Meanings of Life in Contemporary Ireland Webs of Significance [Paperback]

The struggle to create and sustain meaning in our everyday lives is fought using cultural ingredients to spin the webs of meaning that keep us going. To help reveal the complexity and intricacy of the webs of meaning in which they are suspended, Tom Inglis interviewed one-hundred people in their native home of Ireland to discover what was most important and meaningful for them in their lives. Inglis believes language is a medium: there is never an exact correspondence between what is said and what is felt and understood. Using a variety of theoretical lenses developed within sociology and anthropology, Inglis places their lives within the context of Ireland's social and cultural transformations, and of longer-term processes of change such as increased globalisation, individualisation, and informalisation.1. Introduction 2. Theoretical 3. Place, Family and Identity 4. Money and Success 5. Politics 6. Sport 7. Religions 8. Love 9. ConclusionTom Inglis is Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin, Ireland. His books include Moral Monopoly: The Rise and Fall of the Catholic Church in Modern Ireland (1998), Lessons in Irish Sexuality (1998), Religion and Politics (2000), Truth, Power and Lies (2003), Global Ireland: Same Difference (2008), Making Love: A Memoir (2012), Love (2013) and Are the Irish Different? (2014).