential presence of distinctive social–ecological regimes. Based on measures of demography, social structure, geography, and land tenure, this typology reveals substantial internal variation in regional social–ecological structure, and vastly differing levels of distress during the peak famine months. This exercise calls into question the validity of accounts which emphasise uniformity of structure, by revealing a variety of regional regimes, which profoundly mediated local conditions of food security. Future research should therefore consider the potential presence of internal variations in r

Explanations for the causes of famine and food insecurity often reside at a high level of aggregation or abstraction. Popular models within famine studies have often emphasised the role of prime movers such as population stress, or the political-economic structure of access channels, as key determinants of food security. Explanation typically resides at the macro level, obscuring the presence of substantial within- country differences in the manner in which such stressors operate. This study offers an alternative approach to analyse the uneven nature of food security, drawing on the Great Irish famine of 1845–1852. Ireland is often viewed as a classical case of Malthusian stress, whereby population outstripped food supply under a pre-famine demographic regime of expanded fertility. Many have also pointed to Ireland’s integration with capitalist markets through its colonial relationship with the British state, and country-wide system of landlordism, as key determinants of local agricultural activity. Such models are misguided, ignoring both substantial complexities in regional demography, and the continuity of non- capitalistic, communal modes of land management long into the nineteenth century. Drawing on resilience ecology and complexity theory, this paper subjects a set of aggregate data on pre-famine Ireland to an optimisation clustering procedure, in order to discern the potential presence of distinctive social–ecological regimes. Based on measures of demography, social structure, geography, and land tenure, this typology reveals substantial internal variation in regional social–ecological structure, and vastly differing levels of distress during the peak famine months. This exercise calls into question the validity of accounts which emphasise uniformity of structure, by revealing a variety of regional regimes, which profoundly mediated local conditions of food security. Future research should therefore consider the potential presence of internal variations in r

This commentary examines two principal forms of inequality and their evolution since the 1960s: the division of national income between capital and labour, and the share of total income held by the top 1 per cent of earners. Trends are linked to current discussions of inequality drivers such as financialisation, and a brief time-series analysis of the effects of trade and financial sector growth on top incomes is presented.

This commentary examines two principal forms of inequality and their evolution since the 1960s: the division of national income between capital and labour, and the share of total income held by the top 1 per cent of earners. Trends are linked to current discussions of inequality drivers such as financialisation, and a brief time-series analysis of the effects of trade and financial sector growth on top incomes is presented.

Drawing upon recent reworkings of world systems theory and Marx’s concept of metabolic rift, this paper attempts to ground early nineteenth-century Ireland more clearly within these metanarratives, which take the historical-ecological dynamics of the development of capitalism as their point of departure. In order to unravel the socio-spatial complexities of Irish agricultural production throughout this time, attention must be given to the prevalence of customary legal tenure, institutions of communal governance, and their interaction with the colonial apparatus, as an essential feature of Ireland’s historical geography often neglected by famine scholars. This spatially differentiated legacy of communality, embedded within a countrywide system of colonial rent, and burgeoning capitalist system of global trade, gave rise to profound regional differentiations and ecological contradictions, which became central to the distribution of distress during the Great Famine (1845-1852). Contrary to accounts which depict it as a case of discrete transition from feudalism to capitalism, Ireland’s pre-famine ecology must be understood through an analysis which emphasises these socio-spatial complexities. Consequently, this structure must be conceptualised as one in which communality, colonialism, and capitalism interact dynamically, and in varying stages of development and devolution, according to space and time.

There can be few questions more fundamental to political economy than the share of national income that goes to capital and labour. The central organising concept of a division of factor shares between capital, labour and rent has long featured as an axiom of classical political economy in its derivations of essential heuristics of productive activity. Cross-national studies of income inequality, and of domestic labour market and macro-structural change have failed to adaquately account for the variable distribution of national product between labour and capital however, as an essential intermediary between personal income, and national economic activity. Labour’s share of income has declined almost universally among advanced capitalist economies under the apparent combined influences of globalisation, sectoral shifts in national employment, and the entrenchment of neoliberal policy regimes. Existing research into factor share distributions has failed to capture crucial differences in variability between countries however, differences which challenge existing stylised narratives emphasising stable compensation rates, which call for a case-sensitive orientation to the manner in which heterogeneous configurations of state and labour market institutions mediate the distribution of returns to labour and capital. This paper presents a contextualised, case-centered approach to the comparative analysis of the dynamics of labours’ share of national income, based on parallel time series analyses of institutional and structural covariates in Ireland and Denmark – cases examplary of the influential ‘varieties of capitalism’ and ‘worlds of welfare capitalism’ heuristics. The results of a set of time series models show that the institutional configurations defined by the interaction of national economic composition, levels of unionisation, globalisation, labour market change and financialisation, construct evolving national contexts of institutional complementarity and conflict

The rundale system has held a certain fascination for Irish historians due to its troublesome prevalence in the cartographic record and comparative absence from historical record. As a system of communal cultivation characterised by equality of land allocation through collective governance, popular conflicting accounts have interpreted it both as a functional adaptation to the ‘ecological niche’ of the Irish Western Seaboard or, controversially, as a modern survival of an archaic, embryonic mode of production of great antiquity. Beyond such empirical concerns with its origins and spatial distribution, the rundale system raises theoretical concerns of some antiquity (such as those concerning the place of communal modes of production as precursors to the development of capitalism within Marxist historical-materialism), and other issues permeating foundational debates of sociology, concerning the relationship between the natural and the social, and systems-based conceptualisations of societies and social order. These latter theoretical concerns have recently enjoyed a resurgence of interest under the interdisciplinary rubrics of resilience ecology and complexity theory, offering a means with which to discard old dualisms of nature-society, and the restrictions of normative stability assumptions and structuralism imposed by earlier variants of post-war sociological systems theory. The rundale system is here explored in the context of these informants both as an exercise in theoretical compatibility, and with a view toward establishing a more rounded perspective on rundale as a distinct social-ecological system. A macro-context for this subsequent investigation is thus established by subjecting a set of aggregate data on prefamine Ireland to an optimisation clustering procedure, in order to discern the potential presence of distinctive social-ecological regimes. This resultant typology provides a contextual framework for subsequent quantitative and qualitative work at lo

Drawing upon recent reworkings of world systems theory and Marx’s concept of metabolic rift, this paper attempts to ground early nineteenth-century Ireland more clearly within these metanarratives, which take the historical-ecological dynamics of the development of capitalism as their point of departure. In order to unravel the socio-spatial complexities of Irish agricultural production throughout this time, attention must be given to the prevalence of customary legal tenure, institutions of communal governance, and their interaction with the colonial apparatus, as an essential feature of Ireland’s historical geography often neglected by famine scholars. This spatially differentiated legacy of communality, embedded within a countrywide system of colonial rent, and burgeoning capitalist system of global trade, gave rise to profound regional differentiations and ecological contradictions, which became central to the distribution of distress during the Great Famine (1845-1852). Contrary to accounts which depict it as a case of discrete transition from feudalism to capitalism, Ireland’s pre-famine ecology must be understood through an analysis which emphasises these socio-spatial complexities. Consequently, this structure must be conceptualised as one in which communality, colonialism, and capitalism interact dynamically, and in varying stages of development and devolution, according to space and time.

There can be few questions more fundamental to political economy than the share of national income that goes to capital and labour. The central organising concept of a division of factor shares between capital, labour and rent has long featured as an axiom of classical political economy in its derivations of essential heuristics of productive activity. Cross-national studies of income inequality, and of domestic labour market and macro-structural change have failed to adaquately account for the variable distribution of national product between labour and capital however, as an essential intermediary between personal income, and national economic activity. Labour’s share of income has declined almost universally among advanced capitalist economies under the apparent combined influences of globalisation, sectoral shifts in national employment, and the entrenchment of neoliberal policy regimes. Existing research into factor share distributions has failed to capture crucial differences in variability between countries however, differences which challenge existing stylised narratives emphasising stable compensation rates, which call for a case-sensitive orientation to the manner in which heterogeneous configurations of state and labour market institutions mediate the distribution of returns to labour and capital. This paper presents a contextualised, case-centered approach to the comparative analysis of the dynamics of labours’ share of national income, based on parallel time series analyses of institutional and structural covariates in Ireland and Denmark – cases examplary of the influential ‘varieties of capitalism’ and ‘worlds of welfare capitalism’ heuristics. The results of a set of time series models show that the institutional configurations defined by the interaction of national economic composition, levels of unionisation, globalisation, labour market change and financialisation, construct evolving national contexts of institutional complementarity and conflict

The rundale system has held a certain fascination for Irish historians due to its troublesome prevalence in the cartographic record and comparative absence from historical record. As a system of communal cultivation characterised by equality of land allocation through collective governance, popular conflicting accounts have interpreted it both as a functional adaptation to the ‘ecological niche’ of the Irish Western Seaboard or, controversially, as a modern survival of an archaic, embryonic mode of production of great antiquity. Beyond such empirical concerns with its origins and spatial distribution, the rundale system raises theoretical concerns of some antiquity (such as those concerning the place of communal modes of production as precursors to the development of capitalism within Marxist historical-materialism), and other issues permeating foundational debates of sociology, concerning the relationship between the natural and the social, and systems-based conceptualisations of societies and social order. These latter theoretical concerns have recently enjoyed a resurgence of interest under the interdisciplinary rubrics of resilience ecology and complexity theory, offering a means with which to discard old dualisms of nature-society, and the restrictions of normative stability assumptions and structuralism imposed by earlier variants of post-war sociological systems theory. The rundale system is here explored in the context of these informants both as an exercise in theoretical compatibility, and with a view toward establishing a more rounded perspective on rundale as a distinct social-ecological system. A macro-context for this subsequent investigation is thus established by subjecting a set of aggregate data on prefamine Ireland to an optimisation clustering procedure, in order to discern the potential presence of distinctive social-ecological regimes. This resultant typology provides a contextual framework for subsequent quantitative and qualitative work at lo

The field of environmental sociology has undergone drastic change in recent decades, in context of a broader reconfiguration of the terrain of sociological theory and practice. Systems-based approaches to the study of human society, located at the interface between the natural and social sciences have since yielded to a fragmentary body of theory and practice. Subsequent developments such as the emergence of actor network theory, linguistic constructivism and epistemic relativism, have sought not only to question the status of scientific discourse as immutable authority, but also the legitimacies of positivism and macro-theoretical modeling as tenable research programs. This thesis suggests that much of this critique is misdirected, informed as it is by false dichotomies of theory and method which empahsise the separatism of the social, and the difficulty of normative analysis. Over the past twenty years, sociologists have begun to re-engage with systemic theory, albeit with a plethora of new anti-reductionist informants rooted in epistemologies of emergentism, complexity and critical realism. Parallel developments in Marxian ecological thought and human ecology offer further conceptual complementarities and points of dialogue, with which to develop new methodologies for the study of human collectives as ‗social-ecological systems‘. The objectives of this work are thus twofold; (1) to advance an alternative basis for theory and practice in environmental sociology, drawing upon the informants of complexity theory, resilience-based human ecology, and Marx‘s concepts of mode of production and metabolic rift; (2) to contribute to this largely theoretical body of knowledge, by operationalising the preceding informants within a specific case study; that of communal farming, or the 'rundale system‘, in nineteenth century Ireland. The ecological dynamics of the rundale system are thus explored through the imposition of a range of quantitative, archival and comparative metho

The field of environmental sociology has undergone drastic change in recent decades, in context of a broader reconfiguration of the terrain of sociological theory and practice. Systems-based approaches to the study of human society, located at the interface between the natural and social sciences have since yielded to a fragmentary body of theory and practice. Subsequent developments such as the emergence of actor network theory, linguistic constructivism and epistemic relativism, have sought not only to question the status of scientific discourse as immutable authority, but also the legitimacies of positivism and macro-theoretical modeling as tenable research programs. This thesis suggests that much of this critique is misdirected, informed as it is by false dichotomies of theory and method which empahsise the separatism of the social, and the difficulty of normative analysis. Over the past twenty years, sociologists have begun to re-engage with systemic theory, albeit with a plethora of new anti-reductionist informants rooted in epistemologies of emergentism, complexity and critical realism. Parallel developments in Marxian ecological thought and human ecology offer further conceptual complementarities and points of dialogue, with which to develop new methodologies for the study of human collectives as ‗social-ecological systems‘. The objectives of this work are thus twofold; (1) to advance an alternative basis for theory and practice in environmental sociology, drawing upon the informants of complexity theory, resilience-based human ecology, and Marx‘s concepts of mode of production and metabolic rift; (2) to contribute to this largely theoretical body of knowledge, by operationalising the preceding informants within a specific case study; that of communal farming, or the 'rundale system‘, in nineteenth century Ireland. The ecological dynamics of the rundale system are thus explored through the imposition of a range of quantitative, archival and comparative metho

In the following account we apply a Marxist 'mode of production' framework that attempts to create a better understanding of the complex relationships between society and nature. Most of the discussion of the dualism of nature/ society has tended to replicate this divide as reflected in the intellectual division between the natural sciences and the social sciences. We hope to cross this analytic divide and provide an analysis that incorporates both natural and social variables.

In the following account we apply a Marxist 'mode of production' framework that attempts to create a better understanding of the complex relationships between society and nature. Most of the discussion of the dualism of nature/ society has tended to replicate this divide as reflected in the intellectual division between the natural sciences and the social sciences. We hope to cross this analytic divide and provide an analysis that incorporates both natural and social variables.

In the following account we apply a Marxist ‘mode of production’ framework that attempts to create a better understanding of the complex relationships between society and nature. Most of the discussion of the dualism of nature/society has tended to replicate this divide as reflected in the intellectual division between the natural sciences and the social sciences. We hope to cross this analytic divide and provide an analysis that incorporates both natural and social variables. Marx’s work on ecology and ‘mode of production’ provides us with the theoretical framework for our examination into the essential structures of the Irish rundale agrarian commune. His analysis of modes of production includes not only social relations (people to people) but also relations of material appropriation (people to nature) and therefore allows us to combine the social forces of production with the natural forces of production. The latter relations are conceptualized by Marx as mediated through the process of metabolism, which refers to the material and social exchange between human beings and nature and vice-a-versa. However, what is crucial to Marx is how the natural process of metabolism is embedded in its social form – its particular mode of production. Marx suggested that this unity of the social and the natural was to be located within the labour process of the particular mode of production and he expressed this crucial idea in the concept of socio-ecological metabolism. Some modes of production such as capitalism create a rift in the process of metabolism. The metabolic rift is a disruption of the soil nutrient cycle as nutrients are removed from the soil when they pass into the crops and animals and are not returned. Declining soil fertility therefore becomes a social/economic problem for society

In the following account we apply a Marxist ‘mode of production’ framework that attempts to create a better understanding of the complex relationships between society and nature. Most of the discussion of the dualism of nature/society has tended to replicate this divide as reflected in the intellectual division between the natural sciences and the social sciences. We hope to cross this analytic divide and provide an analysis that incorporates both natural and social variables. Marx’s work on ecology and ‘mode of production’ provides us with the theoretical framework for our examination into the essential structures of the Irish rundale agrarian commune. His analysis of modes of production includes not only social relations (people to people) but also relations of material appropriation (people to nature) and therefore allows us to combine the social forces of production with the natural forces of production. The latter relations are conceptualized by Marx as mediated through the process of metabolism, which refers to the material and social exchange between human beings and nature and vice-a-versa. However, what is crucial to Marx is how the natural process of metabolism is embedded in its social form – its particular mode of production. Marx suggested that this unity of the social and the natural was to be located within the labour process of the particular mode of production and he expressed this crucial idea in the concept of socio-ecological metabolism. Some modes of production such as capitalism create a rift in the process of metabolism. The metabolic rift is a disruption of the soil nutrient cycle as nutrients are removed from the soil when they pass into the crops and animals and are not returned. Declining soil fertility therefore becomes a social/economic problem for society

In May, Irish voters backed a proposal to amend a constitutional provision which placed a ban on abortion in most cases. But what impact is the referendum result likely to have on the Irish abortion rate in the coming years? Eoin Flaherty explains that the circumstances which drive marriage, divorce, and abortion rates are complex and are not susceptible to short-term changes in social policy. As such, it is too simplistic to assume that a change in the law will necessarily result in a direct increase in the number of abortions being carried out.