innovation and rural knowledge communities: learning from the irish revival
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Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities: Learning from the Irish RevivalAuthor(s): Finbarr BradleySource: The Irish Review (1986-), No. 36/37 (Winter, 2007), pp. 111-119Published by: Cork University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29736348 .
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Innovation ^r?jitywal Knowledge Communities
Learning from the Irish Revival
FINBARR BRADLEY
Introduction
The EU Commission, through the Lisbon Agenda, is attempting to make
Europe the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world. In
Ireland, a key public policy objective is to develop a knowledge-based or
network society based on cheap inputs of information. Innovation along with the generation and application of knowledge, especially in informa?
tion technology and bioscience, is seen as key to achieving these goals. Until recently, little attention or financial resources were devoted to making
science and technology the driver of Irish development. Now, under the
National Development Plan, a vast quantity of money, some 2.5 billion
between 2000 and 2006, is being spent on research and development
(R&D). The state agency Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is committing considerable resources to the development of R&D centres in Irish third
level institutions to promote innovation and thereby in the long-term,
higher economic growth. In agriculture, EU structural reforms are designed to decouple subsidies
from production, promote sustainability in land use and the diversification
of rural economies. At the same time there are major public concerns about
balanced regional development, ecosystem damage, animal welfare, food
safety and social cohesion. It appears likely that those countries that use
innovation as a foundation for achieving profitability in agriculture and
food processing, while satisfying the increasing quality requirements of the
consumer, will have the most successful rural communities in years to
come. Yet the innovation capacity of Ireland, both the North and the
Republic, to support sustainable rural development is characterized by frag?
mentation, lack of critical mass, discontinuity and little overall cohesion.
BRADLEY, Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities', Irish Review 36-37 (2007) 111
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This paper asserts that the present innovation strategy pursued by the
State, namely devoting substantial resources to science and technology
R&D, in the natural sciences, information technology and engineering, underestimates the contribution of the social sciences and humanities to
the goal of achieving a knowledge society. This ignores, for example, how
environmental and cultural values play a central role in the quality of life
and well-being in communities.There is far more potential, in particular, to
obtain an invigorated rural Ireland if the ideas that inspired the Irish
Revival or Renaissance in the thirty or so years prior to the foundation of
the state are made central to the creativity agenda.
The Irish Revival
Matthews points out that the Revival is often wrongly seen as an exclusive?
ly cultural revival characterized by a backward-looking Celtic spirituality,
nostalgia for Gaelic Ireland and obsessive anti-modern traditionalism.1 Yet
as Kiberd puts it, the Revival
achieved nothing less than a renovation of Irish consciousness and a new
understanding of politics, economics, philosophy, sport, language and cul?
ture in its widest sense . . . [T]he exponents of the Irish Renaissance
shaped and reshaped an ancient past, and duly recalled it, giving rise to an
unprecedented surge of creativity and self-confidence among the people.2
The Revival witnessed a host of economic, cultural, social and sporting
self-help initiatives such as the Co-operative Movement, the Gaelic League, the Abbey Theatre and the GAA. These national movements were inspired
by the relationship between culture, confidence, self-help and the develop? ment process. The founding principle of the Gaelic League, for instance, was that the Irish could only achieve their true potential in the widest sense
through self-confidence, self-reliance and self-respect fostered by speaking their own language.
While the social, political and technological context today is clearly a
world apart from that of the Revival, the two periods are similar in one key
respect. In both, creativity offers the basis for Irish development to reach its
full potential. The national spirit and self-help ethos that was the Revival's
hallmark resulted in a range of innovative social and economic ventures. Yet
its guiding theme, linking national identity, community, culture, character,
creativity and economic development, rarely features nowadays in public
policy analysis of the knowledge society. Instead, the emphasis is on grow?
ing a so-called 'enterprise culture', stressing competencies, work practices,
individual entrepreneurial skills and risk-taking attitudes.
112 BRADLEY, Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities', Irish Review 36-37 (2007)
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It is notable how closely related national identity and the network socie?
ty are in Finland, a country we in Ireland are often urged to emulate.
Castells and Himanen assert that cultural identity and a strong national sen?
timent appear to be essential components of the information society there.3
The Finns see no inconsistency in aiming for a dynamic integration in the
global economy while also strongly affirming their culture, unique language and national identity. No matter how many trips Irish civil servants and
politicians take to Finland to study that country's economy and society, they never seem to appreciate on their return how cultural factors might also be
similar drivers of Irish innovation.
Community and Creativity
Personal responsibility, moral courage, self-reliance, national feeling that
breeds enterprise, a sense of citizenship and overall welfare were the driving forces behind the development vision of Plunkett, AE and the Co-operative
Movement. The absence of an ethic of citizenship, in the relationship between individuals as well as between individuals and the state, is one of
the largest social problems now facing Ireland. Policies pursued over many
decades, the predominance of economic over social goals, are largely the
reason for this.
True development, and indeed the practice of economics itself, is not
primarily about commercial enterprises, business, money or markets. Its
focus is far broader than that and is mainly about the provision or protec? tion of qualities. Economist Thomas Michael Power argues that economic
welfare is not just the bundle of market commodities consumed within a
locale. A clean environment, good schools and a host of other non-market
'qualities' add to or subtract from both individual and community welfare
and the quality of life.4
Creative individual activity, such as searching for new ways to improve a
community, organising people and resources, within a supportive and chal?
lenging context, is the key to a vital, thriving local economy. Communities
place themselves in a much better position to improve individual lives by
re-establishing the importance of community itself, emphasizing values and
appreciating how limited a contribution the commercial part of the local
economy makes to overall well-being and prosperity. They need to appreci? ate the potential a broad range of co-operative, non-commercial, yet economic ventures can make in this regard.
A common misconception, actively promoted by professional economists
(often employed by private vested interests), is that qualitative or non-com?
mercial aspects of our lives are non-economic and retard a community's
BRADLEY, Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities', Irish Review 36-37 (2007) 113
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development. Concerns about the preservation of natural areas, wildlife, the
quality of the air or water or the social character of communities are often
thought of as non-economic, aesthetic, moral or even political
concerns.
With this perspective, trade-offs or balancing economic progress and 'non
economic' features such as cultural heritage, ways of life and special
landscape are viewed as inevitable. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, policies that attempt through informed debate to discover
approaches to development that promote both money and non-money val?
ues simultaneously, offer the best opportunity for a community to improve the general well-being of its citizens.
Science, Culture and Place
A major deficiency of the Revival and a crucial missing element was the
exclusion of a more significant role for science, especially natural history
(undergoing great vibrancy at the time), as an important element in defin?
ing Irish culture. By not appreciating the powerful contribution that
scientific thinking and endeavour could make to the Revival, it undoubted?
ly laid the seeds for the erosion of a sense of place, the degradation of the
natural environment and the weakening of civic culture in Ireland as the
country underwent industrialization and became structurally integrated with a global capital and technology infrastructure.
The Revival passed up a wonderful opportunity, by not adding a broader
scientific dimension to the concept of culture, to put in train a multi?
dimensional or more integrated path to development than the one
subsequently pursued by the state. If science had played a central role in the
Revival, it could have resulted in a more enlightened attitude to a range of
issues such as planning, the environment and rural development. As a con?
sequence the country is less prepared to face the implications of moving to
a more sustainable state, more necessary than ever given the EU's emphasis
on sustainability as a core objective in rural development. Science as defined by Dorinda Outram is 'the history of the human
encounter with the natural world' and an integral component of culture.5
Natural history involves an obvious environmental and local component and could have fitted well into a broader concept of Irishness within the
Revival movement. Some like Plunkett,6 AE,7 Evans8 and Praeger9 saw
uniting diverse groups in a common purpose, renewing regional conscious?
ness and forging of the relationship of people with the land as essential.
Attis,10 Johnston11 and Wilson Foster12 argue that the architects of the
Revival excluded science, since many of its premises were anti-scientific. Yet
Plunkett and AE were among the few who did realize the potential of
114 BRADLEY, Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities', Irish Review 36-37 (2007)
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science for development. AE, for instance, as Allen illustrates, celebrated the
empirical achievements of scientists like Kelvin and Tyndall, and regarded the Anglo-Irish contribution to science as the central modernizing tenden?
cy in Irish culture.13 His multicultural ethic was based on the argument that
uniformity of culture was bad for creativity and that it is the conflict of cul?
tures and ideas that bring about intellectual vitality. As Viney argues, due to factors such as the early isolation of the Irish
from cultural forces that shape present-day ecological sentiments in Europe, the attitude of the clergy, and 'the biological treachery of the famine', utility remains the benchmark of Irish attitudes to nature and the environment.14
Since the Enlightenment, humanity has been progressively distanced from
the rest of nature, while science has separated objective truth from subjec? tive morality. A great challenge for postmodern society resides in their
r?int?gration, especially in Ireland where we sit at the bottom of EU tables
in our environmental performance. As Patrick Sheeran has pointed out, a
bizarre aspect of this country is that a lack of concern for design and
aesthetic quality go hand in hand with a preoccupation with place.15 Yet
the latter appears to have little to do with tending, cultivating or enhanc?
ing the material environment. Ireland's shocking image is that of a country where illegal burning of rubbish is common and which is pockmarked
throughout by a network of giant illegal landfills. This is the antithesis of a
knowledge society, which is centrally concerned about place, values, culture and quality.
Education for Innovation
Stirling points out fundamental flaws in the approach now common in the
education of business and technology professionals.16 This is based on a
managerial or mechanistic paradigm, overlaid by a utilitarian market philos?
ophy. Students often fail to see connections and patterns, whereas in an
ecological or whole-systems view of the world, the emphasis is on relation?
ships. Thinking should be systematic rather than linear, integrative rather
than fragmentary, concerned with process, emphasizing dynamics rather
than cause?effect and pattern rather than detail. It should be fundamentally concerned with recognizing wholeness. A change of educational culture
towards the realization of human potential and the interdependence of
social, economic and ecological well-being would be transformative and
constructive. It would engage the student in true learning rather than the
present transmissive methodology that concerns itself mostly with the
transfer of information, which is merely instructive and imposed. As Tobin
Hart points out, a new kind of education is needed, which includes the
BRADLEY, Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities', Irish Review 36-37 (2007) 115
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education of the mind and the heart, balances intuition with the analytic, focuses on character and community, and cultivates wisdom rather the mere
accumulation of facts.17
The academic structuring of knowledge into separate disciplines is one
of the main barriers to nurturing an innovative culture while fostering aca?
demic diversity and promoting individual creativity within Irish
universities. The perspectives of the humanities, of disciplines such as
anthropology, geography, linguistics, psychology and sociology, are crucial if
we are to arrive at any comprehensive sense of, as Cronin puts it, 'who we
are and who we might be'.18 A liberal education is of particular benefit in a
technological world and interdisciplinary studies are essential if a culture of
innovation and creativity is to be developed in the Irish third-level sector.
Integrated programmes drawing on the arts, humanities, science and tech?
nology can play a crucial role in this respect. The world appears now to be on the brink of a new industrial revolu?
tion, which will transform our notions about business and lead to a
fundamental shift from the purchase of goods to the delivery of quality services. This will entail a new perception of value, reducing the impor? tance of material acquisition as a measure of affluence and stressing the
continuous receipt of quality, utility and performance to promote well
being. Intangible assets, such as creativity, imagination, ideas, emotions,
place and community, will largely determine value in the knowledge socie?
ty. Rather than the traditional product-oriented economy, we are entering into an era of service and flow, of networks and relationships, where pat?
terns, processes and context are crucial. Innovations that minimize the use
of materials, support biodiversity and increase resource productivity will
play an increasingly important role.
In a knowledge society, the sustainable or evolutionary organization will
engage in the design of products, services and processes to create a future
that includes prosperity and the healthy co-evolution of human and natural
systems. To develop an innovation culture, business schools, for instance,
should be radically re-designed so that value, rather than knowledge trans?
fer, is placed at the centre of the pedagogical approach. Students will then
receive a better appreciation of the often-conflicting relationships between
individual, community and market values, crucially important for those
involved in rural community ventures.
Students need to think holistically, work in multidisciplinary groups, cope with change and develop systems and products that are sustainable and car?
ing of nature and humanity. The more practice and experience students have
of contacting and exploring their inner emotional world, the more confi?
dently they can creatively deal with change and be open to new possibilities.
116 BRADLEY, Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities', Irish Review 36-37 (2007)
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Sustainable innovations will increasingly reflect not balance but integration, so students should grasp the concept of value through integrating the eco?
nomic, environmental and social impacts of decisions. They should learn
how to do more and better with less, designing products and services on
industrial ecology models that mimic biological behavior in order to mini?
mize waste. A key challenge is to help them appreciate that a trade-off
between economic, social and environmental goals is not always inevitable
and that the fundamental aim is to enhance all three simultaneously through innovation.
A radical change in the education paradigm used in scientific, technologi? cal and professional education is necessary to assess student performance for
this kind of learning. Traditional testing by means of examinations should be
the exception rather than the rule. Evaluation should move from its present
emphasis on testing knowledge of facts and jargon to instead, wherever pos?
sible, assessing how students put knowledge to practical use. Rather than
requiring students to remember facts and information given them by lectur?
ers, students would learn to create and share value that would be largely defined by themselves, based on the outcome of discussion and reflection
within their learning community. In other words, the students' own values
and interests, along with those of their fellow-students, lecturing staff, the
university itself and the wider society in general, should form the basic
dynamic of situations in which different stakeholders learn the essence of
what it is to, say, compete, co-operate and trade. It is only by being placed in
practical situations, such as being engaged in projects of interest to local
enterprises and communities, and required to make decisions rather than
passively 'taking' courses, that transformative learning can occur.
Conclusion
It is essential that Ireland develop a whole-system or holistic approach to
development and prosperity, if what Downey and Purvis call a knowledge based multifunctional agriculture sector, a 'living countryside' and a high
quality of life, are to be achieved in rural Ireland.19 The sentiments of AE
appear to be just as relevant today as they were in 1917:
All these energetic people are conspiring to build factories and mills and
to fill them with human labour, and they believe the more they do this
the better it will be for Ireland. They talk of Ireland as if it was only admirable as a quantity rather than a
quality. They express delight at
swelling statistics and increased trade, but where do we hear any reflec?
tion on the quality of life engendered by this industrial development.20
BRADLEY, Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities', Irish Review 36-37 (2007) 117
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A new vision of the development process is critical if we are to move to a
knowledge society in this country. Pride in place, traditions and heritage,
along with a new emphasis on sustainability, the natural world, biodiversity and quality of life, should form the bedrock for this vision. To help achieve
this, the State should link its science, technology and innovation policies to
those of cultural renewal and sustainability. Spending on R&D alone is not
sufficient to generate an innovation culture. If the social context is ignored, the billions now devoted to R&D will not lead to a knowledge society,
especially one appropriate for rural Ireland. Knowledge is more than just codified facts and know-how. Its most valuable characteristics are its tacit
elements: networks of human interaction and the intangible processes embodied in relationships. A true innovation culture must be primarily founded on a spirit of self-reliance, relationships of community and trust, a
sense of place, tradition and civic engagement. Using the Revival as a guide, it might prove fruitful to explore in depth how values such as identity, civic
culture and community ?
usually ignored in public policy discussions ?
could play a more central role alongside science and technology in helping achieve the goal of the Irish knowledge society.
Understanding the logic behind the Revival a century ago could help us
construct a multicultural Ireland that is global yet also possesses a deep sense of place. Surviving and prospering in a multicultural world requires individuals to understand and appreciate their own cultural values. More?
over, being able to place one's own roots in a cultural, historical and social
context is necessary to appreciate the values and traditions of others. Suc?
cessful intercultural encounters require that individuals believe in their own
values so that they can really appreciate diversity and the cultural values of
the others with whom they have to cooperate. If not, they become alienat?
ed persons, lacking a sense of identity, or sense of self as well as an
enterprise spirit. As Verhelst argues, self-reliance must be understood as an
act of emancipation from all harmful forms of dependence.21 For each per? son or local community, it is a question of preserving or reclaiming liberty
and, ultimately, identity. Self-reliance in economic activities and political decisions depends on the existence of a cultural base as foundation. It is a
community's culture, wisdom, values, traditions and knowledge that justify confidence and give it breadth, the ideal preparation for developing a truly
prosperous knowledge society.
Notes and References
1 PJ. Mathews, Revival: the Abbey Theatre, Sinn Fein, the Gaelic League and the Co-operative Movement (Cork: Cork University Press in Association with Field Day, 2003).
118 BRADLEY, Innovation and Rural Knowledge Communities', Irish Review 36-37 (2007)
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2 Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland: the Literature of the Modern Nation (UK: Vintage, 1996),
pp. 3, 641.
3 Manuel Castells and Pekka Himanen, The Information Society and the Welfare State: the
Finnish Model (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
4 Thomas Michael Power, Environmental Protection and Economic Well-Being: the Economic
Pursuit of Quality (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), p. 3.
5 Dorinda Outram, 'Negating the Natural: or why Historians deny Irish Science', The
Irish Review, 1 (1986), 45-49.
6 Horace Plunkett, Ireland in the New Century (London: John Murray, 1904).
7 George Russell (AE), The National Being (Dublin: Maunsel & Company, 1917).
8 E. Estyn Evans, The Personality of Ireland (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1992).
9 Robert Lloyd Praeger, The Way that I Went (Dublin: Hodges Figgis, 1937).
10 David Attis,'Science and Irish Identity: the Relevance of Science Studies for Irish Stud?
ies' in P. J. Mathews (ed.), New Voices in Irish Criticism (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000).
11 Roy Johnston,'Science in a Post-Colonial Culture', The Irish Review, 8 (1989), 70?76.
12 John Wilson Foster, 'Natural History in Modern Irish Culture', Chapter 8 in Peter J. Bowler and Nicholas Whyte (eds.), Science and Society in Ireland: the Social Context of Sci?
ence and Technology in Ireland 1800-1950 (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1997).
13 Nicholas Allen, George Russell (AE) and the New Ireland, 1905?30 (Dublin: Four Courts
Press, 2003).
14 Michael Viney, 'Woodcock for a Farthing: the Irish Experience of Nature', The Irish
Review,! (1986), 58-64.
15 Patrick Sheeran, 'Genius Fabulae: the Irish Sense of Place', Irish University Review, 18
(1988), 191-206. 16 Stephen Stirling, Sustainable Education: Re-Visioning Learning and Change (London: Green
Books, 2001).
17 Tobin Hart, From Information to Transformation: Education for the Evolution of Consciousness
(New York: Peter Lang, 2001).
18 Michael Cronin,'The Unbidden Ireland: Materialism, Knowledge and Interculturality',
The Irish Review, 31 (2004), 3-10.
19 Liam Downey and Gordon Purvis, 'Building a Knowledge Based Multifunctional Agri? culture and Rural Environment', in Charles Mol?an (ed.), Science and Ireland
- Value for
Society (Dublin: Royal Dublin Society, 2005), pp. 121-139.
20 Russell (AE), National Being, p. 71.
21 Thierry G.Verhelst, No Life without Roots: Culture and Development (London: Zed Books,
1990).
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