Suburban Affiliations

Mary P. Corcoran is Professor of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth, where she is also a research associate at the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis. Jane Gray is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. She is a research associate at the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis and Director of the Irish Qualitative Archive. Michel Peillon is Professor of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth.

• Introduction; PART ONE, Locating the Suburbs: The International and Irish Context; The Significance of Suburbs; Suburban Formation: The Case of Dublin; Suburbs and the Life Course.; PART TWO, Attachment and Belonging in Suburbia: Suburban Pastoralism and Sense of Place; Linked Lives: Personal Communities in the Suburbs; Family-Friendly Communities?; Making Friends and Losing Spaces; Child's View of the Suburban World; PART THREE, The Public Life of Suburbs: Joining In: The Dynamic of Voluntary Associations; Fragments of Activism; Community and the Structure of Social Capital; Conclusion: Suburban Variation and Suburban Affiliation; Appendix Telling Suburban Tale - Leixlip, Lucan-Esker, Mullingar, and Ratoath; References; Index.

'One consequence of the recent years of economic prosperity was the growth in suburban communities around Dublin. - The three authors here take an empirical sociological approach to the study of four Dublin suburbs. Their study is influenced by work in Europe and America and they place their findings in that context. - The findings are not all negative as they conclude that the residents identify with the suburb in which they live and that a variety of social groups occupy suburbs. Far from being dysfunctional and problematic, suburbs are communities with a sense of identity and high degree of social interaction.' Books Ireland Sept 2010