It has lately become commonplace to suspect that most household and family structures in history were much the same. Under the pugnacious influence of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, historians have grown wary of drawing attention to apparently abnormal household structures, and perhaps weary of reiterating the predominance in northwestern European societies of the simple or nuclear family household. Ireland, however, was not easily squeezed into the Cambridge standard model as generated for preindustrial England. Not only were Irish households before the First World War uncomfortably large, but their bulges appeared in the wrong places. Admittedly these divergences were not great; yet to students following the path of Conrad M. Arensberg and Solon T. Kimball they betokened a more fundamental divergence between the underlying structures of English and Irish families.
Local attempts to have industry locate in a west of Ireland town since the 1940s are examined in the light of two perspectives on the role of small‐scale self‐help groups in promoting industrial development. What we call the community development position holds that voluntary groups of the type represented here can facilitate the establishment of local industries in various ways. The second perspective, derived from the literature on political clientelism, suggests that politicians can project themselves as being in a better position and more effective than others in influencing locational decisions of incoming industry. Self‐help groups must therefore use politicians as intermediaries if they are to recruit capital externally. Examined over a period when state policy changed complexion, both perspectives are seen to illuminate certain dimensions of the activities of the Laketown Development Association. Résumé Cet article étudie les efforts locaux de développement industriel dans une petite ville de ľOuest de ľlrlande. Concernant des petits groupes volontaires dans la promotion indus‐trielle, deux hypothèses sont discutées. La premiè1re, qui peut être appelée celle du développement communautaire, soutient que les groupes volontaires tels ceux étudiés ici peuvent effectivement favoriser de diverses manières un développement industriel local. La seconde hypothèse, appuyée par les études concernant le clientélisme politique, mettent en évidence le rôle des politiciens qui apparaissent mieux placés et plus efficaces pour influencer la localisation des investissements. II s'ensuivrait que les groupes volontaires auraient à utiliser les hommes politiques comme intermédiaires quand ils veulent attirer des capitaux exogènes. L'étude pone sur une période pendant laquelle la politique étatique a changé, et les deux hypothèses permettent de comprendre plusieurs aspects de ľactivité de la ‘Laketown Development Association’. Kurzfassung Versuche auf örtlicher Ebene zur Industrieansiedlung in einer Sudt Westirlands seit 1940 werden im Lichte zweier Betrachtungsweisen kleiner Selbsthilfegruppen zur Förderung der industriellen Entwicklung in Irland untersucht. Die Position, die wir die der Gemeindeent‐wicklung nennen, behauptet, daß freiwillige Gruppen der Art, wie wir sie in unserer Fallstudie finden, die Schaffung örtlicher Gewerbebetriebe in verschiedenartiger Weise fordern. Die zweite, aus der Literatur uber politischen Klientelismus abgeleitete Betrach‐tungsweise spielt darauf an, daß Politiker sowohl in einer besseren Position als auch wirkungsvoller erscheinen als andere, wenn sie die Standortentscheidungen der hereinkom‐menden Industrie beeinflussen. Selbsthilfegruppen müssen deshalb Politiker als Vermittler nutzen, um Kapital von außerhalb anzuziehen. Nach Prüfung iiber einen Zeitraum der Veränderung staatlicher Politik, kann von beiden Betrachtungsweisen angenommen werden, daß sie bestimmte Dimensionen der Aktivitäten der Laketown Development Association beleuchten.
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