Noam Chomsky launches book by Dr Peadar Kirby, DCU lecturer
Friday 20 January 2006

Dr Peadar Kirby and Noam Chomsky

Professor Noam Chomsky, a internationally recognised linguist and professor at MIT, launched Dr Peadar Kirby's book entitled 'Vulnerability and Violence: The Impact of Globalisation' at Tower Records, Wicklow Street on 19 January 2006.

Peadar's book argues that these inconclusive debates fail to capture what is distinctive about the impact that globalisation is having on all our lives and on people throughout the world. It introduces the concept of vulnerability, arguing that this better expresses globalisation’s impact, not just on society but on a wide range of spheres such as finance, the economy, politics, the environment, and our personal lives. The book describes how globalisation is increasing vulnerability in all these spheres before going on to analyse why this is happening through an overview of the political economy and cultural changes associated with the term. It then interrogates what this increase in vulnerability means for society, drawing on the work of Karl Polanyi to highlight the destructive significance of what is happening. A unique feature of the book is that it draws on recent debates in psychotherapy and psychology to interrogate the view of the human person that informs dominant approaches towards social theorising. The book also devotes substantial attention to the prospects for reducing vulnerability, examining the potential of mainstream, reformist and radical agendas to achieve this objective. This book combines a novel approach to analysing globalisation’s impact with a broad introduction to the political economy of today’s neoliberal globalisation. It therefore is both a useful introduction for the non-expert and an essential read for anyone concerned with the impact globalisation is having on our lives and the adequacy of the categories being used to understand this.

Peadar Kirby is a senior lecturer in the School of Law and Government, and co-director of the Centre for International Studies, both at Dublin City University, where he lectures on the international political economy of globalisation, on globalisation and development, and on Latin American political economy. His latest books include Introduction to Latin America: Twenty-First Century Challenges (Sage, 2003), The Celtic Tiger in Distress: Growth with Inequality in Ireland (Palgrave, 2002) and the co-edited volume with Luke Gibbons and Michael Cronin Reinventing Ireland: Culture, Society and the Global Economy (Pluto Press, 2002).