Gemma Carney is a post-doctoral researcher in social entrepreneurship. Gemma comes to ICSG from the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament, a national representative organization for older people. Previously she was a lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Trinity College, Dublin, where she was awarded a PhD in July 2005. Her PhD project was supported by scholarships from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the broad curriculum initiative at Trinity College Dublin. Her PhD thesis provided a theoretically robust account of how international norms of gender equality translated into national level policy in the 2000-2006 National Development Plan. Since then, Gemma has worked on a number of collaborative projects in the public, private and third sectors, while teaching at the Open University and Dublin City University.

Research projects include health sector reform, socio-economic and spatial mapping, pensions, long-term care funding and policy-making for older people. As Policy Analyst at the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament, her research was used by older people in negotiations with government, the HSE and the social partners. Her current research sets out to examine the role and potential of older people as social entrepreneurs. She is particularly interested in how social entrepreneurs might raise the political profile and salience of policy design for older people. Other projects include a participatory analysis of consultative forums for older people. A new project, funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences under the Research Development Initiative will begin in December 2008. The project is a participatory policy analysis of how third sector lobbies use the lifecycle approach in social partnership. Dr. Carney will be principal investigator, working with colleagues from the Child and Family Research Centre, the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change and the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway. The project is part of a broader development of a lifecycle research programme at NUI Galway.

Selected Publications