The Sustainable Development Research Cluster

Overview

Sustainable Development is a central aspiration for the 21st century and incorporates issues of governance, democracy and citizenship, and political participation. The study of governance processes and socio-economic and cultural levers for Sustainable Development is a major research focus within the School of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Galway.

The conceptual orientations of this research group centre on the meanings and measurement of political, social, and cultural dimensions of sustainability. Questions of (in)equality and (in)justice are central to the sustainability agenda, and their social-scientific investigation is a focal point of this core research area. Political Scientists and Sociologists in this group engage in interdisciplinary, collaborative research that connects theoretical and empirical concerns through problem- and evidence-based approaches. Researchers within this group are currently contributing to national and international research projects and networks and have extensive experience in research planning and management, as well as fourth-level supervision.

Contact

For further information on current and future research activities of this group, key publications and fourth-level research opportunities, please contact the convenor:

Dr Mike Hynes,
Room 323, 2nd Floor
Áras Moyola Building, Central Campus
University of Galway
Phone: +353 (0)91 495104
Email: mike.hynes@universityofgalway.ie

Cluster Themes

The Sustainable Development Research Cluster offers expertise and supervisory capacity in the following areas:

• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
• Environmental Policy
• Environmentalism
• Liveability, Urban Design & Planning, & Quality of Life
• Mobilities & Sustainable Transportation
• Rural Development and Regeneration
• Participatory Democracy
• Natural Resources Management and Biodiversity
• Renewable Energies.

Future Directions

Recent changes in research funding and graduate training have moved the organisation of research activities towards greater interdisciplinary collaboration. The School’s strengths in the thematic area of Governance and Sustainable Development is further enhanced through more active collaboration with research partners in Ireland and abroad. Existing connections with environmental research institutes and Political Science and Sociology departments involved in governance and sustainability research will be strengthened to take advantage of national and international funding opportunities.

The thematic grouping and clearly defined research specialisation are conducive to preparing large-scale funding applications (e.g. EPA, EU Framework Plans, etc.) and will attract interest from international students who wish to conduct PhD research at the University of Galway. Future research across this thematic grouping will make a significant contribution to the production and dissemination of social scientific knowledge on political, social and cultural dimensions of Sustainable Development and contribute to the critical debate on sustainability.

Cluster Projects

Research Experience and Learning (REaL)

The Research Experience and Learning (REaL) Scheme was designed and developed to afford undergraduate students practical and real-world experience in social science research design and methods. Real learning in this domain is grounded in research and research-like activities so much of what the student learns will be through their own discoveries, working in collaboration with academic advisers and other students in a supportive research-rich environment. Adopting a conceptual change, a student-centred approach is more likely to lead to high-quality student learning and greater satisfaction than the adoption of information transmission, a teacher-focused approach. In meeting the contemporary challenges of teaching in Higher Education, a key motivating factor for many should be that of encouraging greater student engagement in and responsibility for their own learning.

The Fishers’ Knowledge Project

€329,000 Euro project (2008 to 2011). This project is centred on an interview-based approach to uncovering Fishers' Knowledge, which it is argued can be of vital use for environmental management and in a manner consistent with sustainable fishing practices. The project is mainly focused on methodological issues inherent in the question of Fisher's knowledge and to date two case studies have been identified; The Aran Prawn fishery and the Celtic Sea Cod fishery.

Consumption, Environment and Sustainability (ConsEnSus)

This collaborative research project involving Trinity College Dublin (Lead organisation) and the National University of Ireland, Galway, examines four key areas of household consumption that currently impact negatively on the environment and inhibit our ability, both in Northern Ireland and the Republic, to achieve sustainable development: transport, energy, water and food. A set of 7 integrated work packages address four key themes: how consumption can be measured and evaluated; how sustainable behaviours and incentives are being developed and implemented; identifying links between consumption, health and wellbeing; and finally how matters of household consumption are being governed through institutional practice and participation. Duration: 4 years (2009-2012), large scale (> €1m; Political Science and Sociology (NUIG) partner budget: €208,000).

Cluster Members

Mike Hynes
Lecturer and Cluster Leader

The socio-cultural and environmental consequences of increased physical mobility, alternative modes of transport (including virtual mobility tools) and sustainable and active transport in urban and rural areas. Other research and teaching interests include sustainability, social sciences research methods, liveability, urban design & planning, and digitalisation, digital technology design, adoption, and diffusion.

Brendan Flynn
Senior Lecturer

Environmental policy, with a focus on EU and Irish developments; Interactions between agriculture, fisheries and environmental policies. Brendan retains an interest in wider EU policy and European politics developments and is the author of The Blame Game: Rethinking Ireland’s Sustainable Development and Environmental Performance (2007, Dublin: Irish Academic Press).

Hanna-Kaisa Hoppania
Lecturer

Research interests include the politics of care, democracy and policy processes, and epistemology, with current research focusing on participatory community engagement, multisolving and sustainability policy, and lobbying and corruption. Hanna-Kaisa has previously held positions as a university lecturer at Tampere University, a researcher at the Age Institute (Helsinki), and as an adjunct teacher and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki.

Kevin Leyden
Personal Professor

Kevin served as Co-Director of the Creative, Liveable and Sustainable Communities Cluster of the Whitaker Institute. He was previously the Director of West Virginia University’s Institute for Public Affairs and an Honorary Research Professor of Social Science & Public Policy at the Whitaker Institute. He served as a partner with the World Health Organisation’s Large Analysis and Review of European Housing and Health Status (LARES), and as a Research Fellow with the Global Metropolitan Forum, which examined the quality of life in ten major international metropolises. In addition, he was a member of the core team (Phase 1) of Galway’s bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2020, which was successfully awarded in July 2016.

Su-ming Khoo
Personal Professor

Contested meanings of development and globalisation; development alternatives from the perspectives of sustainability, rights and citizenship; the right to development and right to health; global citizenship, public advocacy and public goods; development education and the globalisation (s) of higher education.  Su-ming regularly provides development education, human rights and sustainability education to NGOs, student groups and the general public; as well as contributing to research programmes in other universities and in other disciplines across the University of Galway.

Brian McGrath
Lecturer

Cultural traditions and development; Migration; Rural Society and Change; Children/Young people and Social Support; Intergenerational Relationships; and Community Governance. Brian's work revolves around generating stronger understanding and research evidence in areas such as social support, policy interventions, civic engagement and educational inclusion.  My research has been published in international high-ranking journals, including the Journal of Youth Studies, the Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis, Community Development Journal, Child & Family Social Work and the Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology.

Alexander Stingl
Senior Lecturer

Current expertise at the University of Galway as a sociologist, political ecologist, and empirical philosopher extends to Digital Culture, Bioeconomy and Ecological Sustainability, Biotechnology (re: new biomaterials), Transnational Law and Green Development Finance, Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education and in the Practice of Law, and Sociological Theory (past and present). His past research includes the history of the social sciences (focus on early US-American sociology and on the legacy of Enlightenment in Critical Theory), sociology of attention disorder and cognitive development, the digital divide, the sociology of the doctor-patient relationship and medical imaging, the sociology of fascism, and Immanuel Kant's conceptual legacy in biology, medicine, and media & communication theory.

Tony Varley
Adjunct Senior Lecturer

Tony's research interests lie in populism and local development in Ireland, the smallholder question in Ireland, the community movement, Muintir na Tire.