{"title":"The political contestation of Europe: from integration to disintegration?","authors":"H. Trenz","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2018-2-59","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2018-2-59","url":null,"abstract":"The current crisis of the project of European integration places pressure on and raises expectations concerning the interdisciplinary European Studies community. Looking back at the history of political ideas that informed the project of European integration, the article critically discusses how a new (or renewed) narrative for Europe can be constructed from below and not imposed from above. It seeks new integration dynamics in the ways in which popular discontent finds expression in contemporary Europe, in which citizens experience European integration as crisis and trauma, and in which citizens themselves envision the major challenges ahead. In collecting the voice of popular discontent, we find that citizens’ dissatisfaction and frustration with European integration are related to deficits in the democratic process and efficiency of governance, increased inequalities at a global scale and challenges to truth and rationality. Visions of ‘alternative Europe’ do in this sense embrace the old Enlightenment promise and do not fundamentally reject it.","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122589066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Security in Europe: Towards a Diachronic perspective for Analysing Social Policy Rescaling","authors":"Stefanie Börner, Monika Eigmüller","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2018-1-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2018-1-3","url":null,"abstract":"Recent debates often suggest that welfare states are nation states and that comprehensive social policies at the EU level are therefore inconceivable, given the lack of a European collective identity. Reconsidering former and current periods of social policy rescaling, this paper examines the preconditions for the expansion of the territorial frame of social policy organisation and asks when, why and how actors have been willing to change their frames of action on welfare policies. Adopting a diachronic perspective allows us to examine how processes of re-territorialisation can give rise to new categories of action and reference points which, in turn, establish new types of belonging and solidarity. To this end, we analyse actors’ interests, interpretations, motives and discursive shifts. Our findings point to a close intertwining between general structural changes in the economic and political spheres, on the one hand, and the shifting frames of reference and scope of action of the political, collective and individual actors involved, on the other. On the basis of these findings, we argue that structural transformations alter both political discourse and the actors’ own interests, which over the long run may lead to the emergence of new actors, ideas and territorial principles. Hence, instead of suggesting the rigid nature of national welfare states and, linked to this, the lack of solidarity at the European level, our historically informed approach sheds light on the creative and conflictive processes that led to the predominance of national social policies.","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121777305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unpacking EU contestation: Europeanization and critique in Germany and Spain","authors":"J. Roch","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2019-2-13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2019-2-13","url":null,"abstract":"The rise of populist contenders in Western Europe in the aftermath of the euro crisis has led to an increasing critique of the project of the European Union (EU). This critique has been frequently encapsulated in the label ‘Euroscepticism’ and its softer or harder gradations. This article proposes to revisit this phenomenon from a different angle: the discursive and historical exploration of EU contestation in its context. This paper argues that the forms of EU contestation must be studied together with the symbolic orders about Europe and the EU at the national level. Drawing on the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD), this article delineates the diverse representations and problematizations of EU-contesting discourses in Western Europe studying the cases of Germany and Spain. The findings show greater power to constrain (power in discourse) EU contestation in Spain than in Germany, the latter country being a more suitable terrain for critique of the EU. These divergences are connected to the historical processes of Europeanization in each country and their particular symbolic orders.","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"9 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114028286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The double force of European categories: “Religion”, “language”, and “territory” as tools of domination and critique","authors":"N. Tietze","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2018-2-23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2018-2-23","url":null,"abstract":"“Religion”, “language”, and “territory” are fundamental semantic topoi in narratives about European integration. At the same time, they lend plausibility to emancipatory imaginations of community. Thus, they are the basis for institutional orders but also open opportunities for voicing critique. The article elucidates this double force by presenting findings from empirical work that examines three levels relevant to the topic: first, the European Union and the Council of Europe, second, German and French public action in the sphere of integration policies, and third, individual actors in Germany and France. The categories of religion, language, and territory are drawn on to translate institutional orders of domination into the praxis of public action and to support practical judgments. Studying how these categories are used is not only useful in describing the interdependencies, processes and interactions that underlie power relations and that can contribute to changing them, they also reveal the Europeanization of normative action.","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"79 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114112557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Global pandemic, local solidarity: Six civic initiatives from Leipzig, Germany","authors":"Micha Fiedlschuster, Leon Rosa Reichle","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2021-1-39","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2021-1-39","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we contribute to the mapping out of overall solidarity responses from below to the pandemic by giving local insight into the varied forms of neighbourly support groups in Leipzig, Eastern Germany. Having followed the trajectories of six groups between May and September 2020 with eleven semi-structured interviews, we highlight different organizational approaches, understandings of solidarity, normative horizons, transformative as-pirations and practical barriers to these aspirations. We analytically map out the groups with three different sociological conceptions of solidarity (solidarity based on shared identity, as a moral duty or as a transformative political practice) and highlight their blurry boundaries in practice. We tentatively assess the transformative potential of the groups’ activism and reflect on it in relation to their socio-spatial locations within the city.","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114000652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Andere, Selbste, Grenzen. Momentaufnahme eines Diskurses zur globalen Mirgration","authors":"Anne Sophie Krossa","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2016-1-16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2016-1-16","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115720209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trade union politics as a countermovement? A Polaniyan perspective","authors":"M. Seeliger","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2019-1-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2019-1-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116137719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Brexit an exit disaster or entry into a Kafkaesque process? Reflections from a Danish education and research context","authors":"John Benedicta Krejsler","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2017-1-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2017-1-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116844076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A great variety of transformations – and populisms","authors":"Floris Biskamp","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2019-1-92","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2019-1-92","url":null,"abstract":"Hans-Jürgen Bieling makes a convincing case that there are valuable lessons to be learned from Karl Polanyi’s analyses of the rise of authoritarianism in the 20 century to understand the rise of right-wing populism today. However, in order to realize the full potential of this approach, some ideas at the margins of his argument should be expanded and reworked. As I argue in this paper, this is particularly true for three aspects: First, the economic and social transformation processes to which Bieling refers differ strongly from region to region, fostering different kinds of populist mobilization. Second, the idea of a new cleavage is not fully convincing in the form in which Bieling presents it and should be reworked to account for at least two cleavages. Third, the notion of embeddedness must be understood as a multidimensional phenomenon to account for dynamics of gender and race – which then opens a pathway to overcoming the tired controversy over whether right-wing populism is about the economy or about culture and identity.","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"548 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127465819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EU Freedoms at a Critical Juncture? The Positions of Member State Governments on EU Person and Services Mobility","authors":"Christof Roos","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2018-1-19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2018-1-19","url":null,"abstract":"Brexit has questioned the paradigm of ever expanding EU freedoms for persons and workers in the EU. Communitarian claims in favour of national sovereignty and social protectionism succeeded in mobilizing voters in the UK for leaving the EU. The study examines how liberal values underpinning the freedom of movement and freedom of services were contested by the governments of France, Germany, and the UK in the early 2010s. The findings of the comparison confirm that EU freedom rights are at a critical juncture. Policy change and underpinning normative claims of the governments of France and Germany suggest that the posting of workers is contested at its core, enabling competition of labour standards and wages in the single market. In contrast, freedom of movement and the right to equal treatment of EU citizens was only criticized at its margins, aiming at restrictions for access to specific benefits or unwanted groups. Regarding the UK, the analysis observes a reverse positioning: a rejection of equal treatment and affirmation of competition. Based on these findings it is argued that shifting support for the conditions for the posting of workers made recent communitarian corrections possible. However, continued support of the French and German government for the equal treatment of EU citizens underpinning the freedom of movement does not suggest radical changes to this freedom and key narrative for EU integration.","PeriodicalId":392823,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"212 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124158815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}