National self‐images and the internationalization of tastes, values and demand: The case of Ireland

Abstract

Using Ireland as a case study, this paper explores the impact of the internationalization of tastes, values and demand on a traditional society. In doing so it traces a process in which a traditional self‐image, which was calculated to keep demands within the limits of the capacities of an undeveloped material culture, was undermined by the tastes, values and demands of Anglo‐American consumer society. The consequence was the emergence of a consumerist self‐image which gave rise to demands for standards of individual and collective consumption which were beyond the delivery capacities of the country's economy. These developments resulted in a fiscal crisis, high levels of unemployment, and in frustrated expectations which contributed to the emergence of high levels of anomie and alienation in contemporary Irish society.

Keywords:

• internationalization
• values
• comsumption
• economic crises
• Ireland