Societies in Transition

This edited monograph sets out to track the course of change in both Ireland and Germany and in Irish-German relations over the last 20 years. 1989 marked the 40th year since the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany - the same year saw the toppling of the Berlin wall and with it the fall of the Iron Curtain. In Ireland, 1989 was a year nestled within a period of high unemployment and poor economic performance. Yet within a few years, a transformation occurred that brought unprecedented change, economically and socially. Therefore, symbolically speaking, a number of walls fell in Ireland that brought new spaces, if not freedoms - increased standards of living and better living conditions for many, new confidence in Self, and greater openness and tolerance for the Other within a society that had been predominantly monocultural for much of the twentieth century. The tenor of this book is one which charts, analyses, discusses and celebrates transition and change in Ireland, in Germany and in the relationship between Ireland and Germany in the hugely significant period of the last twenty years.