Abstract
Traditionally reliant on maritime and agricultural forms of labour, small coastal communities in rural Ireland have experienced major socioeconomic and cultural transitions. These shifts include the devaluation of traditional knowledge forms, transitioning towards local post-industrial service sectors and an increasingly educated and high-tech society linked to urbanisation trends. Despite such patterns, these contemporary sites are, however, becoming simultaneously more dynamic, as youth are required to (re)negotiate existing informal local knowledge practices with the increasing demands of modernity. We explore these processes within the context of both gender and generation, as young males have experienced significant shifts in line with changing local economies, linked to declining small-scale fisheries and agriculture. Locating the study within both time and space, life biographies and ethnographic methods capture the changing informal learning experiences as characterised over three generations of patrilineal transmissions, in two small coastal communities along the Western Atlantic Seaboard.
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Notes
- 1.
During the period of study (1945–present), Ireland has seen significant shifts in women’s increasing visibility in the labour market and higher education.
- 2.
The Paris COP 21 conference was the 21st annual review of climate change since the Rio Earth Summit, through the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC). Most recently, COP 26 was held in Glasgow, Scotland, 2021, to further address the climate emergency.
- 3.
Over 40% of Irish residents reported living within only 5 km of the coast in the latest published national census in 2016. Field sites were chosen in relation to their historical association with traditional coastal industries and subsequent decline.
- 4.
Banba and Éiru are two of the three goddess sisters from the Celtic mythological deity, the Tuatha Dé Danann (translated as ‘People of the Goddess of Danu’).
- 5.
The sea and the ocean are also understood by participants through fear and respect for its unpredictable nature, with concepts of maritime leisure considered a relatively new phenomenon, linked to the industrial and modernisation era, pre-eighteenth century.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to extend our appreciation to the communities where this research has been based. We thank all the participants involved in this research for sharing so generously their experiences and insights and for giving the time to do so. A special thank you to the two families in particular, whose life stories have been a specific focus in this chapter. We would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all of those who have sadly lost their lives in the waters which surround the island of Ireland.
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Crummy, A., Devine, D. (2022). ‘I’m Treading Water Here for My Generation’: Gendered and Generational Perspectives on Informal Knowledge Transmissions in Irish Coastal Communities. In: Kjørholt, A.T., Bessell, S., Devine, D., Gaini, F., Spyrou, S. (eds) Valuing the Past, Sustaining the Future?. MARE Publication Series, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11716-9_4
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