Search

This paper proposes to use the concept of empire for the analysis the European integration process. From a methodological point of view, this concept is an invitation to reintroduce in EU studies the comparative approach as well as long-term history. This paper also leads to a detailed reflection on the concept of empire itself and proposes a modernized definition of it. The use of this concept enables to shed a new light on the EU and some of its policies. If the EU cannot be considered an empire, it can nonetheless be said that it is undergoing a process of imperialization. This raises the question of the transformation of the European project and to the consequences of this transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present a descriptive overview of patterns and labour market outcomes characterising the labour market entry in Estonia compared to the EU countries. The assumption that labour market institutions and educational systems have an impact on the labour market entry process makes up the starting point for the formulation of the hypotheses. The hypotheses have been formulated on the basis of the comparison between the educational systems as well as labour market institutions in Estonia and in the EU countries. The paper draws upon data from the Estonian Labour Force Survey (ELFS) 2002 and from the 1997 ELFS’ macro level data about the EU countries. The paper will present evidence concerning differences in labour market outcomes between new entrants and experienced workers. Based on macro level data, the analysis will attempt to empirically identify distinct country clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing data from an original cross-national survey conducted in 2015 in nine European democracies covering five different types of welfare regime and asking individuals a variety of questions on their deprivation during the crisis, this paper shows that there are important cross-national and cross-class inequalities in deprivation as reported by individuals in different social classes. Cross-nationally, deprivation patterns reflected the welfare regimes of the nine countries as well as the severity of the economic crisis. Working class individuals in countries that were not so deeply affected by the crisis were generally found to be worse off than middle class individuals in countries that were more deeply affected. Semi/unskilled manual classes were found to be the most deprived and class differentials were diminished but not accounted for in multilevel models including a series of controls linked to risk factors and socio-demographic position. At the macro-level, higher inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient was associated with higher levels of reported deprivation. However, cross-level interaction tests did not provide evidence that being in semi/unskilled manual occupations has a further heightened effect on reported deprivation in contexts of higher inequality or lower social spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates critically the major competing perspectives regarding the participation of the unemployed in undeclared work. These are firstly, the ‘marginalisation’ perspective which holds that the unemployed disproportionately participate in and gain from undeclared work, and secondly, the ‘reinforcement’ perspective which holds that the unemployed benefit less from undeclared work than those in declared employment, meaning that undeclared work reinforces, rather than reduces, the inequalities produced by the declared realm. Reporting the results of a 2007 Eurobarometer survey on undeclared work comprising 26,659 face-to-face interviews conducted in the 27 member states of the European Union, the finding is that the marginalisation perspective is applicable to Southern Europe and the reinforcement perspective to Nordic nations. However, in East-Central Europe and Western European nations, as well as the EU-27 as a whole, the marginalisation and reinforcement perspectives are not mutually exclusive but co-exist; the unemployed are more likely to participate in undeclared work but receive significantly lower earnings and gain less from undeclared work than those working undeclared who are in declared jobs. The outcome is a call for a new ‘reinforced marginalisation’ perspective which holds that the unemployed disproportionately engage in undeclared work but their participation reinforces their marginalised position relative to the employed. The paper then seeks tentative explanations for these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the long-held thesis that political participation educates and transforms individuals. The theoretical framework of this study combines two theories: the theory of the formative effect of elections and the participatory democracy theory. The central contention of this research is that the more an individual has participated in EP elections, the more strongly one holds positive attitudes toward the EU. To deal with the reverse causality that might flow from positive attitudes toward the EU to voting participation in the EP elections, this study employs instrument variable (IV) regression analysis. The results of the analysis using Eurobarometer 54.1 provide support for a significant effect of voting participation in the EP elections on the formation of positive attitudes toward the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By comparing the US environmental justice movement with recent European developments, this paper suggests an environmental justice framework which is based on the idea of environmental justice as a heterogeneous process rather than an analytical or normative category. Using major debates on environmental justice particularly in the UK and Germany as a touchstone, eight dimensions of environmental justice are carved out and integrated into a processual model. It is discussed how environmental justice as a process may become robust enough to integrate and react to changing natural and social conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market-enhancing regulations of the European Union (EU) place political and economic constraints on the Member States. This has been expected to induce convergence of social policies, generally in a downward direction. At the same time the notion of a European Social Model has been launched as a strategy to make marketization socially acceptable, pointing to a development in a different direction. This paper examines key aspects of the development of the main social insurance programs during the period 1980-2000 in 14 EU Member States. Are there significant signs of convergence in the replacement rates of social insurance programs and do broader development trends of the social insurance systems indicate converging institutional models? The results indicate divergence rather than convergence of social insurance replacement rates. In terms of institutional models there is no evidence of a common European Social Model in the area of social insurance over the past decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing integration of EU countries and the introduction of a new round of Applicant countries has created the need for more comparable statistics on indicators and more standardised statistical measures. Hence, indicators such as life expectancy, or GDP per capita have been used for measuring the 'progress' of Candidate countries in the Enlargement process, mainly as static measures like Gini coefficients, while the dimension of time is not well developed. In this paper, I argue for a new complementary kind of statistical measure, the S -distance, that would measure the distance (proximity) in time between the points in time when two series are compared that have reached a specified level on indicator X . This can lead to very different analytical and policy conclusions about the interrelationship between growth and inequality. In the empirical section a selected set of economic and social indicators for five candidate and three EU cohesion countries is compared with the EU15 average. It is demonstrated that the degree of disparities across indicators may be very different in static terms and in time. For all eight countries no significant correlation was found between the ordering of indicators by static measure of disparity and by time distance. This confirms that the new broader methodology can provide new insights from existing data and serve also as an excellent analytical and presentation tool for policy debate across many fields of concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicators of subjective well-being have gained only limited acceptance as tools for the social-scientific analysis of human welfare, mainly because they seem insensitive to variations in the socio-economic context. However, this apparent insensitivity has been established by research which has been limited in various ways. Using data on life satisfaction for 33 European societies which goes some way to transcending these limits, this paper identifies linkages between subjective well-being and socio-economic conditions which are both strong and suggestive of important insights about national and cross-national relativities in human welfare. Populations in the rich parts of Europe have high and relatively equal life satisfaction, while those in the poorer parts of Europe have low and unequal life satisfaction. Social inequalities within rich European societies seem to have little effect on life satisfaction but they have significant effects within poor European societies. Inequalities between European societies also have strong effects. These findings suggest that analysis of inequalities and relativities in welfare in purely national terms is insufficient. Greater weight needs to be given to cross-national relativities , since these are much more consistent with what otherwise seem to be puzzling variations in subjective well-being across and within countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union has launched one of the largest assistance packages in EU history, where all 27 EU member states are asked to jointly borrow 500 billion Euros to finance grants to areas hardest hit by the crises. Despite the unprecedented size of this package, we know less about citizens' support for such a common EU response to the crises. Using unique data from a representative survey in Germany, Italy and Romania, this study shows that while average levels of public support for cross-border financial assistance varies across countries, individual-level determinants are generally unrelated to perceptions of the crises as such. Instead, slow moving factors unrelated to the crises, including general value orientation, cosmopolitanism and trust determine expressions of cross-border social solidarity. We discuss implications for understanding public responses to major crises and long-term support for a common EU response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current literature on the economic determinants of prejudice focuses on how relative deprivation might lead to bias by focusing on group perceptions, with little or no attention given to individual-level deprivation. We address this gap in literature by examining how relative and objective individual-level hardship affects generalised prejudice and suggest that both forms of deprivation lead to increase in a wide variety of out-group biases. We test our hypotheses with data from an original cross-national survey conducted in 2015 in nine European countries (N∼18,000) by applying multilevel models. We include macro-level measures of economic context, including measures of unemployment levels and GDP growth. We make a novel contribution to the growing literature on prejudice in European societies: our results are surprising and suggest that individuals experiencing deteriorating living standards are less likely to express generalised prejudice. We suggest that these findings can be explained using political psychology literature: recent studies suggest that low self-esteem increases altruistic behaviour and reduces the level of out-group bias. These findings open new avenues of research and suggest a new way of theorising the relationship between economic deprivation and prejudice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the issue of early school leaving from upper secondary education in light of life course theory on age norms. Based on existing literature, it examines how definitions of early school leaving relate to chronological age in indirect and direct ways, and thereby express historically specific norms concerning the ideal timing of events over the life course. The article suggests that by the rise of early school leaving on the international policy agenda in the 2000s, young people’s pathways are increasingly measured against the academic track as ‘normal’ - the ideal of prolonged and orderly school to work transitions. Transition patterns long within the bounds of normality within vocational education, often resulting in qualifications gained later in life, may thus appear as problematic. Pupils in vocational tracks tend to follow routes that are less orderly and less standardized according to age. Early school leaving can be seen as a new form of deviance, created by the universalization of age norms that conform better to academic routes through education. The historical, conceptual and theoretical discussion in this article indicates that age norms are a seldom addressed, but potentially constraining, feature of contemporary school to work transition contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘crowding-out’ and the ‘decline of the family’ hypotheses are the fundamental theoretical notions underlying the literature on cross-country differences in informal support. In this study, we expand upon these notions to develop and test the premise that cultural context shapes European’s views about an often overlooked source of support: non-kin. We carefully conceptualise cultural context as individualistic values and familialistic norms. Employing multilevel multinomial models and European Quality of Life Survey data from 27 countries, we confirm the importance of decomposing the broader notion of culture by demonstrating that contexts with both less pronounced individualistic values and less pronounced familialistic norms are conducive to non-kin rather than kin or professional help. Moreover, unlike prior work, which suggested the existence of a north/west-south/east divide in support patterns, our findings show nuanced cross-national differences in the importance of non-kin ties as a source of advice and help when looking for a job. We find some of the highest levels of non-kin reliance in countries in southern and eastern Europe, and in northern and western Europe more generally. We conclude by proposing ways in which future research can advance our understanding of the role of context in shaping support patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores how religion and the public legal domains of modern societies in the EU-member states are institutionally interconnected. We focus our analysis on how religion, religiosity and religious organisations are integrated and regulated in European constitutions. Our analysis is guided by two sociological theories concerning the development of modern institutional arrangements: (a) neo-institutionalism, emphasising the influence of world culture which leads to institutional isomorphism as the adaption of worldwide shared scripts; (b) path dependency, emphasising the emergence of institutional arrangements as path depending on particular power relations and historical events. From neo-institutionalism, we expect to find similarities in more recent constitutions while theories of path dependency indicate similarities only in cases of similar historical events or power relations. In applying an explorative, quantitative document analysis of a unique data set of constitutions, we detect similarities and differences concerning religion in the constitutional texts. Our analysis establishes religion as a multidimensional issue that is regulated in quite different ways in different states. We demonstrate that neo-institutionalism is valid only on the mere formal level of the composition of the constitutions of the EU-member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the advocacy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, how it positioned itself in relation to the 2014 EU Parliament elections, the aims for which it strove and the strategies it employed to achieve these aims. The articles theoretical framework relies on exchange and resource dependency theories. The empirical approach is qualitative analysis of written documents, observations and interviews. The results reveal that the EU signifies a new dimension for religion in the public domain at both the EU and national levels. A change towards a more proactive public role for the national church in Finland can be detected. In this process transnational ecumenical contacts play an important role. Beneficial exchanges for both the church and politicians are behind the resurgence of religion in the public domain. The results indicate that the public role of religion depends on the balance of power, real or imagined, between political and religious agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to a better understanding of the social acceptance of the investment model of volunteering, that is, the view that volunteering can enhance employability through the development of professionally relevant knowledge and competences. Based on the analysis of Eurobarometer data, the article explores (1) the prevalence of the investment model of volunteering in the EU-27 countries and the extent to which this varies between individuals with the potential to make hiring decisions (IHP) and the general population, (2) the demographic factors associated with the acceptance of this model, (3) whether national differences in the acceptance of the model are better explained by variation between countries or cross-national demographic factors and (4) whether national institutional characteristics related to the competitiveness of the national labour market, the specificity of the education system, the strength of the continuing vocational training system and cultural factors influence acceptance. The results show that the acceptance of the investment model of volunteering is relatively widespread in Europe and that variation in the acceptance of the investment model among the general population is driven by both individual (age and class) and between-country differences (related to the strength of training for unemployed people), but variation is more attributable to differences between countries than cross-national demographic groups. IHP, on the other hand, tend to be more homogenous in their acceptance of the investment model than the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust links ordinary citizens to the institutions that are intended to represent them, and thereby enhances both the legitimacy and the effectiveness of democratic government. In this article we investigate whether economic performance affects political trust and if the 2007–2008 financial crisis has decreased confidence levels due to the severity of its consequences. We employ multilevel modeling to analyze data from 25 European countries taken from the European Social Survey, combined with economic indicators from the World Bank and the international Monetary Fund. Our results show that economic performance is an important decider of people's levels of trust. We are also able to conclude that the financial crisis has reduced citizen's trust in political institutions in those countries where the crisis has had a severe impact on the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the official journal of the ESA, European Societies was asked to publish this report because of its special interest for the readers. This is a slightly shortened version of the first report on National Sociological Associations which was submitted to the European Sociological Association in November 2014. A series of relevant tables can be found on the ESA site:http://www.europeansociology.org/national-associations.html.ABSTRACT:This report presents the results of a survey on the National Associations of Sociology in Europe conducted in the years 2012–2013 by the European Sociological Association (ESA) under the auspices of its Committee for National Associations. The National Associations of Sociology were progressively established and institutionalized throughout the twentieth century, each one reflecting the political circumstances of the European Continent at the time. Of the 40 associations surveyed, 10% were in existence in 1950, which shows that the consolidation of the associative movement of sociologists in Europe is generally quite recent and gradually built up over the course of a century or more. The size of each association in terms of numbers of members is a key dimension in understanding how sociology is organized throughout Europe. The same may be said of the difficulties encountered when establishing the ESA as recently as 1992. The results of the survey show that the European sociological community is the aggregate of several parallel currents going back well over a hundred years. Each current has generated as many tributaries as there are individual academic and professional corporations operating in the dozens of countries where sociology has been able to take root and develop, whilst favoured – or sometimes opposed – by university and social policies, governments and public or private bodies. Moreover, each country has its own story to tell about the particular claims and losses, its ups and downs, advances and set-backs that sociology as a discipline has experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people in Europe face great difficulties nowadays when entering the labour market. Unemployment and temporary employment are high among youth, although considerable differences exist between European countries. In this article, we study to what extent cyclical, structural, and institutional factors explain cross-national variation in youth labour market integration. In addition, we examine educational differences in the impact of these macro-characteristics. To answer these questions, we use data on young people from 29 countries who were interviewed in the European Social Survey of 2002, 2004, 2006, or 2008 and left day-time education in the period 1992–2008. Both unemployment and temporary employment are regarded as a lack of labour market integration, compared to the situation of permanent employment. The empirical results first of all show that high unemployment hinders young people to smoothly integrate into the labour market. In addition, economic globalisation positively affects youth labour market integration. We also demonstrate that young people experience less difficulties with labour market integration as the educational system is more vocationally specific. Intermediate and higher educated particularly profit from the positive effect of the vocational specificity of the educational system. Finally, as the employment protection legislation of incumbent workers is stricter, young people experience more difficulties with labour market integration, especially higher educated youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has yielded quite varying results with regard to the relationship between children and women's sickness absence from work. This study examines the issue using data from the EU Labour Surveys. Cross-sectional data from 2005 covering 23 EU countries plus Norway are used. The data are analysed by means of logistic regression with control for country, age, working hours and socio-economic status. For married/ cohabiting women, there is a quite consistent tendency for dependent children to be associated with lower sickness absence. A single young child is, however, related to higher sickness absence in some analyses, suggesting that the transition to parenthood may be stressful. Single mothers do not in general have higher sickness absence than their married/ cohabiting counterparts. The tendency toward lower sickness absence in most groups of married/cohabiting mothers is likely to be due to selection to some extent, but also to favourable role accumulation effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of a EUropean demos is often debated by referring to forms of ethnic or civic identities. The present article aims to expose the theoretical shortcomings of this dichotomous approach, which confines the complexity of EUrope within a simplifying methodological nationalism. By relying on empirical data collected in four different EUropean regions, the article points to the relevance of a functional or utilitarian rationale which EUropean interviewees use to justify the existence of EUrope. Although this rationale does not obliterate cultural and civic narrations of EUrope, I would argue that it invites to reconsider the traditional role played by identities in the construction of political institutions. Accordingly, I believe that scholars should take more seriously the metaphor ‘EUrope as a laboratory’ – a convenient, but often empty metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to assess the extent to which social policies address current and persistent poverty in southern European Union countries in general and Portugal in particular. The southern European welfare regime, which includes Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, has been seen as less developed and less generous in covering social risks. Additionally, the southern European welfare regime presents several inefficiencies that make social policies much less successful in tackling current and persistent poverty. In spite of having recently followed a common path of welfare reforms, southern European countries are far from achieving substantial results in poverty reduction in recent years. Possible explanations of enduring poverty may rest on cultural and institutional factors such as less state accountability in the context where a prominent role in welfare provision rests on families, high levels of tolerance of inequality and poverty, and, in broader terms, in attitudes toward inequality and poverty embedded in social and political practices. In this framework, the case of Portugal is further developed and contrasted with others countries in southern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the patterns of Internet use in 15 European Union countries. In the theoretical part, it is discussed how the social scientists have addressed the consequences of the diffusion of the new information and communication technologies (ICT). It is asked whether there is a potential in the use of ICT for increasing social inequalities within and between the affluent societies. In the empirical part, it is examined whether the 15 European countries selected have qualitatively different patterns of Internet use from each other. Results from Eurobarometer 56.0 survey data collected in 2001 ( N =16,200) show that the basic socio-demographic factors explain the use of the Internet rather similarly in the then EU area. However, it is also revealed that the institutional differences between European countries affect the strengths of socio-demographic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the few cross-national studies, which contrast members of the EU with a comparable set of other countries as benchmark, suggested that membership is beneficial for economic growth and may cause faster economic convergence of less wealthy EU member states. Employing a newly collected data set on inter-state transfers in the EU, we test whether this faster economic con­vergence is due to access to the Internal Market (proposition of the economic logic) or ra­ther a consequence of special forms of inter-state redistribution within the EU (proposition of the political logic). We find that if EU countries grew faster in the 1980s and 1990s (as com­pared to the benchmark and controlling for relevant growth factors), then this was due to transfers within the community. These benefited the poorer EU countries, which thus expe­rien­­ced faster economic convergence. This evidence suggests support for the argument of the poli­tical logic regarding Western European integration which we contrast with the economic logic. The empirical results are highly significant regarding the prospects of catching up for new EU members in Central and Eastern Europe. The decisions about the future EU transfer system will determine the chances for convergence for these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]