Doctoral Recital

List of performers and performances

Financial news journalism: a post-Enron analysis of approaches towards economic and financial news production in the UK

The collapse of Enron and other corporate scandals have raised concerns about the efficacy of financial journalism. Based on research on where reporters get their ideas for stories and how they approach their work, this article explores the particular circumstances in which production of financial and economic news takes place. The author argues that, while reporters are generally highly sceptical about ‘spin’ and strongly inclined towards highlighting instances of corporate underperformance and mismanagement, the circumstances and constraints they work within nonetheless make it unlikely that financial irregularities obscured within company accounts will be detected on a routine or consistent basis. Moreover, the way in which the commercial sector is organized (with in-depth analysis generally confined to specialist media whose audiences are already financially literate) means that the task of facilitating a sound public grasp over the significance of financial and economic news developments is largely being neglected

The politics of the transformation of policing

The politics of policing transformation in Northern Ireland, the nature and timing of the Agreements that created the the atmosphere for such transformation, and the difficulty in reaching them, are clear evidence that policing powers and structures are an integral part of the constitutional framework of contested societies and not a lower-order matter that can be more easily divided up as ‘spoils of peace’. Each step in the process of change, from the 1998 Agreement, to the debate on the International Commission’s Report (Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, A new beginning: policing in Northern Ireland. Report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, often referred to as the Patten Report)., to the various inter-party talks and agreements, linked discussion on policing to other issues in the peace process, such as governmental power-sharing, North–South cooperative institutions, demilitarisation by the British Army, arms decommissioning by the IRA and other equality issues such as language rights. Both nationalists and unionists strongly linked police reform to the wider peace process, and progress on policing would have been impossible without agreement on an open-ended constitutional framework that required neither political community to abandon their longer-term political goals. Nationalists did not and would not have abandoned their political campaign for a united Ireland in return for policing reform. Unionists would not have accepted the transformation of policing without a balanced constitutional and political agreement and without the IRA ending its armed campaign. Without a transformation of Northern Ireland itself there would have been no transformation of policing. The transformation was explicitly linked to the consociational power-sharing model at the heart of the new political structures in Northern Ireland, and the interlinked institutions between the Northern Ireland executive and the government of the Republic of Ireland

Jamesian Free Will, The Two-stage Model Of William James

Research into two-stage models of “free will” – first “free” random generation of alternative possibilities, followed by “willed” adequately determined decisions consistent with character, values, and desires – suggests that William James was in 1884 the first of a dozen philosophers and scientists to propose such a two-stage model for free will. We review the later work to establish James’s priority. By limiting chance to the generation of alternative possibilities, James was the first to overcome the standard two-part argument against free will, i.e., that the will is either determined or random. James gave it elements of both, to establish freedom but preserve responsibility. We show that James was influenced by Darwin’s model of natural selection, as were most recent thinkers with a two-stage model. In view of James’s famous decision to make his first act of freedom a choice to believe that his will is free, it is most fitting to celebrate James’s priority in the free will debates by naming the two-stage model – first chance, then choice -“Jamesian” free will

International and domestic pressures on Irish foreign policy: an analysis of the UN Security Council term 2001-2

Recent debate on Irish foreign policy has often been framed by the presumed influence of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy and the dependence of the Irish economy on Foreign Direct Investment from the US. More broadly, small states are generally assumed to have little significant influence on world events. Empirical research on these issues is difficult in the Irish context given the often guarded nature of Irish foreign policy pronouncements. Ireland’s term on the UN Security Council in 2001 and 2002 offers an opportunity both to examine Irish foreign policy decision-making at the highest international level and to look at the capacity of a small state to have influence. The results of this study suggest that contrary to common perceptions, Irish diplomats on the Council did regularly disagree with the US on foreign-policy decisions and that the influence of EU membership was very limited—primarily because there was often no common European policy on the most controversial issues. Ireland can, however, be seen to have influenced a number of key decisions made by the Council during its most recent term as an elected member

The Teacher, The Tasks: Their Role in Students' Mathematical Literacy

This paper reports on part of a larger study and examines the changing nature of mathematics teaching and tasks. Two Year 4 classes were compared after mathematicalmodelling tasks were undertaken with and without top-level structuring. The results indicate that mathematical-modelling and top-level structuring tasks can advance mathematical literacy. Where students are guided through information organisation and mathematising through quality teaching, they can make sense of the mathematical world. Also evident was the vital role of the teacher in creating a positive learning environment through facilitating discourse and literacy development in mathematics students. Recommendations for teaching are given. Indications evidenced here warrant further investigation

Governance and citizenship in contested states: the Northern Ireland peace agreement as internationalised governance

The Good Friday Agreement signed in Belfast in 1998, but still in a process of development, is one of a number of peace agreements emerging from apparently intractable conflicts, since the end of the cold war. This article focuses on a relatively unexamined aspect of the Agreement - the international relevance of its innovative provisions on equality of citizenship and internationalised governance. The Belfast Agreement both implicitly and explicitly deals with the problematic issue of citizenship in a state which is highly contested at the constitutional level. Its development of an equality agenda and dynamic cross-border institutions of governance in a situation where ultimate sovereignty and allegiance remains contested is a departure from current international norms. The peace process around the Agreement also reflects a significantly increased international involvement in the Northern Ireland conflict. External support and mediation was essential in brokering an Agreement and will inevitably be important in sustaining the new forms of citizenship which are promised in its provisions. Both in its processes and in the framework for citizenship and governance suggested by the Agreement, Northern Ireland can provide a useful example to the increasing number of nationalist conflicts in the post cold war world. ..

Ireland and the Nice Treaty. ZEI Discussion Paper: 2002, C 115

[Introduction.] The experience in Ireland of conducting two referenda on the Nice Treaty: Just for the record, let me remind you that the first referendum was held in June 2001, when the result was just under 54% against and just over 46% per cent in favour. The turnout was just under 35%, the second lowest in the history of referenda in Ireland and by far the lowest in referenda related to Europe. In the second referendum, held on October 19 last, there was a dramatic turn-around; 63% said "yes", 37% "no" and 51% of the electorate failed to vote. Those among you who possess agile mathematical minds will be able to work out pretty quickly that the "no" vote changed little between the two referenda; from just over 20% of the vote the first time to around 18% last month. The key to the positive result the second time around, therefore, was the higher turnout, even though half of the electorate stayed away from the polls. Put another way, many voters who are inclined to be well disposed towards the EU and who abstained last year actually turned out this time. You might well wonder why a country which has enjoyed such largesse from the EU’s coffers should appear to be so reluctant to vote in favour of further integration and enable our less-fortunate neighbours in central and eastern Europe to share in the same good fortune. Had the EU not, after all, been a major factor in the creation of the phenomenon which has come to be known as the Celtic Tiger economy