TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

the psychological aspirations of identity, affluence, wealth and happiness have been fulfilled for
the majority of middle-class people in Cork, the symptoms of stress, depression and alienation
are increasing for the ethnic minority underclass. As a result, it is increasingly evident that
radical social reforms are necessary. An inter-agency response is urgently required to address
the current phenomenon of social exclusion, particularly if scenes such as those witnessed
during the 2022 London riots are not to be repeated in Cork and other Irish cities. The people of
Cork will need to question their innate resistance to change, which is stifling the emergence of
social cohesion and rendering future ethnic conflicts a given, rather than a probability.
Although global networking technology has pulled the majority of Cork people together
throughout the 2020s, the dark side of the technological boom is being felt by the digitally
disconnected. The emergence of “informational black holes” has resulted in a widening of the
digital divide, and as Manuel Castells, Professor of Sociology at Berkeley University, once
warned, in the networked society, if you are outside the network, you simply don't exist. The
disconnected in Cork are increasingly feeling this type of alienation and represent another
demographic being excluded from the city. These cultural battles represent the most important
challenges for the future of Cork in the 2030s, for business, for people and for politics.
However, if Cork is able to connect the logic of networks with the logic of culture and identity,
a dynamic equilibrium might be reached. In sharp contrast to the significant levels of state
capital invested in science and technology at the turn of the century, calls are now being made
for investment in the social
sciences, and particularly in
emerging geophilosophy studies,
in an attempt to better
understand how this equilibrium
might be reached. There is a
realisation now that transdisciplinary
education that links
across, not between, the
disciplines will be pivotal in
understanding the processes
transforming society in the 2030s.
Education
At a time when education is the number one international economic and social priority,
competition is rife in attracting professional learners and intellectual consultants to Ireland and
indeed to Cork. In order to compete with the emerging market of just-in-time, individualized
learning, where learners can "dial a tutor" anywhere in cyberspace, CIT and UCC together
launched the “Learning a Living” strategy in 2012 that aimed at promoting Cork as a vital wheel
157