Explaining Change in Cultural History

Change is the stock in trade of historians. If we have no concept of change, and no sense of the past as different from the present, then consequently we cannot have an historical sense in the deepest meaning of the term. However, historians rarely discuss change per se in very explicit terms. What constitutes change? How do you know when change has happened? How do you define or measure it? Are there different kinds of change? These are some of the issues explored in this book. Ireland has been in a process of extremely rapid cultural change in recent decades - whether in the precipitate decline in the influence of the Catholic Church or in the rapid adoption of globalised market culture. Reflecting on the general nature of such change is a prerequisite for understanding Ireland's place in a new cultural economy. This collection is based on papers presented to the 25th biennial Irish Conference of Historians, held at the National University of Ireland, Galway, May 2001.