Successive EU treaties may have instituted a common framework for fighting racial discrimination and intolerance across Europe, but it is a framework that masks the significant differences that arise as a result of national context: for example, pre-existing national anti-racist policies and legislation; the degree of success, character and development of anti-racist movements as well as the political, socio-economic and cultural context in which these policies and movements arise. The aim of this book is to provide an understanding of these different national contexts by exploring the nature of anti-racist movements in six different EU member states and their relationship to political institutions and policy-making, while also reflecting on the impact of the new European sphere of decision-making. Drawing on extensive primary research involving interviews with movement and policy actors at the national and EU level, the book sheds light on the nature of racism and responses to it across Europe, analysing the impact of Europeanisation of policy-making on the sector, and exploring north-south and east-west differences and patterns of convergence.

This collection presents a political sociology of crisis in Europe. Focusing on state and society transformations in the context of the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath in Europe, it observes a return of redistributive conflicts that correlates with a 'new politics of identity', nationalism, regionalism and expressions of Euroscepticism.

In light of Europe's prolonged state of crisis, this book reassesses the challenges and prospects of the European integration process. Scholars from diverse disciplines reflect on various types of integration by analyzing political, economic and sociological variables, while also taking legal and cultural constraints into account. Readers will learn about the dilemmas and challenges of the European transformation process as well as political reforms to overcome these challenges. The book is divided into four parts, the first of which discusses the external dimension of the European Union, including a review of development aid policies and EU foreign policy. In turn, the second part focuses on institutional change and asymmetrical integration in the EU. The third part is devoted to the rise of populism and nationalism, including an analysis of the role of civil society organizations in the Brexit. In closing, the last part highlights the crisis of the Euro as a symbol of European integration and the emerging social and economic divide between countries of the North and South.

What is the impact of populism on the EU? How did the EU institutions and civil society react to the recent rise of populist parties? To answer such relevant questions and understand populism in terms of ideas, political outcomes, and social dynamics, academia needs to engage with institutional actors, civil society organizations, and policy makers. By bringing together academics, members of European institutions and agencies, and leaders of civil society organizations, this edited volume bridges the gap between research and practice. It explores how populism impacted on European institutions and civil society and investigates their reactions and strategies to overcome the challenges posed by populists. This collection is organized into three main sections, i.e., general European governance; European Parliament and Commission; European organized civil society. Overall, the volume unveils how the populist threat was perceived within the EU institutions and NGOs and discusses the strategies they devised to react and how these were implemented in institutional and public communication.

This book provides readers - students, researchers, academics, policy-makers, activists and interested non-specialists - with a sophisticated understanding of contemporary discussion, analysis and theorizing of issues pertaining to conflict, citizenship and civil society. It does so through thirteen pieces of most recent in-depth sociological research that delve on: challenges to citizenship, civil society and citizenship in early and late modernity, the reflexive imperative in transformations of civil society, social conflict challenges to social science approaches, methodology and explanatory power, gender, minorities-immigrants-refugees and the extension of citizenship, violence in modernity, the place of civil society for sociology, and postcolonialism, trauma, and civil society.

This book provides readers a " students, researchers, academics, policy-makers, activists and interested non-specialists a " with a sophisticated understanding of contemporary discussion, analysis and theorizing of issues pertaining to conflict, citizenship and civil society. It does so through thirteen pieces of most recent in-depth sociological research that delve on: challenges to citizenship, civil society and citizenship in early and late modernity, the reflexive imperative in transformations of civil society, social conflict challenges to social science approaches, methodology and explanatory power, gender, minorities-immigrants-refugees and the extension of citizenship, violence in modernity, the place of civil society for sociology, and postcolonialism, trauma, and civil society.

Following his third election victory in 2008, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the most controversial head of government in the EU. This is a cogent examination of the Berlusconi phenomenon, exploring the success and development of the new populist right-wing coalition in Italy since the collapse of the post-war party system in the early 1990s. Carlo Ruzza and Stefano Fella provide a comprehensive discussion of the three main parties of the Italian right: Berlusconi's Forza Italia, the xenophobic and regionalist populist Northern League and the post-fascist National Alliance. The book assesses the implications of this controversial right for the Italian democratic system and examines how the social and political peculiarities of Italy have allowed such political formations to emerge and enjoy repeated electoral success. Framed in a comparative perspective, the authors: explore the nature of the Italian right in the context of right-wing parties and populist phenomena elsewhere in other advanced democracies, drawing comparisons and providing broader explanations. locate the parties of the Italian right within the existing theoretical conceptions of right-wing and populist parties, utilising a multi-method approach, including a content analysis of party programmes. highlight the importance of political and discursive opportunities in explaining the success of the Italian right, and the agency role of a political leadership that has skilfully shaped and communicated an ideological package to exploit these opportunities. Providing an excellent insight into a key European nation, this work provides a thoughtful and stimulating contribution to the research on the Italian right, and its implications for democratic politics.

Following his third election victory in 2008, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the most controversial head of government in the EU. This is a cogent examination of the Berlusconi phenomenon, exploring the success and development of the new populist right-wing coalition in Italy since the collapse of the post-war party system in the early 1990s. Carlo Ruzza and Stefano Fella provide a comprehensive discussion of the three main parties of the Italian right: Berlusconi's Forza Italia, the xenophobic and regionalist populist Northern League and the post-fascist National Alliance. The book assesses the implications of this controversial right for the Italian democratic system and examines how the social and political peculiarities of Italy have allowed such political formations to emerge and enjoy repeated electoral success. Framed in a comparative perspective, the authors: explore the nature of the Italian right in the context of right-wing parties and populist phenomena elsewhere in other advanced democracies, drawing comparisons and providing broader explanations. locate the parties of the Italian right within the existing theoretical conceptions of right-wing and populist parties, utilising a multi-method approach, including a content analysis of party programmes. highlight the importance of political and discursive opportunities in explaining the success of the Italian right, and the agency role of a political leadership that has skilfully shaped and communicated an ideological package to exploit these opportunities. Providing an excellent insight into a key European nation, this work provides a thoughtful and stimulating contribution to the research on the Italian right, and its implications for democratic politics.

What is the impact of populism on the EU? How did the EU institutions and civil society react to the recent rise of populist parties? To answer such relevant questions and understand populism in terms of ideas, political outcomes, and social dynamics, academia needs to engage with institutional actors, civil society organizations, and policy makers. By bringing together academics, members of European institutions and agencies, and leaders of civil society organizations, this edited volume bridges the gap between research and practice. It explores how populism impacted on European institutions and civil society and investigates their reactions and strategies to overcome the challenges posed by populists. This collection is organized into three main sections, i.e., general European governance; European Parliament and Commission; European organized civil society. Overall, the volume unveils how the populist threat was perceived within the EU institutions and NGOs and discusses the strategies they devised to react and how these were implemented in institutional and public communication.

Based on extensive primary research, including interviews with movement and policy actors across six European countries, this book examines anti-racist movements throughout Europe, focusing on how they influence culture and government policy at national and EU level, shedding light on the nature of racism and responses to it across Europe.

In light of Europe's prolonged state of crisis, this book reassesses the challenges and prospects of the European integration process. Scholars from diverse disciplines reflect on various types of integration by analyzing political, economic and sociological variables, while also taking legal and cultural constraints into account. Readers will learn about the dilemmas and challenges of the European transformation process as well as political reforms to overcome these challenges. The book is divided into four parts, the first of which discusses the external dimension of the European Union, including a review of development aid policies and EU foreign policy. In turn, the second part focuses on institutional change and asymmetrical integration in the EU. The third part is devoted to the rise of populism and nationalism, including an analysis of the role of civil society organizations in the Brexit. In closing, the last part highlights the crisis of the Euro as a symbol of European integration and the emerging social and economic divide between countries of the North and South.

Integrating newcomers and minorities into the social fabric of receiving countries has become one of the crucial challenges of contemporary Western societies. This volume seeks to understand patterns of changing institutional practices and public policies where the challenges of including cultural diversity into the social fabric are most pronounced: namely the health care system. In recent years, pro-migrant organizations and anti-racist activists have repeatedly voiced and politicized demands to improve migrants' access to the health-care system giving rise to a lively debate about migrants' access to health-care and responsiveness of institutions to their needs. In a nutshell the book achieves the following: - Provides a conceptual framework to link patterns of political advocacy/mobilization and processes of migrants' socio-political inclusion - Integrates the (multi-disciplinary) literature on political mobilization and accommodating cultural diversity in an innovative fashion - Presents a comparative study on accommodating diversity in the health care system from a comparative transatlantic perspective - Generates insight into best practices in the health care system that will be of interest to scholars as well as practitioners in the field. The analysis of health care provision offers an opportunity to test new public policy strategies and the policy consequences of the now widespread aspiration to include citizens more fully in designing and implementing them.

"Europe and Civil Society" provides an in-depth examination of how public interest groups and social movements seek to influence the European policy-making process. The book is based on a comparison of the role of networks of activists and their allies--broadly defined as Movement Advocacy Coalitions--in influencing decision-making at the European Union level in three specific areas of policy-making: environmentalism, anti-racism and ethno-nationalist regionalism. It draws on systematic documentary analysis and an extensive series of interviews with activists and institutional actors to examine the role of public interest organisations in these three areas. This focus reflects topical societal concerns and facilitates new insights into the study of European policy-making, political sociology, and social movement research.