Maguire, Mark and Coen, Caitriona (2012) Death of a Tiger: The collapse of Irish property dreams. Anthropological Notebooks, 18 (1). pp. 5-22. ISSN 1408-032X

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Abstract

The spectre of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger stalks the landscape, and the social costs of the spectacular financial and property-market collapse continue to mount. This article discusses the results of twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out during 2010 and 2011 in a large-scale housing development in West Dublin. The research aims to understand the social and cultural consequences of the severe economic recession and collapse of the property market in the everyday lives of people who bought a “dream home”. The research is set in one of the showcase property developments during the period of the so-called Celtic Tiger. Today, residents try to live their lives and maintain a sense of home in a disjointed spatial and institutional world. This research draws together a number of scholarly currents, from the work of Jean and John Comaroff to the insights of Niklas Luhmann and Slavoj Žižek, in order to explore the economic collapse in Ireland both theoretically and empirically. This article gestures to some of the more quotidian and nuanced qualities of contemporary capitalism and governance.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	property market; dreams; Celtic Tiger; Ireland;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology
Item ID:	3635
Depositing User:	Mark Maguire
Date Deposited:	02 May 2012 15:09
Journal or Publication Title:	Anthropological Notebooks
Publisher:	Slovene Anthropological Society
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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