Flaherty, Eoin
(2016)
Rundale and 19th Century Irish Settlement:
System, Space and Genealogy.
Irish Geography, 48 (2).
pp. 3-38.
ISSN 0075-0778
Abstract
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.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
rundale; ecology; resilience; system; identity; demography;
commons; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
12881 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.2014/igj.v48i2.623 |
| Depositing User: |
Eoin Flaherty
|
| Date Deposited: |
14 May 2020 10:07 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Irish Geography |
| Publisher: |
Taylor & Francis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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