This paper examines the processes whereby post-Fordist economic restructuring is widely held to have led to growing social polarisation in the advanced capitalist economies. Conceptual fuzziness has clouded the polarisation hypothesis, and a review of international evidence shows no clear trend towards either occupational or earnings inequality. There is stronger evidence of growing household income inequality, due mainly to changes in household composition and national taxation and social welfare policies. In the case of the Republic of Ireland, there has been a more definite tendency towards occupational, earnings and household income polarisation in the 1990s, giving rise to important policy implications at a time of unprecedented national prosperity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ACIRRT [Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training]1999Australia at Work. Sydney: Prentice-Hall.
2.
AlbrechtsL.SwyngedouwE.1989‘The challenges for regional policy under a flexible regime of accumulation,’ pp. 67–89 in AlbrechtsL.MoulaertF.RobertsP.P.SwyngedouwE. (eds), Regional Policy at the Crossroads: European Perspectives. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
3.
AtkinsonJ.1985‘The changing corporation,’ pp. 17–34 in ClutterbuckD. (ed.), New Patterns of Work. Aldershot: Gower.
4.
BadcockB.1997‘Restructuring and social polarisation in cities’, Progress in Human Geography21, 2: 251–62.
5.
BarrettA.CallanT.NolanB.1997The Earnings Distribution and Returns to Education in Ireland, 1987–1994. Dublin: Economic & Social Research Institute Working Paper No. 85.
6.
BarrettAFitzgeraldJ.NolanB.2000‘Earnings inequality, returns to education and low pay’, pp. 127–46 in NolanB.O'ConnellP. J.WhelanC. T. (eds), Bust to Boom? The Irish Experience of Growth and Inequality. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.
7.
BelchamberG.1996‘Disappearing middle or vanishing bottom? A comment on Gregory’, The Economic Record72, No. 218: 287–93.
8.
BreathnachP.1998‘Exploring the “Celtic Tiger” phenomenon: Causes and consequences of Ireland's economic miracle’, European Urban & Regional Studies4, 4: 305–16.
9.
CallanT.NolanB.1999‘Income inequality in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s’, pp. 167–92 in BarryF. (ed.), Understanding Ireland's Economic Growth. London: Macmillan.
10.
CastellsM.1996The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
11.
CastellsM.1998The End of Millennium. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
12.
Central Statistics Office1998. Census 96 Volume 7 (Occupations). Dublin: The Stationery Office.
13.
CohenD.1998The Wealth of the World and the Poverty of Nations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
14.
DunfordM.1994‘Winners and losers: The new map of economic inequality in the European Union’, European Urban & Regional Studies1, 2: 95–114.
15.
FreemanR. B.KatzL. F., 1994‘Rising wage inequality: The United States vs. other advanced countries’, pp. 29–62 in FreemanR.B. (ed.), Working under Different Rules. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
16.
FriedmannJ.1986‘The world city hypothesis’, Development and Change17, 1: 69–83.
17.
GallieD.1996‘Skill, gender and the quality of employment’, pp. 133–59 in CromptonR.GallieD.PurcellK. (eds.), Changing Forms of Employment: Organisations, Skills and Gender. London: Routledge.
18.
GreenbaumJ.1995Windows on the Workplace: Computers, Jobs and the Organisation of Work in the Late Twentieth Century. New York, Monthly Review Press.
19.
GregsonN.LoweM.1994Servicing the Middle Classes: Class, Gender and Waged Domestic Labour in Contemporary Britain. London: Routledge.
20.
HamnettC.1994‘Social Polarisation in global cities: Theory and evidence’, Urban Studies31, 3: pp. 401–24.
21.
HamnettC.1998‘Social polarization and inequality in Europe’, pp. 32–40 in GravesteijnS. G. E.van GriensvenS.de SmidtM.C. (eds), Timing Global Cities. Utrecht: Netherlands Geographical Studies.
22.
HarrisonB.1997Lean and Mean: Why Large Corporations Will Continue to Dominate the Global Economy. New York: The Guilford Press.
23.
HarveyD.1989The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
24.
van KempenE. T.1994‘The dual city and the poor: Social polarisationn, social equity and life chances’, Urban Studies31, 7: 995–1015.
25.
KnoxP.AgnewJ.1994The geography of the world economy. London: Edward Arnold.
26.
LayteR.MaîtreB.NolanB.WatsonD.WhelanC. T.WilliamsJCaseyB.2001Monitoring Poverty Trends and Exploring Poverty Dynamics in Ireland. Dublin: Economic & Social Research Institute Policy Research Series No. 41.
27.
McDowellL. M.1997‘Re-examining economic and social polarisation’, Area29, 2: 172–3.
28.
McGuireP.1993‘Changes in earnings dispersion in Australia 1975–1992’. Paper presented to the 1993 Conference of Economists, Perth, September.
29.
MaleckiE.1997Technology and Economic Development. Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.
30.
MarshallJ. N.HopkinsW. J.RichardsonR.1997‘The civil service and the regions: Geographical perspectives on civil service restructuring’, Regional Studies31, 6: 607–13.
31.
MeeganR.1988‘A crisis of mass production?’, pp. 136–83 in AllenJ.MasseyD. (eds.), The Economy in Question. London: Sage Publications.
32.
MorrisJ. L.1988‘New technologies, flexible work practices, and regional sociospatial differentiation: Some observations from the United Kingdom’, Environment & Planning D: Society and Space6: 301–19.
33.
MurphyP.WatsonS.1994‘Social polarisation and Australian cities’, International Journal of Urban & Regional Research18, 4: 573–90.
34.
NickellS.BellB., 1995‘The collapse in demand for the unskilled and unemployment across the OECD’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy11, 1: 40–61.
35.
NolanB.MaîtreA.2000‘Income inequality’ pp. 147–62 in NolanB.O'ConnellP. J.WhelanC. T. (eds), 2000Bust to Boom? The Irish Experience of Growth and Inequality. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.
36.
O'ConnellP.J.2000‘The dynamics of the Irish labour market in comparative perspective’, pp. 58–89 in NolanB.O'ConnellP. J.WhelanC. T. (eds), 2000. Bust to Boom? The Irish Experience of Growth and Inequality. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.
37.
O'HearnD.2000‘Globalisation, “new tigers” and the end of the developmental state? The case of the Celtic Tiger’, Politics and Society28, 1: 67–92.
38.
O'ReardonC.2001‘Inequality in the new Irish economy’, pp. 111–49 in CantillonS.CorriganC.KirbyP.O'FlynnJ. (eds), Rich and Poor: Perspectives on Tackling Inequality in Ireland. Dublin: Oak Tree Press in association with the Combat Poverty Agency.
39.
PahlR. E.1988‘Some remarks on informal work, social polarisation and the social structure’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research12, 2: 247–67.
40.
SassenS.1991The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
41.
SassenS.1994Cities in a World Economy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
42.
SilverH.1993‘National conceptions of the new urban poverty: Social structural change in Britain, France and the United States’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research17, 3: 335–54.
43.
WilliamsC.C.WindebankJ., 1995‘Social polarization of households in contemporary Britain: A “whole economy” perspective’, Regional Studies29, 8: 723–8.
44.
YatesM.1996‘Nice work if you can get it’, Monthly Review48, 7: 51–6.
