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Dr. David Ralph

Assistant Professor (Sociology)
3 COLLEGE GREEN
      
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Dr. David Ralph

Assistant Professor (Sociology)
3 COLLEGE GREEN

 ralphda@tcd.ie

 3531896 2701


My main research interests are in the fields of migration studies and family studies. Currently I am researching a form of post-crisis migration in Europe that I term "Euro-commuting". By Euro-commuting I mean EU citizens who live in one EU country, but work in another, and circulate back-and-forth between the two. Also, I am working on a project about return migrants to the Republic of Ireland. This involves re-interviewing return migrants I initially interviewed for my PhD dissertation seven years ago. As such, it is a longitudinal study, and seek to examine how return intentions and re-integration experiences shift (or not) over time.
Project Title
 Euro-commuters
From
2012
To
2014
Summary
This project examines a form of post-crisis migration that I term "Euro-commuting" - that is, where an EU citizen lives in one EU country, but works in another, commuting back and forth between the two routinely. The project examines the impacts of this form of mobility on both the cross-border commuter as well as their "left behind" family members.
Funding Agency
European Commission
Programme
Marie Curie Fellowship
Project Type
Research
Person Months
24
Project Title
 Family Rhythms
From
2011
To
2012
Summary
The "Family Rhythms" project looks at continuity and change in the Irish family over the course of the 20th century. A secondary qualitative data archive project, it examines the domains of parenthood, childhood, grandparenthood, as well as family forms and structures.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
IRC Research Project Grant
Project Type
Research
Person Months
12
Project Title
 Revisiting Return Migration
From
01-01-2015
To
01-09-0215
Summary
This project re-visited two projects carried out originally on return migration to "Celtic Tiger" Ireland. In collaboration with Dr Caitriona Ni Laoire from UCC, this project re-interviewed return migrants we had originally interviewed during the boom years. The aim was to examine the re-integration trajectories of returnee in the context of ongoing austerity and recession. Had our original interviewees re-settled fully now that they were back in their origin country for several years? Or was return just one more sojourn on an ever lengthening migratory career? How would return migrants mobilise their mobility capital in the face of economic contraction?
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
New Foundations
Project Type
Research

Details Date
Trinity representative on the Executive Committee of the Sociological Association of Ireland 1 January 2017
Details Date From Date To
Sociological Association of Ireland 2014 Ongoing
British Sociological Association 2014 Ongoing
European Sociological Association 2014 Ongoing
David Ralph, ''Sore Winner'', Fish Anthology 2025, Fish Publishing, 2025, -, Fiction and creative prose, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, 'It's Just Hair, Right?' From Loss of Identity to Building a New Man in Young Men's Accounts of Male Pattern Baldness, Journal of Men's Studies, 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
David Ralph, ''My Two Best Gals'', Dublin Review, 89, Dublin Review Books, 2023, -, Fiction and creative prose, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, ''When Everything Is Urgent'', Banshee, Banshee Press, 2023, 43 - 52, Fiction and creative prose, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, `Between a whisper and a shout": repealing the eighth and pro-choice Irish women"s abortion testimonies, Gender, Place and Culture, 2022, p201-221 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
David Ralph, Abortion and Ireland: How the 8th Was Overthrown, 2021, Book, PUBLISHED
David Ralph, "The Unsung Heroes of Ireland": Masculinity, Gender, and Breadwinning among Ireland's "Euro-Commuters", Men and Masculinities, 2020, p702-724 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Jane Gray, Ruth Geraghty, David Ralph, Family Rhythms: The Changing Textures of Family Life in Ireland , Manchester University Press, 2016, Book, PUBLISHED  URL
David Ralph, 'Who should do the caring'? Involved fatherhood and ambivalent gendered moral rationalities among cohabiting/married Irish parents , Community, Work & Family , 19, (1), 2016, p63 - 79, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
David Ralph, Work, Family and Commuting in Europe: The Lives of Euro-commuters , London, Palgrave Macmillan , 2015, 1 - 150pp, Book, PUBLISHED  URL
  

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Commuter Marriages in, Macmillian Encyclopedia of Families, Marriages, and Intimate Relationships, 2019, [David Ralph], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

  


Broadly, my research interests lie in two main areas: migration studies, and family studies. Specifically, my PhD dissertation examined the re-integration experiences of return migrants to "Celtic Tiger" Ireland. It looked at how returnees understood ideas of home, belonging and identity in the wake of re-settlement. Following this, I worked on the "Family Rhythms" project at Maynooth University. This IRC-funded project examined changes and continuity to the Irish family throughout the 20th century. Next, I moved to University College Cork, where I took up a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship to work on the "Euro-commuters" project. There I examined a novel form of post-crisis migration in Europe, whereby EU citizens live in one EU country but work in another, commuting over and back between the two chronically. Presently, I am developing the various strands of this past research agenda into a new project that will investigate contemporary dilemmas around work, career and family for mobile workers in the burgeoning tech sector across Europe. The common thread running throughout all these projects - which is there in my first publication from 2009 and there in my most recent from 2016 - is how issues around family and migration intersect in often irreconcilable ways in the lives of highly mobile population groups.