scholarly journals Perspectives on Social Citizenship in the EU: From Status Positivus to Status Socialis Activus via Two Forms of Transnational Solidarity

2017 ◽  
pp. 341-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar Schiek
Keyword(s):  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
The Eu

scholarly journals Transnational solidarity among political elites: what determines support for financial redistribution within the EU in times of crisis?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Ann-Kathrin Reinl ◽  
Heiko Giebler
Keyword(s):  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Responsibility Attribution ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Attitudinal Differences ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

As a consequence of the European Economic Crisis, the European Union (EU) has implanted mechanisms to assist fellow member states facing economic difficulties. Despite an increasing academic interest in public preferences for such intra-EU solidarity measures, research has so far largely ignored individual characteristics that could possibly influence politicians’ views. In this paper, we look at politicians’ preferences for transnational solidarity and argue that these preferences depend on attitudes regarding socioeconomic issues as well as attitudes related to the EU. Moreover, we hypothesize that the relationship is moderated by responsibility attribution and the economic situation in a country. Using survey data of about 4000 politicians running for office in nine EU countries, we find that transnational solidarity is more common for socioeconomically left-wing and pro-EU politicians. Yet, attitudinal differences only cease to matter when the beneficiary state is perceived responsible for the crisis and economic problems at home are low.

What Is Solidarity About? Views of Transnational Organisations’ Activists in Germany, Poland, and Greece

2020 ◽  
pp. 136078042096280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Zschache ◽  
Maria Theiss ◽  
Maria Paschou
Keyword(s):  
Social Rights ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Core ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Grassroots Level ◽  
Connection Building ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
The Eu

The notion of solidarity plays an important role in debates about the future of Europe. Yet, it can be used in a diverse or even contradictory manner as contemporary discussions about refugees in Europe or the implementation of social rights at the EU-level well illustrate. While the focus of public attention is often on political leaders, the goal of this article is to deepen our knowledge about the understanding of solidarity by its practitioners at the grassroots-level of solidarity work. Our study is based on 97 individual interviews with representatives of transnational solidarity organisations (TSOs) located in Germany, Poland, and Greece. We show how their understanding of solidarity varies across three basic themes: the rationale of action, the scope of beneficiaries, and relations with and among beneficiaries. Most strikingly, our research reveals that the core understanding of solidarity among the TSOs under review reflects a progressive, transnational type of solidarity that emphasises universalism, connection-building between targets of solidarity and establishing group identities based on collective action and not pre-defined features. At the same time, our study shows how TSOs adapt to complex country- and field-specific contextual conditions.

scholarly journals Accession 8 Migration and the Proactive and Defensive Engagement of Social Citizenship

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOANNE COOK ◽  
PETER DWYER ◽  
LOUISE WAITE
Keyword(s):  
Social Deprivation ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
Local Host ◽  
Local Impact ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

AbstractFollowing the expansion of the European Union in 2004 unprecedented numbers of Accession 8 migrants from Central and Eastern Europe entered the UK. These migrants are often concentrated in particular urban neighbourhoods, which are already routinely home to diverse communities and/or characterised by high levels of social deprivation. Using original data from a study in a northern English city, this paper explores the ways in which established communities experience and make sense of the local impact of new migration within their neighbourhoods. The belief that newly arrived migrants are in competition with established communities for finite local jobs and welfare resources is central to the expressed concerns of established communities about the potential for A8 migration to have a localised negative impact.Utilising Ellison's (2000) theoretical insights, the paper argues that established communities’ concerns, rather than being simply an expression of xenophobic intolerance, have their basis in how the expansion of the EU facilitates opportunities for the ‘proactive engagement’ of citizenship status among A8 migrants, whilst often triggering a more ‘defensive engagement’ among members of local host communities.

scholarly journals Reinterpreting the Historicity of the Nordic Model

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauli Kettunen
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Conflicting Interests ◽  
The Eu

In conventional images of the so-called Nordic model, the strong state is opposed to markets or civil society and co-operation is opposed to conflict. These opposites appear problematic if one takes seriously the Nordic market- and interest-centered language used for the practices of social regulation, including the stubborn use of “labor market parties” instead of the EU concept “social partners”. Applying an approach sensitive to the historical and political aspects of language and concepts, the paper argues that a particular notion of social citizenship developed in the Nordic countries, in which interests rather than rights were put into the center. Such a notion of social citizenship was associated with two intertwined ideas, important in the development of the Nordic pattern of social reform: the idea of symmetry between workers and employers and the idea of a virtuous circle between divergent interests. With these ideas democracy and citizenship were combined with paid work and conflicting interests. This combination has been questioned by the projects for competitive national (and European) communities, responding to globalized and financialized capitalism. The vigorous comparisons of “models”, and the popularity of the concept of “the Nordic model”, can be seen as an aspect of this current transformation.

scholarly journals Regulating the Poor through Internal Borders: The EU in Historical and International Perspectives

2021 ◽  
pp. 138826272110646
Author(s):  
Martin Seeleib-Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Systems Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poor Relief ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
The Poor ◽  
International Perspectives ◽  
Internal Migrants ◽  
The Eu

Tensions surrounding internal migrants’ access to welfare and the associated politicisations about who should shoulder the ‘fiscal burden’ are not unique to the European Union (EU). Based on a Most Different Systems Design and following an institutionalist approach, this article analyses the developments associated with freedom of movement and access to poor relief/social assistance in four economically and politically diverse jurisdictions. It also considers the implications of these developments for the EU. The four cases analysed are industrialising England, contemporary China, Germany, and the United States. Although economic integration was a necessary, it was not a sufficient condition for the abolishment of residence requirements for internal migrants in all four jurisdictions. Moreover, it took political power, various coalitions, or the leadership of actors to overcome the barriers and hurdles on the path to social citizenship in the wider territorial jurisdictions. Solidarity as a precondition did not play a significant role.

Round Table. From Lisbon to Porto: taking stock of developments in EU social policy: Social Europe 2.0? New prospects after the Porto Social Summit

2021 ◽  
pp. 102425892110610
Author(s):  
Maurizio Ferrera
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Lisbon Strategy ◽  
Effective Role ◽  
Adjustment Variable ◽  
Year 2000 ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Social Europe

The sequence of crises in the 2010s entirely changed the socio-economic context that had inspired the Lisbon strategy in the year 2000. EU policy veered towards austerity and social policy became an ‘adjustment variable’. Since the mid-2010s, however, a slow process of rebalancing has gained ground, culminating in the adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) in 2017. The Porto Summit has confirmed the centrality of the Pillar for a new Social Europe. To appreciate fully the EPSR’s potential, it is necessary to focus not only on binding measures but also on EU incentives and actions aimed at promoting (and partially funding) concrete access to social rights. Especially through the ‘guarantee’ instrument, the EU can play a bigger and more effective role in the sphere of social citizenship, without stumbling into the political obstacles associated with hard law.

scholarly journals Together we stand? Transnational solidarity in the EU in times of crises

2021 ◽  
pp. 146511652110356
Author(s):  
Alexia Katsanidou ◽  
Ann-Kathrin Reinl ◽  
Christina Eder
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Past ◽  
Novel Virus ◽  
Crisis Scenarios ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
The Eu

After more than a decade of consecutive crises, the issue of transnational solidarity is becoming increasingly relevant for the European Union. This research note compares the current coronavirus disease-2019 crisis to previous ones and investigates the willingness of European Union citizens to show solidarity towards fellow member states. We test the influence of socio-political attitudes of citizens on solidarity preferences in three crisis scenarios. We analyse Greece and Germany as cases differently affected by the past decade's crises and cases that chose different crisis management strategies when facing the novel virus. Our findings indicate that solidarity is highest in a pandemic, while for all crisis scenarios it is higher in Greece than in Germany. Despite variations in the degree of solidarity associated relationships with socio-political attitudes remain consistent.

European Citizenship Rights and European Fiscal Politics After the Crisis

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott L. Greer ◽  
Holly Jarman
Keyword(s):  
Economic Effects ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
European Central ◽  
European Citizenship ◽  
Crisis Conditions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

The economic effects of the financial crisis in the eurozone have been much studied, but the impact of political and institutional changes made amidst crisis conditions have been less studied. This article examines the changes in the EU since 2008 through the lens of T.H. Marshall’s concept of citizenship, gauging the effects of different changes in the EU polity on the citizenship rights of individuals. The key changes are in fiscal governance, which includes a new treaty as well as substantial legislation changing the balance of powers within and competencies of the EU institutions, the European Central Bank’s role and the Troika arrangements for countries in crisis. We find that while the EU’s contribution to civil citizenship in Europe is relatively intact, the development of its fiscal governance is bringing serious negative consequences for political and social citizenship in all member states. The EU is adopting policies that entrust more power to less democratically accountable institutions with the objective of fiscal rigour rather than social citizenship.

Is There a Way Where There’s a Will? The Tensions between the Court’s Case Law and the Pillar in Delimiting Transnational Solidarity

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-539
Author(s):  
Ane Aranguiz ◽  
Miriam Quené
Keyword(s):  
Economic Status ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
European Citizenship ◽  
The Right ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
The Eu

Abstract European citizenship has often served as a proxy for political visions of far-reaching social integration within the EU. Over the last years, this has been challenged by a number of judgments of the CJEU, which appear to increasingly restrict the access of economically inactive mobile EU citizens to social benefits under the Citizens Directive. By contrast, the more recent European Pillar of Social Rights enshrines the right to a minimum income for all citizens of the Union, regardless of their economic status or the legality of their residence. This article aims to address the resulting asymmetry between the Pillar and the CJEU’s current interpretation of the Citizens Directive, examining whether and to what extent the former could influence the latter. In doing so, it will discuss the background, objectives and interpretation of the Citizens Directive’s right to equal treatment, examine the scope of the minimum income principle contained in the Pillar, and highlight the key differences between the two.

scholarly journals Media and the Economic Crisis of the EU: The ‘Culturalization’ of a Systemic Crisis and Bild-Zeitung’s Framing of Greece

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 646-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiannis Mylonas
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Systemic Crisis ◽  
Economic Elites ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
The Given ◽  
Of Greece ◽  
The Eu

This article critically studies the hegemonic discursive construction of the EU’s current (2012) economic crisis, as it is articulated by political and economic elites and by mass media. The study focuses on the political economy of the particular crisis and through the critical concept of reification, the study emphasizes the hegemonic naturalization of the economic crisis by the “free market” economistic ideology. The article problematizes the positioning of Greece as the “crisis epicentre” in Europe, understanding Greece as a scapegoat and as a laboratory where political strategies of capitalist restructuring of the EU are performed. Through the frame analysis of Bild-zeitung’s headlines on the coverage of crisis-struck Greece, the article discusses a) the “culturalization” of the crisis and the diversion from a structural public debate on the global economic crisis b) the disciplinary function of crisis’ publicity, related to social control and the production of new, neoliberal social subjectivities c) the alienating effect of the culturalist crisis discourses to transnational publics, resulting to the misrecognition of the ideological and structural reasons of the given crisis, the misrecognition of the effects of the crisis and crisis-politics in people’s lives, the misrecognition of popular socio-political struggles in countries worse struck by crisis politics, and the eclipse of transnational solidarity and identification to the common issues that European people in particular are facing.

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