Understanding Limerick - by Niamh Hourigan (Paperback)

About the Book

This edited collection features contributions from a range of leading Irish scholars in the fields of sociology, social policy, criminology and urban geography. Limerick city currently has the highest crime rate in Western Europe and contains the areas of most severe urban deprivation in the Republic of Ireland. The collection explores how this profound social exclusion emerged and critically assesses proposed solutionsincluding the Regeneration programsto this social disadvantage. The evaluation of social exclusion in Limerick also provides a key opportunity to link the Irish experience of social exclusion to European and American literatures on ghettoization and urban poverty.

Book Synopsis

This edited collection features contributions from a range of leading Irish scholars in the fields of sociology, social policy, criminology and urban geography. Limerick city currently has the highest crime rate in Western Europe and contains the areas of most severe urban deprivation in the Republic of Ireland. The collection explores how this profound social exclusion emerged and critically assesses proposed solutions--including the Regeneration programs--to this social disadvantage. The evaluation of social exclusion in Limerick also provides a key opportunity to link the Irish experience of social exclusion to European and American literatures on ghettoization and urban poverty.

Review Quotes

"This book vividly explains how our society, in denying respect to its most disadvantaged citizens, creates the conditions for gangsterism and criminality. It s inequality stupid! --Vincent Browne "The Irish Times ""

Feuds, drugs, poverty and neglect coexist in Limerick with loving families, intimate communities, sporting prowess and pride in place. To really know a city requires observation from several vantage points and the multiple perspectives provided in this book yield a rich understanding of what makes Limerick special. --Professor Ian O Donnell, Institute of Criminology"

This book is original, innovative, nuanced and important. It is a major contribution to our understanding of how social exclusion and inequality currently works within late-modern cities. It combines a remarkably powerful explanation of what has gone wrong in Limerick with strong evidence of how to move forward. --Professor Mairtin Mac an Ghaill"

"Essays by sociologists on other scholars on inequality and poverty-related crime in the Irish city of Limerick."