Kitchin, Rob and O'Callaghan, Cian and Boyle, Mark and Gleeson, Justin and Keaveney, Karen (2012) Placing neoliberalism: the rise and fall of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger. Environment and Planning A, 44 (6). pp. 1302-1326. ISSN 0308-518X

Download (763kB)

Abstract

In this paper we provide an account of the property-led boom and bust which has brought Ireland to the point of bankruptcy. Our account details the pivotal role which neoliberal policy played in guiding the course of the country’s recent history, but also heightens awareness of the how the Irish case might, in turn, instruct and illuminate mappings and explanations of neoliberalism’s concrete histories and geographies. To this end, we begin by scrutinising the terms and conditions under which the Irish state might usefully be regarded as neoliberal. Attention is then given to uncovering the causes of the Irish property bubble, the housing oversupply it created, and the proposed solution to this oversupply. In the conclusion we draw attention to the contributions which our case study might make to the wider literature of critical human geographies of neoliberalism, forwarding three concepts which emerge from the Irish story which may have wider resonance, and might constitute a useful fl eshing out of theoretical framings of concrete and particular neoliberalisms: path amplifi cation, neoliberalism’s topologies and topographies, and accumulation by repossession.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Environment and Planning A, volume 44, issue 6, pp.1302-1326, 2012, [doi:10.1068/a44349]
Keywords:	Ireland; financial crisis; Celtic Tiger; housing; National Assets Management Agency; ghost estates; neoliberalism; path amplification; accumulation by repossession; neoliberal topographies;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > National Institute for Regional and Spatial analysis, NIRSA
Item ID:	3809
Depositing User:	Prof. Rob Kitchin
Date Deposited:	07 Aug 2012 14:47
Journal or Publication Title:	Environment and Planning A
Publisher:	Pion
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://www.envplan.com/A.html
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

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads