L’Europe sociale : créativité institutionnelle communautaire et réalités nationales

“Social Europe” has been constructed following 50 years of EEC and EU policy-making, which has gradually extricated social questions from a pure rationale of economic integration in order to turn it into a lever for European political integration. The theoretical and disciplinary viewpoints are presented that, together, help us better understand the processes at work. Attention is drawn to three of them. First of all, the evolutionary process of building the EU accounts both for the differences between social Europe and national welfare systems, and for an ongoing process of institutional creation through an accumulation of EU legal achievements (acquis). Secondly, the expansion of the EU to twelve new member states lacking robust labor relation systems, along with globalization, represents a challenge for the future of the “European social model”. Finally, social Europe has not yet undergone an assessment. Problems arise owing to the short shrift given by treaties to questions of social legislation or redistribution, but the “Europeanization of national policies” apparently opens a way toward overcoming these obstacles.     

Europeanization of Research and the Role of Universities: An Organizational-Cultural Perspective

Europeanization of research is a process in which the dynamics of the European Framework Programme, of national research systems and local research organizations interfere. Unlike most studies on Europeanization that focus on Europe in relation to national research systems, this article explores the relationship between Europe and universities. The main question addressed by this article is why some universities have more researchers who are active and successful at the European level than others. Our hypothesis is that participation at EU level depends on the organizational cultural bias of university researchers. Following on studies of changes in the research system, the EU framework and institutional innovations of universities, we argue that researchers within universities who develop strong affinity with their own organization will be more successful at the European level. The organizational culture of a university is conceptualized as the aggregate of cultural repertoires and biases that university researchers have at hand to legitimate themselves. To map these biases, we analysed the perception of different processes of accountability. The hypothesis was tested by calculation of the correlation between these cultural biases and different indicators of 'European behaviour'. Data were from an international questionnaire on institutional innovation and Europeanization at universities, which was circulated in eight European countries.     

The NGOization of LGBT activism: ILGA-Europe and the Treaty of Amsterdam

This article discusses the Europeanization of social movement organizations using the case of ILGA-Europe, the umbrella of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations in Europe. It examines the impact of Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which bans discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and focuses on three entrenched dynamics ILGA-Europe has rapidly undergone: NGOization, institutionalization, and professionalization. It argues that although we should be aware of the role of the European political opportunity structure in shaping civil society organizations, we cannot overlook internal organizational dynamics and movement identities. Following the literature on the Europeanization of social movements, this piece confirms institutional opportunities and interactions with European institutions are a major cause of transformation: The adoption of Article 13 and the development of a European equal opportunity policy constitute a pivotal moment in ILGA-Europe’s history, endowing it with easier access to EU institutions and core funding. This allowed the organization to NGOize, contributed to a transformation of its internal structures, and led to the appointment of highly skilled professionals. However, this article also insists on the importance of movement identity. These transformations are not solely the result of interactions with the European institutional environment, but had been prepared by long-term orientations within ILGA, that is a preference for reformist claims and institutional strategies. ILGA-Europe’s NGOization is thus not only a response to institutional and political changes, but also results from specific ways of imagining activism. It is the interaction between movement identity and arising institutional opportunities that allowed the organization to transform.     

The Post-Soviet Space: A Transition Period

This article analyzes the processes taking place in the “post-Soviet space”—the former Soviet Union. This notion is viewed as a special historical phenomenon implying not only common territory but also political, economic, cultural, mental, civil, and other mutual ties inherited from the past. The social and political nature of the “post-Soviet space” is fast-changing due to the impact of three interrelated factors: economic (the difference in economic potentials and the resource base, the increasing dependence on fluctuations in prices for basic export commodities in the global market, and the weak domestic markets); political (a new kind of conflicts between former Soviet republics, the instability of the political-party systems, the immaturity of civil society, and the growth of authoritarian trends); and international one (the region is a crossroads of the geopolitical interests of the world’s major players—Russia, the United States, the European Union and China). The vital importance of this space for Russia causes it to pursue an active policy in this region.     

European integration : Sociological process or political project?

Within debate about prospects for future European unification, ‘integration’ is a fashionable and often confusing word. Depending on context, it may refer to long‐term socio‐economic processes ('convergence'), to processes of political construction, to symbolic processes ('European identity'), or to the quite separate issue of prudential co‐operation between states—or to some uncertain mixture of all four. Yet the concept of integration has a reputable sociological pedigree and remains useful for thinking about the issues raised by Europeanization. Thus, a fresh look at Durkheim's thinking on the possibility of solidarity within complex societies is of direct relevance to the contemporary European case. Of particular importance is the Durkheimian distinction between three complementary dimensions of integration—shared practices, social intercourse (or ‘moral density') and common ‘consciousness'—, and the suggestion that, in the absence of ‘mechanical solidarity’ based on similarity, the latter is both deeply problematic and derivative rather than generative. They shed light on the ambivalence of the process / project of Europeanization and open up a space for specific discussion of collective prudence—originally the essence of Europeanization and which, while in principle separable from it, has tended in practice to become tangled with the integration issue. As the borders of Europe become potentially less stable, disentanglement is of vital importance.     

Migration Policies and Political Cultures in Europe: A Changing Trend

This paper discusses the relationships between the migratory policies of the EU countries with more experience of immigration and their national political cultures. It focuses on France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It then looks at Italy, a relatively new country of immigration, which, with 3,000,000 legal immigrants, has become the fourth country of immigration in Europe and the first in the Mediterranean basin. In its final part it highlights the incipient process of ‘communitarisation’ of the immigration policies of EU countries in the last decade. This process, which has already entailed a significant convergence of their migratory policies, is expected to continue after the recent enlargement of the European Union.     

Social Movements and Europeanization Processes: The Case of the French Associations Mobilizing around the Asylum Issue

This paper seeks to analyse the process of Europeanization of social movements mobilizing around the asylum policy since the middle of the 1990s. Taking the example of the principal French associations which have mobilized on this topic, the paper explores the dynamics that lead these associations to increasingly address the European institutions since the launching of the process of harmonisation of asylum policies. In particular, it shows that particular attention shall be given to the relationship between the associations that have constituted at the national level and the set of actors that are mobilized on this issue exclusively at the European level (which is defined as a European advocacy coalition). Through the analysis of this relationship, it can be seen that the French associations follow different processes of Europeanization. Some follow a process of inclusion into the existing European advocacy coalition while others create alternative mobilizations at the European level. This study allows us to observe and to analyse the similarities and differences in the interactions between social movements and institutions in the national political space and in the European political space on this particular issue. In doing so, it seeks to present an original perspective on a process of ‘Europeanization from below’. This research is based on the in-depth analysis of 11 associations which are representative of the diversity of the movement related to the asylum issue in France. It uses different methods that were developed in social movements studies: frame analysis, protest-event analysis and network analysis. It is based on several sources: associative discourses and publications, in-depth interviews, and associative internal literature.     

The Roma Voice in the European Union: Between National Belonging and Transnational Identity

This article examines the response of Roma activists to the Italian Roma crisis in 2007 and 2008. The Roma community has become targets of discriminatory policies in Italy, such as forced evictions and ethnic profiling by the authorities, which construct Roma as distinct from the Italian nation. Roma activists increasingly circumvent national political structures and instead regard the European Union (EU) as an ally in redressing discriminatory policies in member states. In the absence of a kin state to lobby and advocate on their behalf, Roma activists, working in the transnational political context, articulate their voice and demands to the institutions of the EU. In doing so, they construct a transnational identity which on the one hand reifies Roma to a homogeneous group, whilst on the other hand contributes to the idea that Roma are not a constitutive component of the dominant nation. This article uses the Italian Roma crisis as a particular episode in which transnational Roma activists responded to a nationally based crisis and explores the impact of this on issues of national belonging.     

Towards a European public sphere?

In this paper we address the alleged communication or public sphere deficit of the EU. We develop a systematic approach to the Europeanization of public spheres, which distinguishes three forms of Europeanized political communication: supranational, vertical and horizontal. We propose that the spatial reach and boundaries of public communication can be determined by investigating communicative flows and assessing the relative density of public communication within and between different geopolitical spaces. We apply this model to data on political claim making in seven issue fields in German print media in the year 2000. We find that the degree and forms of Europeanization of political communication vary considerably among policy fields. These differences are strongly linked to the extent and type (supranational or intergovernmental) of competencies of the EU in these fields. Contrary to the hypothesis of a public sphere deficit, the German mass media seem to quite accurately reflect the Europeanization of policy making, at least in those policy fields where a clear‐cut transfer of competencies to the supranational EU level has taken place.     

Eroding societal trust: a game-changer for EU policies and institutions?†

Trust is a fundamental condition for a fair and cooperative society. But what if trust collapses? This article is interested in the disrupting effects a further erosion or even collapse of trust could have for European Union (EU) policies and institutions. It is argued that a breakdown of trust could create serious risks, but also opportunities, and is therefore an important factor that the EU must consider when designing its future policies and strategies. To this end – by using a forward-looking and trend impact analysis approach – the article provides insights and options on how strategic political responses for the EU could look like to turn the trend around and again enhance trust in the European project. Empirically, it addresses issue and policy areas such as trust in political systems, justice, science, economic regulation, cyberspace, surveillance as well as ethnic and religious diversity.     

Migration and Policies in the European Union: Highly Skilled Mobility,Free Movement of Labour and Recognition of Diplomas

This article evaluates the relationship between highly skilled mobility (especially by individuals with university‐level degrees) and migration policies. Data from the European Union (EU) and Portugal (in particular) provide the empirical basis of the research. EU policies regarding the free circulation of individuals which aim to build the “common market” for economic factors (including labour) are reviewed, as are the more specific recognition of diplomas policies for professional and academic purposes, and recent levels of international mobility in both the EU and Portugal. The article also enumerates the main obstacles that, from a political and legal or social and cultural perspective, explain the low mobility revealed by those figures. Obstacles include the broad denial of citizenship rights; the necessity of assuring a means of sustenance; linguistic and technical exigencies for diploma recognition; the social attributes of work (more explicit in the service sector); and the institutional nature of national skilled labour markets. The main exception to the low mobility rule – movements of cadres in the internal labour markets of transnational corporations – together with flows in other multinational organizations, are also reviewed. In these, migrations are relatively exempt from political constraints and, significantly, avoid the recognition procedures adopted by the EU. In other words, it seems that the entry of highly skilled individuals in a transnational corporation, and not their citizenship in a Europe without frontiers, is what enables them to achieve effective mobility.     

Labor policy in the EU: The new emphasis on education and training under the treaty of Amsterdam

Labor market policy in the EU is seemingly a rather different animal today than heretofore because of the belated recognition that healthy employment development is the precondition for achieving fair and decent social and working standards. The pursuit of often ambitious mandatory labor standards appears to have been downplayed, and the notion of coordination to have superceded harmonization. The new means of coordination (via national employment plans) is benchmarking, identifying best-practice measures in employment policy, and offering encouragement to member states to progressively develop their own policies in this light. The presumed goal is to secure meaningful common action in the context of institutional diversity in national labor markets —the perennial problem in EU social policy formation. I review the new employment strategy with special reference to its education and training components ajid in the process question whether recent developments presage a sea change in the evolution of Community labor policy. ” If I were to set the process of uniting Europe in motion once more, I would start with education.” (Jean Monnet) This is a revised version of a paper presented at the First Biennial Conference of the Hong Kong Economic Association, Hong Kong, December 16, 2000.     

Policy-making on science in society between Europeanization and core–periphery divide

The aim of the paper is to identify the cross-national differences and similarities in policy-making trends on science in society (SiS) based on the comparative analysis of national reports from FP7 project “Monitoring Policy and Research Activities Related to Science in Society in Europe”. Science in society in EU is characterized by two parallel processes: Europeanization and diversity of science and innovation policies. The focus of the analysis is to explore the possible indications of Europeanization as well as diversities and find elements of certain elements of core–periphery model. The focus of the analysis is to explore the existence of common issues of SiS and on the other side different policy actions and national priorities. Although the analysis reveals the presence of Europeanization process diversities and divides are still present which draws attention to a core–periphery model. While common trends can be recognized on the theoretical and contextual level mainly coming from the various processes of Europeanization, the core–periphery model is simultaneously present on the practical level of governance and policy-making.     

Rescaling Gender Relations: The Influence of European Directives on the German Gender Regime

During the 1960s–1990s, a gradual yet definite shift inthe organization of gender politics in the European Union (EU)and member states has become apparent. This shift began withthe implementation of the early gender directives of the 1970sand has since evolved to include a partial "rescaling" of policy-makingfrom national to transnational spaces and a gradual redefinitionof gender regimes and policies at the national level. As a result,gender policy cannot be viewed as either predominantly transnationalor national but arises through interaction of multiple and coexistingpolicy spaces. In this article, I use a multiscalar analysisto highlight this complex interaction. I draw on (West) Germanyas a specific case study to offer a historical analysis of theimplementation of the early European gender directives and themanner in which these developments have contributed to the redirectionof the German gender regime and the emergence of a new "hybridregime."     

The Challenge of Activist Coalition Governance: Accommodating Diversity to Create Institutions—An Approach Via the Inter-Relationships Between Action,Project and Instrument

This paper addresses the governance of hybrid forms of organisation arising in new social movements, characterised by diverse institutional logics and democratic decision making. Our theoretical framework encompasses the governance theory of Kooiman with insights from new developments in institutional theory. This framework allows us to examine governance as the capacity to link together disparate institutions from the perspective of interactions between action, project and instrument, and to explore the institutional work that results from these interactions. By studying a French activist coalition, we explore the micro-processes that make it possible to accommodate diversity in an organisation intended to produce solid institutions. Our results show that the three elements of governance—action, project and instrument—have an impact on the cohesion of diversity-based organisations and on building and consolidating institutions. When these elements are flexible and versatile enough, and when they mutually nurture each other, a plurality of logics is possible, the coalition goes forward, and true institutional work can be accomplished. When one of these elements of governance—instruments in particular—becomes autonomous and rigid, diversity is more difficult to achieve and one logic is likely to prevail over the others, compromising the very survival of the coalition and impeding the emergence of a new institution.     

Mainstreaming ‘gender’ and ‘integration’ needs in human development initiatives: Asian and African migrant women's integration in Europe

The current study examines the inclusion of ‘gender’ in the policies/legislation relating to the human development of women migrants (from Asian and African origins) and their impact on six determinants of migrant's gender ideology in two different European gender regimes: Germany and Sweden. The study is conducted in four stages: (1) thematic analysis of different conventions and recommendations of the UN, ILO, and EU, (2) latent analysis of selected policies/legislation, (3) survey of women migrants, and (4) expert interviews. Exposure to relatively egalitarian gender regimes through migration has brought positive changes in all determinants of the gender ideology of migrants, except domestic chores and caregiving responsibilities. Inclusion of a missing ‘gender’ perspective in relevant measures can expedite smooth integration of migrants, but lack of political commitment, scarcity of financial resources, the absence of gender experts, and lack of coordination between line ministries/agencies are salient barriers to its ‘inclusion’ in both countries.     

The Europeanization of Nordic Gender Equality: A Foucauldian Analysis of Reconciling Work and Family in Finland

In this article, we analyse the case of reconciling work and family as a particularly illuminative example of the effects of soft Europeanization. We focus on one particular policy instrument of the EU, namely projects co‐funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), which have sought to develop family‐friendly arrangements in Finnish workplaces. Our analysis suggests that this soft law instrument can result in significant changes in member states, even in cases where the member state's own policy is well entrenched. Theoretically, our contribution is to connect soft Europeanization to the Foucauldian theory on power, and the literature on Analytics of Government specifically. From this perspective we argue that the ESF development projects function as Foucauldian ‘technologies of involvement’. We find that by stabilizing and normalizing project techniques and managerial rationalities untypical for previous gender equality and work–family policies in the country, the ESF projects in our case partly challenge some established principles of Nordic welfare policies, such as universalism and state responsibility for welfare measures. Moreover, as ESF projects have managed to involve mainly female‐dominated organizations and women as participants, we pose the question whether this kind of soft‐law instrument that trusts the self‐regulation capacities of actors can bring about change in gendered conventions.     

The institutional project of neo-liberal globalism: The case of the WTO

This article examines the impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on domestic trade policies and practices. It shows that protectionist measures, including those practiced by the United States, have been effectively challenged, and consequently restricted, due to the WTO strengthened dispute settlement procedures. I show that the new procedures affected the substantive policy outcomes by changing the political influence of competing actors. Specifically, I identify four transformations affecting the political influence of participants: the re-scaling of political authority, the judicialization of inter-state relations, the institutionalization of the international organization, and the structural internationalization of the state. Based on this case, the article offers a view of globalization as an institutional project. This view emphasizes the political dimension of the process of globalization; it suggests that this project was facilitated by transforming the institutional arrangements in place; and it identifies the contradictions inherent in it both to U.S. hegemony and to the globalization project itself.     

Explaining the move toward the market in US academic science: how institutional logics can change without institutional entrepreneurs

Organizational institutionalism has shown how institutional entrepreneurs can introduce new logics into fields and push for their broader acceptance. In academic science in the United States, however, market logic gained strength without such an entrepreneurial project. This article proposes an alternative “practice selection” model to explain how a new institutional logic can gain strength when local innovations interact with changes outside the field. Actors within a field are always experimenting with practices grounded in a variety of logics. When one logic is dominant, innovations based on alternative logics may have trouble gaining the resources they need to become more broadly institutionalized. But if a changing environment starts systematically to favor practices based on an alternative logic, that logic can become stronger even in the absence of a coherent project to promote it. This is what happened in US academic science, as growing political concern with the economic impact of innovation changed the field’s environment in ways that encouraged the spread of local market-logic practices.     

Linking Disconnected Spaces or Venue Shopping? Trade-Offs in Participatory Opportunities in the EU

This article discusses why national civil society organisations (CSOs) use or abstain to use the participatory opportunities that the EU has developed in the last years. This is done by analysing the role of French and Spanish civil society groups in the debates on participatory democracy during the drafting and the referendum debates of the European Constitution (2002–2005). The paper departs from existing assessments of the role of national civil society in the Convention and demonstrates that national organisations built on their expertise on certain EU policies, on access to EU-level political actors and on contacts and alliances with other CSOs. It also differs from previous studies in finding that participation does not entail sharing the interpretive frame promoted by the EU. The finding that access opportunities do not fundamentally influence the frames of the organisations is related to their ability to strategically choose to participate in European and national venues. The paper finds that because of their scepticism on the constitution's participatory framing, French organisations preferred a stronger role at the national level, whereas Spanish organisations did not have real incentives to develop a campaign at the national level. While it is expected that dialogue with CSOs can contribute to bridging the gap between the EU and its citizens, this paper finds that the institutional setting provided incentives for national organisations to get involved only in one of the levels rather than to link them.