Collision Culture

Book excerpt: The central premise of Collision Culture is that Ireland's experience of economic boom has resulted in the collision of incompatible ways of life. These cultural collisions in Irish life today occur between the local and global, between traditional and modern, between Catholic and secular, and between rural and urban. They have become apparent in a variety of changes - changes in patterns of rates of suicide, in patterns of consumption, in representations of Irish celebrities, in patterns of home ownership, in the rise of tribunals, and in a variety of other points of public discourse and Irish culture. The authors argue that the above categories clearly are not starkly divided, but rather are analytic reference points that are useful in trying to understand the conflicts behind various social problems in Ireland. By investigating cultures of everyday life - driving, housing, music, religion, consumerism, fashion, and sexuality, among others - the book shows how recent social transformations are manifest at the everyday level.