Flaherty, Eoin
(2014)
Assessing the distribution of social–ecological resilience and risk: Ireland as a case study of the uneven impact of famine.
Ecological Complexity, 19.
pp. 35-45.
ISSN 1476945X
Abstract
Explanations for the causes of famine and food insecurity often reside at a high level of aggregation or
abstraction. Popular models within famine studies have often emphasised the role of prime movers such
as population stress, or the political-economic structure of access channels, as key determinants of food
security. Explanation typically resides at the macro level, obscuring the presence of substantial within-
country differences in the manner in which such stressors operate. This study offers an alternative
approach to analyse the uneven nature of food security, drawing on the Great Irish famine of 1845–1852.
Ireland is often viewed as a classical case of Malthusian stress, whereby population outstripped food
supply under a pre-famine demographic regime of expanded fertility. Many have also pointed to
Ireland’s integration with capitalist markets through its colonial relationship with the British state, and
country-wide system of landlordism, as key determinants of local agricultural activity. Such models are
misguided, ignoring both substantial complexities in regional demography, and the continuity of non-
capitalistic, communal modes of land management long into the nineteenth century. Drawing on
resilience ecology and complexity theory, this paper subjects a set of aggregate data on pre-famine
Ireland to an optimisation clustering procedure, in order to discern the potential presence of distinctive
social–ecological regimes. Based on measures of demography, social structure, geography, and land
tenure, this typology reveals substantial internal variation in regional social–ecological structure, and
vastly differing levels of distress during the peak famine months. This exercise calls into question the
validity of accounts which emphasise uniformity of structure, by revealing a variety of regional regimes,
which profoundly mediated local conditions of food security. Future research should therefore consider
the potential presence of internal variations in resilience and risk exposure, rather than seeking to
characterise cases based on singular macro-dynamics and stressors alone.
Item Type: |
Article
|
Keywords: |
Resilience;
Cluster analysis;
Ireland;
Famine;
Entitlement;
Regime; |
Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
Item ID: |
17068 |
Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecocom.2014.04.002 |
Depositing User: |
Eoin Flaherty
|
Date Deposited: |
23 Mar 2023 14:50 |
Journal or Publication Title: |
Ecological Complexity |
Publisher: |
Elsevier |
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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