Dr Anne B. Ryan Publications & Research

Welcome to my webpage at the Department of Adult and Community Education (DACE), NUIM.

I am at this time (June 2013) chiefly concerned with the role of adult and community education in contributing to knowledge about how societies can make the transition to democratic, low-carbon, participative social economies. I enquire into the learning that needs to underpin such social economies, currently focussing on learning about sufficiency, sharing, equality and care for people and the planet. I examine and support the transformative knowledge currently being developed among communities, projects, groups and individuals who are pioneering this transition.

I believe that adult literacy adequate for the era in which we live must draw on this transformative knowledge about transition. I perceive a particular need to engage with the following topics in liberatory education:   

• the liberation of time
• the nature of work, the struggle for useful and meaningful work and the freedom to reject harmful or useless work
• financial security, with a focus on universal basic income as an immediate possiblity
• food security
• energy security
• climate security
• community economies
• the commons and commoning practices, ranging from the knowledge commons to global commons frameworks, including frameworks for decarbonisation
• participation, cooperation and deliberation
• democratic money and currency systems at national, regional, local and global levels
• fair taxation systems including land- and site-value taxes
• citizen leadership.

A transformative adult literacy that arises from engagement with these topics is intrinsically multi-dimensional, having social, cultural, community, personal, political, moral, emotional, imaginative, spiritual and economic aspects. It engages in the education of hope and the creation of desire for a better world, where basic securities are assured and people can be creative in their construction of new and diverse ways to work, love and care. I attempt to explore this multiplicity of knowledge and action in my writing, in democratic learning relationships with students and in co-creating curriculum with students and colleagues. In common with all my colleagues at DACE, I attempt to ensure a balance of power between students and academic staff and to cultivate learning communities committed to transformation.

I place my present work in an ecological postmodern worldview and see my ambitions for a better world as feminism writ large. My work has evolved in its present direction in recent years out of a grounding in subjectivity, discourse, feminist politics and feminist ways of knowing and being. The resisting and creative self, distinct from the neo-liberal subject, is at the core of this project.

My public service commitments reflect my educational and political concerns. I am a member of the steering group of Basic Income Ireland www.basicincomeireland.com, and a trustee of Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, www.feasta.org

I am engaged in a practical way with transformative civic endeavours through my membership of Cultivate Celbridge, a resilience and mutual-help network in my home town. I also serve on the core planning group of a fledgling community-supported farm in the Celbridge/ Maynooth/ Leixlip area.

I am currently working with several doctoral candidates and not taking on any new students. I will in the future be interested in working with students interested in the areas outlined above.

I have been in a permanent post at the Department of Adult and Community Education (DACE) at NUIM since 2006. From 2006-2012 I was joint co-ordinator, with Rose Malone, of the Education Doctorate, a professional doctorate in education. This doctorate was a partnership between DACE and the Education Department at NUIM. I am currently involved in planning the implementation of a new professional doctorate, Doctorate in Adult and Higher Education (DHAE), which will begin in February 2014, and I will coordinate it with Tony Walsh of DACE.

I have a personal website at www.enoughisplenty.net

My twitter account is @EnoughPlenty

Books

2009 Enough is Plenty: Public and Private Policies for the 21st Century. Hants: OBooks See www.enoughisplenty.net  for more details

2006 Antonesa, M., Fallon, H., Ryan, A.B., Ryan, A. & Walsh, T. with L. Borys Researching and writing your thesis: A guide for postgraduate students. Maynooth: MACE.

2002 How was it for you? Learning from couples’ experiences of the first years of marriage. Dublin: ACCORD, Dept. of Social and Family Affairs.

2002 Balancing Your Life: a practical guide to work, time, money and happiness. Dublin: The Liffey Press. To read more about the contents of this book: http://www.theliffeypress.com/proddetail.php?prod=20-4 and http://www.walnutbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=386&osCsid=c412cf9d705b04d8c702ea1d2cff87cd To read a review of this book: http://transitionculture.org/book-reviews/balancing-your-life-anne-b-ryan-2002/

2001  Feminist ways of knowing: towards theorising the person for radical adult education. NIACE, Leicester, (2001) Read more information about this book.

Selected articles and book chapters

(2013) Universal Basic Income: A brief overview of a support for intelligent economies, quality of life and a caring society. Feasta, Dublin. http://eprints.nuim.ie/4349/

 (2012) Cultivating resilient and ethical prosperity with basic income. In: TASC (Think-tank for Action on Social Change) conference, Crisis to Opportunity, 19 October 2012, Dublin. http://eprints.nuim.ie/4017/

 (2012) In and between: possible bridging positions for the Defence Forces. In: Building a Better Future: Contributions by the Irish Defence Forces. MACE Publications (Maynooth Adult and Community Education), Maynooth, pp. 197-206. http://eprints.nuim.ie/4348/

With John Baker (2012) Reflections on Developing a National Campaign for Basic Income in Ireland. BIEN Congress, September 2012, Munich.

2011 ‘Discourse: some considerations for the reflective practitioner’. In Tony Walsh, (ed) The Reflective Practitioner. MACE: Maynooth Adult and Community Education.http://eprints.nuim.ie/2447/

2010 ‘Enough: A Worldview for Positive Futures’. In Richard Douthwaite and Gillian Fallon (eds) Fleeing Vesuvius: Overcoming the risks of economic and environmental collapse. Dublin: Feasta. http://eprints.nuim.ie/2448/

2006 ‘Post-positivist Approaches to Research’, in Antonesa, M., Fallon, H., Ryan, A.B., Ryan, A. & Walsh, T. with L. Borys, (2006). Researching and writing your thesis: A guide for postgraduate students. Maynooth: MACE. Pages 12-28 To read this chapter:http://eprints.nuim.ie/archive/00000874/

‘Doing a Review of Literature’, in Antonesa, M., Fallon, H., Ryan, A.B., Ryan, A. & Walsh, T. with L. Borys, (2006). Researching and writing your thesis: A guide for postgraduate students. Maynooth: MACE. Pages 58-67. To read this chapter: http://eprints.nuim.ie/archive/00000873/

‘Methodology: Collecting Data’, in Antonesa, M., Fallon, H., Ryan, A.B., Ryan, A. & Walsh, T. with L. Borys, (2006). Researching and writing your thesis: A guide for postgraduate students. Maynooth: MACE. Pages 70-89. To read this chapter: http://eprints.nuim.ie/archive/00000872/

‘Methodology: Analysing Qualitative Data and Writing Up Your Findings’, in Antonesa, M., Fallon, H., Ryan, A.B., Ryan, A. & Walsh, T. with L. Borys, (2006). Researching and writing your thesis: A guide for postgraduate students. Maynooth: MACE. Pages 92-109. To read this chapter: http://eprints.nuim.ie/archive/00000871/

2004 ‘Subjectivity and consumption: concerns for radical adult education’. In Anne Ryan and Tony Walsh (eds) Unsettling the Horses: Interrogating Perspectives in Adult Education. Maynooth: MACE (2004). To read this chapter: http://eprints.nuim.ie/archive/00000911/

2003 ‘Contemporary discourses of working, earning and spending: acceptance, critique and the bigger picture’. In Steve Coleman and Colin Coulter (eds) The End of Irish History? Critical Approaches to the Celtic Tiger. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003. To read this chapter: http://eprints.nuim.ie/archive/00000913/

Other Publications

Facilitating transformative learning: A report on research into the experiences of tutors on the NUI Maynooth Foundation in Counselling Skills course with David McCormack and Mary Ryan. Department of Adult and Community Education, NUI Maynooth. September 2004. To read this: http://eprints.nuim.ie/archive/00000914/