The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle the COVID crisis

In today's episode of  'Meet the authors', Niamh Moore-Cherry reflects on some of the lessons learnt from Ireland's response to the 2008 economic crisis, which is the focus of her book Debating austerity in Ireland, co-edited with Emma Heffernan and John McHale. In particular, she focuses on the importance of creating meaningful dialogues across disciplines, the issue of short-term v. long-term responses to a crisis, and the importance of listening to those who have experienced a crisis. 

About the book:
The austerity that followed the recent economic and financial crisis has led to impassioned debates across the social sciences and the public at large. Although Ireland was not its only victim, the depth of the interacting economic, banking and budgetary crises has meant that the level of public interest has been especially intense. Among the hotly debated questions: what is austerity? Was it necessary? What have been its consequences? One of the defining features of the debate to date has been its tendency to polarise opinion and adopt a one-dimensional perspective. This book challenges us to adopt a more nuanced approach to understandings of austerity, and by extension the path to recovery. The book brings together leading national and international experts from across the social sciences to debate this traumatic period in Ireland’s economic and social development.

About 'Meet the authors':
'Meet the authors' is a new video series of the Royal Irish Academy. The series started in spring 2020 when the Academy had to close its doors because of Covid-19. With this series we intend to bring our authors directly to our readers' homes, to help keep our audience informed and engaged until things get back to normal. You can watch the whole series on our YouTube channel.