Irish Journal of Sociology

Feminist philosophers of language have, in the last several decades, demonstrated the usefulness of employing a speech-act theoretical lens to understand how expression works to enact and reinforce oppression. Despite the growing influence of these approaches in the philosophy and political theory literature, however, their use in other disciplines remains severely limited. This is surprising, especially given the real potential of the speech-act approach to illuminate the mechanisms by which everyday acts contribute to large-scale oppressions. This paper takes up this call for interdisciplinarity, utilising a speech-act theory of oppression to better understand the real-life experiences of the under-researched Czech and Slovak communities of Northern Ireland. Using semi-structured interviews followed by thematic analysis, our study expands our understanding of oppressive speech by revealing a complex relationship between victims’ experiences and their understanding of wider societal oppression, exposing a channel via which victims can exercise agency by contesting attempts to reinforce their oppression. In so doing, the study also draws attention to a novel theoretical lens with which to understand experiences of harmful speech, one which is currently under-utilised by those outside of the philosophy/political theory disciplines.

Period-tracking applications (apps) allow users the ability to track their menstrual cycles and use algorithms which predict users future cycles. This study seeks to understand Irish users' experiences of, and reasons for, using period-tracking apps. In this qualitative study, a sample of 10 Irish women between 21 to 45 years of age were interviewed semi-structured and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. This study identified their reasons for using these telehealth apps, discovered an over-reliance on apps by users, a desire for change and improvement of the apps, and identified a tendency of users to perceive their own bodies as faulty rather than question the accuracy of the applications. The study also discusses the implications of these findings and recommendations for the improvement of these apps for users.

New funding has been approved to tackle educational underachievement in Northern Ireland. While many schools and communities were joyous upon hearing about the £20 million investment into the education of local children and young people, the eligibility criteria left some schools perplexed. One primary school teacher was particularly disappointed upon hearing that of the 400 plus schools identified as eligible to receive this funding, his school, despite being in one of the most deprived areas of Northern Ireland, was not eligible. Yet, 40 grammar schools including a prep school, i.e. a fee-paying school, were identified as eligible for this funding. This sparks a wider discussion regarding classism and educational inequality.