Download or read book The European Social Question written by Amandine Crespy and published by Building Progressive Alternatives. This book was released on 2022-01-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the turn of the twenty-first century, it has become increasingly clear that the European Union is falling short of its promise to enhance social cohesion across the continent. In the face of rising financial capitalism, technological and demographic change, societies across Europe are experiencing old and new forms of poverty and the rise of social inequality. Throughout the EU, welfare state modernization has been at the centre of divisive debates over the redistribution of wealth, and imbalances between a wealthy European core and its peripheries persist. Today more than ever, the policies and governance structures of the EU are seen as part of the problem rather than the solution. This book asks the questions: can the EU contribute to social policy-making and social cohesion, or does it undermine it? And should its action in the social realm be intensified, or curtailed? Taking nine key controversies in the debate around EU social policy-making, the book explores the issues and arguments that emerge around them. In doing so, the book helps students and researchers alike to understand how the EU operates and shapes social policy on multiple levels and to better assess the EU's role in supporting social cohesion.
Download or read book Social Class in Europe written by Etienne Penissat and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mapping the class divisions that run throughout Europe Over the last ten years - especially with the 'no' votes in the French and Dutch referendums in 2010, and the victory for Brexit in 2016 - the issue of Europe has been placed at the centre of major political conflicts. Each of these crises has revealed profound splits in society, which are represented in terms of an opposition between those countries on the losing and those on the winning sides of globalisation. Inequalities beyond those between nations are critically absent from the debate. Based on major European statistical surveys, the new research in this work presents a map of social classes inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's sociology. It reveals the common features of the working class, the intermediate class and the privileged class in Europe. National features combine with social inequalities, through an account of the social distance between specific groups in nations in the North and in the countries of the South and East of Europe. The book ends with a reflection on the conditions that would be required for the emergence of a Europe-wide social movement.
Download or read book The European Social Model Adrift written by Serena Romano and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-09 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a new perspective for discussing the European social contract and its main challenges, bringing together single-nation and comparative studies from across Europe. Presenting both theoretical discussions and empirical case studies, it explores various aspects of social cohesion, including social protection, the labour market, social movements, healthcare, social inequalities and poverty. With particular attention to the effects of the international economic and financial crisis on social cohesion, particularly in the light of the implementation of so-called ’austerity measures’, authors engage with questions surrounding the possible fragmentation of the European model of social cohesion and the transformation of forms of social protection, asking whether social cohesion continues to represent - if it ever did - a common feature of European countries. Breaking new ground in understanding the future of Social Europe and its main dynamics of change, The European Social Model Adrift will appeal to scholars of sociology, social policy and politics, with interests in social cohesion, the effects of financial crisis and the European social model.
Download or read book A European Social Union after the Crisis written by Frank Vandenbroucke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, many people agree that the EU lacks solidarity and needs a social dimension. This debate is not new, but until now the notion of a 'social Europe' remained vague and elusive. To make progress, we need a coherent conception of the reasons behind, and the agenda for, not a 'social Europe', but a new idea: a European Social Union. We must motivate, define, and demarcate an appropriate notion of European solidarity. We must also understand the legal and political obstacles, and how these can be tacked. In short, we need unequivocal answers to questions of why, what, and how: on that basis, we can define a clear-cut normative and institutional concept. That is the remit of this book: it provides an in-depth interdisciplinary examination of the rationale and the feasibility of a European Social Union. Outstanding scholars and top-level practitioners reflect on obstacles and solutions, from an economic, social, philosophical, legal, and political perspective.
Download or read book EU Enlargement Versus Social Europe written by Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recoge : Part I: Candidate countries and the community social acquis: an imposible match? - Part II: Social dumping: myth or reality?
Download or read book The European Social Model under Pressure written by Romana Careja and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European Social Model is at a crossroad. Although from the 1990s onwards, the threat of an imminent crisis shaped much of the rhetoric surrounding the future of the welfare state, disagreement within the academic community remains. What is however increasingly clear is that with the global financial crisis and the Euro crisis that followed it, the challenges the European Social Model faces have become more acute and demand action. This volume launches a multifaceted inquiry into these challenges. Each contribution, written by renowned scholars in their fields, represents an in-depth exploration of issues that cut to the core of current political, economic and social processes. They are an invitation to the seasoned scholars as well as to the beginning students of social sciences, public administration or journalism to engage with, by now, a large body of scholarship, to accompany the authors in their endeavours to seek an explanation to burning questions and start their own inquiries.
Download or read book Social Policy in the European Union written by Linda Hantrais and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2000 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the interconnections between the social policy-making at European level and implementation. It draws on different disciplinary and methodological approaches to social policy analysis while remaining as comprehensive as possible in the country coverage. This extended new edition takes account of the momentous changes that have taken place in the EU since 1995, incorporating new material on membership, legislation, and policy developments and making reference to the latest literature on the subject.
Download or read book European Social Policy Today and Tomorrow written by Michael Shanks and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2015-04-30 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: European Social Policy, Today and Tomorrow discusses the future of the European Community focusing on nine member-countries. The book discusses that if the members of the European Community were to survive and prosper, they should develop a viable social policy focusing on the problems and priorities of the common man. The text also explains the need for a clearer definition of the relative role of the member-states. The book describes the process leading to European integration and social policy, and compares the achievements that have resulted in terms of full, better employment together with improvement of living and working conditions. The text gives special attention to the employment situation and the inception of the European Social Fund, with an emphasis on the freedom of workers to move around the Community in search of better opportunities for themselves. A chapter also emphasizes the role of community participation and industrial democracy toward a meaningful process of shared decision-making. The book argues that the different social systems can be harmonized through the establishment of the First European Social Budget, which tracks date of expenditures covering health, sickness, unemployment, and occupation diseases. The selection then evaluates problems of poverty, health, environment, as well as inflation and social justice. The text evaluates as well the institutions that are established to address the problems. The book then proposes several changes toward a more responsive, evolving European Community. Diplomats, government policymakers, migrant workers, foreign career service officers, and historians will find this book thought-provoking and helpful.
Download or read book The Dark Side of European Integration written by Alina Polyakova and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2015-08-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across Europe, radical right-wing parties are winning increasing electoral support. The Dark Side of European Integration argues that this rising nationalism and the mobilization of the radical right are the consequences of European economic integration. The European economic project has produced a cultural backlash in the form of nationalist radical right ideologies. This assessment relies on a detailed analysis of the electoral rise of radical right parties in Western and Eastern Europe. Contrary to popular belief, economic performance and immigration rates are not the only factors that determine the far right's success. There are other political and social factors that explain why in post-socialist Eastern European countries such parties had historically been weaker than their potential, which they have now started to fulfill increasingly. Using in-depth interviews with radical right activists in Ukraine, Alina Polyakova also explores how radical right mobilization works on the ground through social networks, allowing new insights into how social movements and political parties interact.
Download or read book Europe in Question written by Sara Binzer Hobolt and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2009 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Direct democracy has become an increasingly common feature of European politics with important implications for policy making in the European Union. The no-votes in referendums in France and the Netherlands put an end to the Constitutional Treaty, and the Irish electorate has caused another political crisis in Europe by rejecting the Lisbon Treaty. Europe in Question explains how voters decide in referendums on European integration. It presents a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding voting behaviour in referendums and a thorough comparative analysis of EU referendums from 1972 to 2008. To examine why people vote the way they do, the role of political elites and the impact of the campaign dynamics, this books relies on a variety of sources including survey data, content analysis of media coverage, experimental studies, and elite interviews. The book illustrates the importance of campaign dynamics and elite endorsements in shaping public opinion, electoral mobilization and vote choices. Referendums are often criticized for presenting citizens with choices that are too complex and thereby generating outcomes that have little or no connection with the ballot proposal. Importantly this book shows that voters are smarter than they are often given credit for. They may not be fully informed about European politics, but they do consider the issues at stake before they go to the ballot box and they make use of the information provided by parties and the campaign environment. Direct democracy may not always produce the outcomes that are desired by politicians. But voters are far more competent than commonly perceived.
Download or read book Will Europe Work written by Martin Kohli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-01-14 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the post war years European integration was driven by nation states attempting to stimulate economic growth and social cohesion through European trade and cooperation. The results were prosperous, and unified Western European societies were based on full employment and redistributive welfare states. However, in today's Europe - a Europe subject to increasing international competition fuelled by both economic and cultural globalization - the European social model needs to be re-examined, yet its emphasis on cohesion remains crucial for the future of Europe as a unified polity. Investigating this issue in depth, this outstanding collection is divided into three key sections. These parts: * ask how recent developments have changed the old European model of employment and social protection, and outline a possible new European social model * focus on the questions of European identity and European borders, with special emphasis on cultural divisions such as ethnicity * concentrate on institutions such as citizenship and language, and reflect on sociology's ability to address European integration and the new European social order. Will Europe Work? brings together some of the leading names in European sociology to look at the construction of this new European social order through changing patterns of employment and Welfare and changing definitions of citizenship and identity.
Download or read book The Global Social Sciences written by Michael Vessuri, Hebe Kuhn and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European social sciences tend to absorb criticism that has been passed on the European approach and re-label it as a part of what the critique opposes; criticism of European social sciences by “subaltern” social sciences, their “talking back”, has become a frequent line of reflection in European social sciences. The re-labelling of the critique of the European approach to social sciences towards a critique from “Southern” social sciences of “Western” social sciences has somehow turned “Southern” as well as “Western” social sciences into competing contributors to the same “globalizing” social sciences. Both are no longer arguing about the European approach to social sciences but about which social thought from which part of the globe prevails. If the critique becomes a part of what it opposes, one might conclude that the European social sciences are very adaptable and capable of learning. One might, however, also raise the question whether there is anything wrong with the criticism of the European social sciences; or, for that matter, whether there is anything wrong with the European social sciences themselves. The contributions in this book discuss these questions from different angles: They revisit the mainstream critique of the European social sciences, and they suggest new arguments criticizing social science theories that may be found as often in the “Western” as in the “Southern” discourse.
Download or read book European Citizenship and Social Integration in the European Union written by Jürgen Gerhards and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-05-22 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2008, the European Union has been affected by one of the most severe crises in the history of Europe. This book builds on the work of Jürgen Habermas to answer the key question: is Europe strong enough to overcome the recent crisis? Arguing that recovery can only take place if the citizens of Europe regard themselves as members of a socially integrated European society, this volume sets out three conditions for successful European social integration: European citizens mutually respect each other as equals, accepting that all EU citizens should have equal economic, political and social rights. Those citizens objecting to the idea of European equality should not constitute a minority with potential for mobilisation that could impede the ongoing process of European social integration. Europeans act upon their equality beliefs in everyday practice – without differentiating between nationals and EU migrants. Based on a survey carried out in Germany, Spain, Poland and Turkey, the authors argue that the requirements for a socially integrated Europe are largely in place already. Their findings allow for optimism regarding the future of the EU, as the cultural foundations for a democratisation of Europe are laid. This volume develops a theoretical framework of a socially integrated European community, and will be useful for students and scholars of sociology, citizenship studies, social policy, political science and European studies.
Download or read book Turkey and the European Union written by Selcen Öner and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2011-02-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: European identity has always been in a state of construction. With the creation of the European Union, however, this construction now takes place within an institutional framework, introducing a number of new variables. Selcen Öner's Turkey and the European Union: The Question of European Identity is an in-depth analysis of the influence of these two entities on each others' identity as Europeans in a society of increasing social, political, and cultural connectedness. The mutual influence betweenTurks and Europeans gained significant momentum in 1999, when the European Union granted official candidate status to Turkey at that year's Helsinki Summit. Turkey's Europeanness is still being debated, despite the official stance that fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria and adopting the EU acquis are enough for being a full member of the EU. These debates have even lead to arguments between political elites of the European Union about their "privileged partnership" with Turkey. When comparing the attitudes of the European Union towards Turkey versus those towards Central and Eastern Europe, one could argue that that "return to Europe" discourse has accelerated the membership of the latter, but not the former. Currently Turkey is neither considered an "other," nor a member of the "family." Rather, Turkey is commonly relegated to the role of "crucial neighbor" or "strategic partner" by the political elites of the EU. Öner's study analyzes a series of interviews conducted with several members of the European Parliament and sheds serious light on the fact that discussions on Turkey's membership in terms of her Europeanness reveal countless ambiguities in defining European identity. It is clear that there is no common understanding or definition of Europeanidentity, even amongst political leaders in the EU who challenge Turkey's authenticity as a member of European society. Thus, Selcen Öner's Turkey and the European Union: The Question of European Identity argues that the position of Turkey vis-à-vis the European Union will set a compelling benchmark for European identity construction in the future.
Download or read book Europe s New Scientific Elite written by Barbara Hoenig and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Harald Kaufmann Prize for Senior Researchers, 2018 This book examines the question of whether the process of European integration in research funding has led to new forms of oligarchization and elite formation in the European Research Area. Based on a study of the European Research Council (ERC), the author investigates profound structural change in the social organization of science, as the ERC intervenes in public science systems that, until now, have largely been organized at the national level. Against the background of an emerging new science policy, Europe’s New Scientific Elite explores the social mechanisms that generate, reproduce and modify existing dynamics of stratification and oligarchization in science, shedding light on the strong normative impact of the ERC’s funding on problem-choice in science, the cultural legitimacy and future vision of science, and the building of new research councils of national, European and global scope. A comparative, theory-driven investigation of European research funding, this book will appeal to social scientists with interests in the sociology of knowledge.
Download or read book Governance and Politics in the Post Crisis European Union written by Ramona Coman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-27 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European Union of today cannot be studied as it once was. This original new textbook provides a much-needed update on how the EU's policies and institutions have changed in light of the multiple crises and transformations since 2010. An international team of leading scholars offer systematic accounts on the EU's institutional regime, policies, and its community of people and states. Each chapter is structured to explain the relevant historical developments and institutional framework, presenting the key actors, the current controversies and discussing a paradigmatic case study. Each chapter also provides ideas for group discussions and individual research topics. Moving away from the typical, neutral account of the functioning of the EU, this textbook will stimulate readers' critical thinking towards the EU as it is today. It will serve as a core text for undergraduate and graduate students of politics and European studies taking courses on the politics of the EU, and those taking courses in comparative politics and international organizations including the EU.
Download or read book Vital questions written by Anthony Barnes Atkinson and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
