Abstract:
The contribution of family, kin and community relations to
sustaining a rural way of life was the primary focus of Arensberg
and Kimball's anthropological study of Irish families in the 1930s,
published as Family and Community in Ireland (1940, 1968, 2001).
It is a detailed ethnographic study of the familial, communal, and
economic relationships of the small farmer class of rural Clare in
the west of Ireland. Through the frame of a collaborative
community research project with an artist, sociologist and the
descendents of the families written about, in this article we
explore the consequences of the 1930s anthropological study for
community identity and how a research project based on Kimball¿s
1930s field diary provided an opportunity for community members
to tell their own story of family and community in the 21st century.
A narrative inquiry approach is deployed, honouring the power of
local stories to disrupt dominant narratives.
