Ireland's Growth As a Modern Society

“Becoming a modern society is about industrialization, urbanization, and rising levels of literacy, education, and wealth. ”― Samuel P. Huntington

Evolving as a nation comes with struggles, conflicts and the need to have an open mind when approaching and assessing various situations and options. Through evolution of a society comes the unsettling feeling of change, which many cannot embrace. With the term social modernization, social refers to a gathering or community of people and modernization is the movement from old to new but with reference to social science it is the process of urbanization and industrialization which in turn effects the lives of people. Urbanization is the development of urban areas due to a change in demand for employment and various other factors away from rural areas to cities and industrialization is the movement from a society focused on agriculture to one based on manufacturing, technology and economic benefits.

This essay will identify turning points in Ireland, which affected and influenced their social policy along with the social modernization and the period of change from recessions to booms to an uncertain economy.

Social services which includes; education, housing, health, income maintenance and personal social services is the epicentre and focal point of Social policy and it concentrates on the wellbeing of individuals and societies (Curry, 1980). Social policies are put in place by governments generally for the betterment of society and for those who are underprivileged. This is done by trying to emphasize a sense of equality in all spheres of life (Curry, 1980). It is important to look at the history of Ireland in order to understand their reasoning behind their social policies.

Irela...

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...and at times had to go back to basics and build up from the bottom as seen in recent years. It has formed its own identity, fought internal battles and its economy is slowly improving. It has moved from a traditional society to a modern one where the focus is on imports, exports, industrialization and creating interest for international investors. It is a country, which was shaped around the basis of Catholicism and has now slowly emerged as a republic, guided by the government but in the hands of the people

As is evident there is a link between social policy and the economy (Considine, et Al, 2009), as many of the policies are based and formed around the current economic situation and vice versa, without a sense of economic sustainability and continued flow of income, certain policies cannot continue and a model for Irelands future success needs to be developed.