Dr Rory Hearne

Biography
I am currently a Lecturer in Social Policy in the Department of Applied Social Studies in Maynooth. I teach courses at post-graduate and under-graduate level in housing, rights and inequality; civic engagement and civil society; the changing nature of the welfare state; and climate, social policy and inequality. I have researched and published in academic and policy fields of housing and social housing, spatial disadvantage, housing rights, economic inequality, neoliberalism and the welfare state, social justice, and social movements. I have a PhD in political and economic geography from Trinity College Dublin in 2009. My most recent publication is the book, 'Housing Shock: The Irish Housing Crisis and How to Solve it' (Policy Press, 2020). It is a highly original book that was the first in Ireland to identify the emergence of Generation Rent, the distorting role of global investor funds in Irish housing, the profoundly damaging impact of homelessness on families, and identifying new solutions based on a based human rights vision for Irish housing and a practical policy pathway to ensure affordable, secure, decent quality and environmentally sustainable homes for everyone. It tackles one of the most pressing social crises facing contemporary Ireland. It makes a compelling case for enshrining the Right to Housing in our Constitution. It is written in a highly accessible, passionate way, that details the author’s personal journey from community worker to academic and activist and how his housing story interwove with his commitment and drive to achieve a human right to housing for everyone ins this country. The book is highly inspirational as it is not just as description of the crisis, but also provides direct voices of those affected, outlines solutions and offers pathways for citizens to engage in action to change the situation. In a short space of time the book has made a major contribution to the Irish policy debate on housing and to empowering those affected by the crisis and those trying to change it. The President of Ireland, in recognition of this contribution as a scholarly resource of national importance, invited the author to present the book to him personally in Aras an Uachtarain in June 2021. An academic review in the international journal Critical Social Policy describes the book as “a highly welcome and thoughtful addition to the debate about housing in Ireland, drawing on comparative examples, quantitative and qualitative data, and his engagement with the topic as both researcher and activist to do so”. While Leilani Farha, Global Director of the Shift and former UN Rapporteur on Adequate Housing 2014-2020, describes the book as providing a really important and insightful contribution to the global debate on financialisation, inequality and the right to housing.” The Irish Times described it as “a valuable book. It is a tool for better understanding our current predicament and what we can do about it”. In 2011 I published an academic peer reviewed book, ‘Public Private Partnerships in Ireland; Failed experiment or the way forward?’ (Manchester University Press in 2011).
I have also published in high quality international peer reviewed journals. For example, drawing from praxis-based research on ‘the right to the city’ and human rights based approaches (undertaken as a community worker in Dolphin House, Dublin from 2007 to 2013) I have published in the international Journal of Human Rights Practice, Human Geography, and the Irish Journal of Community Work. While I have published on my innovative research into new social movements and civil society in Ireland in Interface, and in Geoforum.
Over 2015-2017, I was a Senior Policy Analyst with the inequality research think tank, TASC where I researched the political economy of economic inequality and the welfare state, with a particular focus on housing, financialisation, social policy and inequality. I was lead author of Cherishing All Equally 2016: Economic Inequality in Ireland and ‘Home or wealth generator? Inequality, financialisation and the Irish Housing crisis’ (TASC, 2017).
I worked between 2017 and 2018 on the H2020 funded Re-InVEST (Rebuilding an Inclusive, Value-based Europe of Solidarity and Trust through Social Investments) project. It involved research (qualitative and quantitative) into EU and national state social policy (in the water, housing, finance, childcare and early childhood education, labour market, and health sectors) across 13 EU countries. I co-developed, with the Irish Principal Investigator on Re-InVEST, Dr Mary Murphy, the Re-InVEST project’s methodological approach, the Participatory Action Human Rights and Capabilities Approach (PAHRCA), and the PAHRCA Toolkit. I am also a public intellectual and regularly contribute to discussion of contemporary social, economic and political issues on national media and contribute to public events dealing with these issues.
Book
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | Rory Hearne (2022) Gaffs: Why No One Can Get a House and What We Can Do About It. Dublin: HarperCollins Ireland. [Link] | |
2020 | Hearne, R. (2020) Housing Shock: The Irish Housing Crisis and how to solve it. Bristol: Policy Press. [Link] | |
2011 | Dr Rory Hearne (2011) Public Private Partnerships in Ireland: Failed Experiment or the Way Forward for the State?. : Manchester University Press. |
Book Chapter
Year | Publication | |
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2023 | Rory Hearne (2023) 'An expanded conceptualisation and definition of engaged research' In: Rights and Social Justice in Research: Advancing Methodologies for Social Change. Bristol : Policy Press. | |
2019 | Hearne, R. & Murphy, M. (2019) 'Capabilities and human rights in practice; the case study of participatory research on marketisation and homelessness in Dublin' In: Capabilities and Social Policy: Concepts, measurements and application. London : Policy Press. | |
2019 | Hearne, R. & Murphy, M. (2019) 'Gendering homelessness policy knowledge through participation and action research' In: Producing knowledge, reproducing gender: Power, production and practice in contemporary Ireland. Dublin : UCD Press. | |
2018 | Hearne, R., O Callaghan, C., Kitchin, R., Di Feliciantonio, C. (2018) 'The place of home: The relational articulation of housing crisis and activism in post-crash Ireland' In: A Century of Housing Struggles: The 1915 Rent Strikes and Beyond. London : Rowman & Littlefield. | |
2017 | Kitchen, R. Hearne, R., O Callaghan, C. (2017) 'Housing and Austerity' In: Austerity and Recovery in Ireland. Oxford : Oxford University Press. | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne (2014) 'Housing management and the social renting tenant experience' In: Dr Lorcan Sirr(Eds.). Public and Private Renting in Ireland. : IPA. | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne (2014) 'Actually-Existing Neoliberalism: Public-Private Partnerships in Public Service and Infrastructure Provision in Ireland' In: Andrew MacLaran, Sinead Kelly(Eds.). Neoliberal Urban Policy and the Transformation of the City. : Palgrave Macmillan. | |
2014 | Hearne, R (2014) 'The importance of standards and community: Tenants experience of social housing in Ireland' In: Public and Private Renting in Ireland. Dublin : Institute of Public Administration. | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne, Dr Rob Kitchin, Dr Cian O Callaghan (2014) 'Spatial Justice and Housing in Ireland' In: Kearns, Meredith and Morrissey(Eds.). Spatial Justice and the Irish Crisis. : Royal Irish Academy. [Full-Text] | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne, Dr Declan Redmond (2014) 'The Collapse of PPPs: Prospects for Social Housing Regeneration After the Crash; Rory Hearne and Declan Redmond ' In: Andrew MacLaran and Sinead Kelly(Eds.). Neoliberal Urban Policy and the Transformation of the City. : Palgrave Macmillan. |
Peer Reviewed Journal
Year | Publication | |
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2023 | Laruffa, Francesco & Hearne, Rory (2023) 'Towards a post-neoliberal social policy: capability and rights-expansion as social empowerment'. Critical Policy Studies, . | |
2022 | Lima V.; Hearne R.; Murphy M.P. (2022) 'Housing financialisation and the creation of homelessness in Ireland'. Housing Studies, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2018 | Hearne R.; Murphy M. (2018) 'An absence of rights: Homeless families and social housing marketisation in Ireland'. Administration, 66 (2):9-31. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2018 | Hearne R.; Boyle M.; Kobayashi A. (2018) 'Taking liberties with democracy? On the origins, meaning and implications of the Irish water wars'. Geoforum, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
2016 | Norris, M, Hearne, R (2016) 'Privatising Public Housing Redevelopment: Grassroots Resistance, Co-operation and Devastation in three Dublin Neighbourhoods'. Cities, . | |
2015 | Hearne, R (2015) 'The Irish Water War'. INTERFACE JOURNAL, . | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne (2014) 'Creating utopia through real struggle: lessons from practical experiences of symbiotic strategies for transformation in austerity Ireland'. IRISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGYJOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Forthcoming . | |
2014 | Hearne, R (2014) 'Achieving a Right to the City in practice: reflections on community struggles in Dublin'. Human Geography, . | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne & Dr Padraic Kenna (2014) 'Using the Human Rights Based Approach to Tackle Housing Deprivation in an Irish Urban Housing Estate in Journal of Human Rights Practice'. Journal of Human Rights Practice, 6 :1-25. | |
2013 | Dr Rory Hearne (2013) 'Realising the ‘Right to the City’: developing a human rights based framework for the regeneration of areas of urban disadvantage published in the International Journal of Law in the Built Environment'. International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, 5 . | |
2012 | Dr Rory Hearne (2012) 'Exploring the Human Rights Based Approach to achieving housing rights; a community development analysis’ in Irish Journal of Community Work'. To be added, 3 . | |
2009 | Dr Rory Hearne (2009) 'Origins, development and outcomes of Public Private Partnerships in Ireland: the case of PPPs in social housing regeneration’ Published in Combat Poverty Agency Working Paper Series'. 09/07 . | |
2007 | Dr Rory Hearne (2007) 'Neoliberalism in public services: a case study of public-private partnerships in Irish Schools'. 6 . | |
2006 | Dr Rory Hearne (2006) 'Neoliberalism, public services and PPPs in Ireland Published in in Progress in Irish Urban Studies'. To be added, 2 . |
Conference Publication
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | Hearne, Rory & MacSweeney, Kenneth (2022) 16th European Research Conference on Homelessness 2022 Understanding Ireland’s Hidden Homelessness crisis: A New Approach to Defining and Measuring Homelessness and Housing Exclusion in Ireland | |
2022 | Rory Hearne (2022) The Housing Commission Conference on a Referendum on Housing in Ireland The case for inserting a right to adequate housing in the Irish Constitution [Link] | |
2018 | Hearne, R & Murphy, M. (2018) European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Participation, empowerment and policy: reflecting on the ReInVest Participatory Action Human Rights and Capability Approach with homeless families in Dublin | |
2017 | Hearne, R & Murphy, M. (2017) European Network for Social Policy Analysis 2017 Social Investment, Human Rights and Capabilities in practice; the case study of homelessness in Dublin |
Conference Contribution
Published Report
Year | Publication | |
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2023 | Hearne, Rory & MacSweeney, Kenneth (2023) Understanding Ireland’s Hidden Homelessness crisis: A New Approach to Defining and Measuring Homelessness and Housing Exclusion in Ireland. Maynooth University, . | |
2022 | Rory Hearne Judy Walsh (2022) Housing Assistance and Discrimination. Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, . [Link] | |
2017 | Hearne, R, Murphy, M (2017) Investing in the Right to a Home: Housing, HAPs and Hubs. Maynooth University, . [Full-Text] | |
2017 | Hearne, R (2017) ‘Home or wealth generator? Inequality, financialisation and the Irish Housing crisis. TASC, . | |
2016 | Hearne, R, McMahon C. (2016) Cherishing All Equally 2016, Gender, Children and Economic Inequality in Ireland. TASC, . |
Newspaper Articles
Year | Publication | |
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2022 | Rory Hearne (2022) Rory Hearne: The housing game is rigged and it's time we called it out. [Newspaper Articles] [Link] | |
2022 | Rory Hearne (2022) 2023 –Time for Ireland to take a new direction in housing. [Newspaper Articles] [Link] | |
2021 | Rory Hearne (2021) Dr Rory Hearne The Government does not want you to be able to afford to buy a home. [Newspaper Articles] [Link] | |
2022 | Rory Hearne (2022) Rory Hearne: Budget happened in a parallel universe with no housing crisis. [Newspaper Articles] [Link] | |
2018 | Hearne, R (2018) • Why Housing Programmes Are Not Working for Homeless Families. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2018 | Hearne, R. (2018) Generation Rent Locked Out of Home Ownership. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2018 | Hearne, R. (2018) Why fixing Ireland’s housing crisis requires a change of policy. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2017 | Rory Hearne (2017) • Why Government Response to Housing Crisis has Failed. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2016 | Rory Hearne (2016) • How the Government Should Tackle the Housing Crisis. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2015 | Rory Hearne (2015) The State Must Intervene in the Housing Market. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne (2014) Column: A home is a human right – not a commodity. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne (2014) Column: Austerity has exacerbated inequality across our society. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2014 | Dr Rory Hearne (2014) Column: The Reform Alliance – should we expect radical change… or more of the same?. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2013 | Dr Rory Hearne (2013) Column: The governments controlling the euro are no friends of Ireland. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2013 | Dr Rory Hearne (2013) Column: Do protests have any real impact?. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2013 | Dr Rory Hearne (2013) Column: Austerity isn’t working – so what alternatives exist for October’s Budget?. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2011 | Dr Rory Hearne (2011) Its Time to Tax Wealth-in the Irish Times. [Newspaper Articles] | |
2010 | Dr Rory Hearne (2010) Why Should We Be Paying for the Mistakes of Bankers. [Newspaper Articles] |