The voluntary sector has a long history of involvement in criminal justice by providing a variety of services to offenders and their families, victims and witnesses. This collection brings together leading experts to provide critical reflections and cutting edge research on the contemporary features of voluntary sector work in criminal justice. At a time when the voluntary sector's role is being transformed, this book examines the dynamic nature of the voluntary sector and its responses to current uncertainties, and some of the conflicting positions with regards to its present and future role in criminal justice work. It also examines the potential impact of economic, political and ideological trends on the role and remit of voluntary sector organisations which undertake criminal justice work.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the imprisonment of women for politically motivated offences in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1999. Women political prisoners were engaged in a campaign to obtain formal recognition as political prisoners, and then to retain this status after it was revoked. Their lengthy involvement in a prison conflict of international significance was notable as much because of its longevity as the radical aspects of their prison protests, which included hunger strikes, dirty-protests and campaigns against institutional abuses. Out of Order brings out the qualitatively distinctive character and punitive ethos of regimes of political imprisonment for women, exploring the dynamics of their internal organisation, the ways in which they subverted order and security in prison, and their strategies of resistance and exploitation. Drawing upon a wide range of first hand accounts and interviews this book brings together perspectives from the areas of political imprisonment, the penal punishment of women and the question of agency and resistance in prison to create a unique, highly readable study of a neglected subject.

This fresh collection of essays examines the continued significance of gender as a marker of inequality in the lives of women across diverse contexts in Irish society. It is a cliche to say that we live in a knowledge society, but exactly whose knowledge sets the economic, political, social, and cultural parameters in any given society? Contributors tackle this question by taking the reader on a gender knowledge journey through the contemporary workplace, the state and civil society and into the education and wider cultural domains. The essays demonstrate the persistence of power differentials, the resilience of gender stereotypes and the ongoing reproduction of specific kinds of gender exclusions. Ideas about gender (often outdated and ill conceived) continue to maintain existing power imbalances in tech work, finance, education, and media. Those ideas also frame public policy debates about sex work, homelessness, women's activism and reproductive rights. Finally, a gender knowledge perspective reveals the downstream impact of gender and others forms of difference and inequality in relation to the teaching profession, game culture, book reviewing and access to archival materials on historical abuse. Producing Knowledge, Reproducing Gender: power, production and practice in Ireland will appeal to those interested in gender studies, political sociology and the sociology of knowledge.

Since the mid-1990s Ireland has experienced an extraordinary phase of economic and social development. Housing estates have mushroomed around towns and cities, most notably around the environs of Dublin. Seeking to understand the impact of these recent developments, Corcoran, Gray, and Peillon initiated the New Urban Living study, a detailed research project focused on four suburbs of Dublin. ""Suburban Affiliations"" represents the culmination of that research, offering an invaluable contribution to the study of suburbanization and to our understanding of the process of social change that has come to Ireland. Challenging the mostly negative assessment that has been made of the suburban social fabric, the authors argue that residents of suburban estates are not disoffiliated; rather, they are connected with the place they live and with each other in many different ways. The book maps the nature, quality, and focus of these affiliations, analyzing the ways in which suburbs differ from one another. The authors consider whether the Irish suburbs exhibit indigenous or European qualities, or whether they are an extension of a globalizing American suburban frontier. Employing a case study approach, they provide rich insight into how those who live in the suburbs feel about their surroundings. At the same time, the book as a whole develops a universal narrative that coheres around the notion of suburban affiliations.