This paper critically examines oral hearings conducted by the Irish state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on proposed industrial developments in Clare and Limerick. Data comes from participant observation at two hearings, and documentary analysis of submissions. The hypothesis that the oral hearing can be formulated as an example of ‘reflexive modernization’ (as in Beck) is tested against the standard of ideal speech preferred by Habermas. The evidence suggests that the institution of the EPA Public Hearing is best understood as an instance of systematically distorted communication.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenR.JonesT., 1990. Guests of the Nation: People of Ireland versus the multinationals. London: Earthscan.
HabermasJ.1972. Communication and the Evolution of Society. Boston: Beacon Press.
14.
HabermasJ.1987. Theory of Communicative Action, vol. II. Boston: Beacon Press.
15.
HabermasJ.1990. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
16.
HallS.1998. ‘Nowhere Man’, The Sunday Times, October 18th, p. 4.
17.
HardingS.1984. The Science Question in Feminism. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
18.
HardingS., 1991. Whose Science, Whose Knowledge?Milton Keynes: Open Univiersity Press.
19.
LashS.1994. ‘Expert systems or situated interpretation? culture and institutions in disorganised capitalism’ in BeckU.GiddensA.LashS., Reflexive Modernization. Cambridge: Polity.
20.
O'CallaghanJ.1992. The Red Book: The Hanrahan case against Merck Sharpe and Dohme. Dublin: Poolbeg.
21.
OffeC.1984. ‘Ungovernability: On the renaissance of conservative theories of crisis’ in HabermasJ. (Ed.) Observations on the Spiritual Situation of the Age. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
22.
PostmanN.1992. ‘Scientism’ in Technopoly. Toronto: Knopf.
23.
WeberM.1976. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Macmillan.
24.
WeberM.1919. ‘Politics as a Vocation’ in RuncimanW. (ed.) Weber: Selections in translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
