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Dissertation Information for Michele Dillon

NAME:
- Michele Dillon
- (Alias) Michele Marie Therese Dillon

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Sociology

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Berkeley (USA) (1989)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected

Title: Cultural rationality and modernity: The case of Ireland

Abstract: "This is a study of the selective rationalization of Irish society grounded in a Weberian theoretical framework. I argue that while Ireland is economically and socially rationalized, it has not accepted cultural rationalization, the latter being defined as the autonomy of civil legislation from specific denominational socio-moral principles. I suggest that a public referendum in which the majority of the people voted to retain a Constitutional article prohibiting divorce, attests to the fact that Irish society remains culturally non-rationalized.

To understand what social forces may have influenced what was a sociologically puzzling outcome to the divorce referendum, I analyze the role of the Catholic Church as a traditional institution, that of television as a secular institution, and the public discourses articulated by the government who was the initiator of the referendum, and by the pro-divorce and anti-divorce social movements during the divorce debate. From the analysis it emerges that each of these players made recourse to different strategies of rationality in their negotiation of the divorce question.

I propose that the action of the Irish with respect to divorce constitutes part of a broader sociological problem: the manner in which societies deal with modernity. I suggest that all societies have specific problems with modernity which vary depending on the socio-historical trajectory of the society under review. Accordingly, I argue that a society can be partially rationalized and yet be modern, so long as the sphere which remains non-rationalized has institutionalized rationality in its resistance against total rationalization."

MPACT Scores for Michele Dillon

A = 0
C = 2
A+C = 2
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:10:43

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