Specialised Centres: Galway Wisdom Project

Director: Dr. Ricca Edmondson (School of Political Science and Sociology)

The Galway Wisdom Project follows on from the Centre for Intercultural Studies

email: Ricca.Edmondsonnuigalway.ie

This Centre's main interest is developing analytical methods for studying intercultural issues and applying them to the special problems which arise when individuals or groups from different cultures attempt to interact. Even though research into cultures as such has proliferated in recent decades, there is a dearth of grounded academic analysis of what happens, or fails to happen, when representatives of two or more cultures meet, compounding issues such as those of disparate power or resources which in any case structure social (dis)order.

The forms of analysis required in this field incorporate methods from fields such as political science and sociology, psychology, philosophy and communications studies, and the University of Galway's strength in this field is its ability to support such interdisciplinary work. Areas of interest include politics, power and the sociology of knowledge; cultural influences on conflict in Northern Ireland; bilinguality and the Gaeltacht; neocolonial cultural interactions; relations between the arts and the sciences in European culture; cultural questions regarding European integration. One of our members is in the course of reconstructing the language of the Travellers in Ireland at a time of accelerating cultural change.

The Centre for Intercultural Studies is linked with the Network for Politics and Cognition in Germany. Recent publications include Ricca Edmondson and Henrike Rau, eds, Environmental Argument and Cultural Difference: Locations, Fractures and Deliberations (Peter Lang Oxford, 2008). A CIS Working Paper by Cathi Murphy and Mark O'Higgins: 'Promoting Cultural Change: A Directory of Environmental Interventions in Ireland' is also available.

Galway Wisdom Project

The Centre is also linked with the Galway Wisdom Project. Publications here include:

• Markus H. Woerner, 'Untimely Meditations on Ageing, the Good Life and a Culture of Friendship', pp.205-218 in Ricca Edmondson and Cecily Kelleher, eds, Health Promotion: New Discipline or Multi-Discipline? Dublin, Irish Academic Press 2000 (also published by the German Ministry for Senior Citizens' Affairs).
• Ricca Edmondson, 'Wisdom in Later Life: Ethnographic Approaches'; Ageing in Society 25 2005: 339-356.
• Markus H. Woerner, 'Wisdom and Arguments: Maxim and Enthymeme', pp.531-545 in Athanasia Glykophrydi-Leontsini, ed., Vita Contemplativa. Athens, University of Athens Press, 2006.
• Ricca Edmondson and Jane Pearce, 'The Practice of Health Care: Wisdom as a Model', in Medicine, Health Education and Philosophy 10(3): pp.233-244.
• Ricca Edmondson (2007), 'Rhetorics of Social Science: Sociality in Writing and Inquiry' (12,000 words) in William Outhwaite and Stephen Turner, eds, The Handbook of Social Science Methodology. London, Sage: pp.479-498.
• Ricca Edmondson, 'Intercultural Rhetoric, Wise Argument and Environmental Reasoning' in Ricca Edmondson and Henrike Rau, eds, Environmental Arguing as Intercultural Arguing. Oxford, Peter Lang, 2008.
• Ricca Edmondson, 'The Life Course and Wisdom as a Guiding Idea'; to appear in Kakovostna Starost 10(2): 28-42(Towards Good Quality of Life in Older Age), Slovenia; 2007 [Invited article].
• Ricca Edmondson and Hans-Joachim von Kondratowitz (eds), Ageing, Wisdom and Social Values: Towards a Humanistic Gerontology (collection derived from Galway conference on Ageing and Values, jointly organised by the Galway Wisdom Project: forthcoming).
• Ricca Edmondson (2008), 'Wisdom and Older People in Ireland', Senior People Education Studies (Wuhan, China) 2(36): 73-76).
• Markus Woerner (2008), 'Gott denken - Thomas von Aquin oder Theologie aus Liebe zur Weisheit', in R. W stenberg, ed., Die Theologische Hintertreppe. G tersloh: G tersloh Verlag.
• Ricca Edmondson and Jane Pearce (2008, forthcoming), 'Wisdom and Medical Care', in William Stempsey, ed., Clinical Reasoning (Special Edition of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics). New York: Springer.
• Jane Pearce and Ricca Edmondson (2008): 'Can Health Care Workers be Helped to Practise Wisely?' Proceedings of international conference 'Towards Professional Wisdom', University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

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