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This book analyses the dichotomy between the goal of social inclusion and the effect of social exclusion through over-indebtedness since 2008 in Europe. Filling a vital gap in the current literature on the effects of the financial and economic crisis, this volume puts into context academic discussion with the real-life dimension of over-indebtedness. Reports from six European countries provide socio-economic and legal information on over-indebtedness as well as the regulatory and judicial responses to the problems entailed by over-indebtedness. They form the empirical background for five analyses of different aspects of the inclusion-exclusion dichotomy. It becomes clear that in the context of credit expansion, individual over-indebtedness has turned into a social issue, which the current design of the consumer credit and mortgage system in Europe has helped to produce while disregarding the consequential danger of social exclusion.
This volume examines the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening associational life in a representative sample of West European countries: newly democratized and long-established democracies, societies with and without a dominant religious tradition, and welfare states with different levels and types of state-provided social services. It asks how faith-based organizations, in a time of economic crisis, and with declining numbers of adherents, might contribute to the deepening of democracy. Throughout, the volume invites social scientists to consider the on-going role of faith-based organizations in Western European civil society, and investigates whether the concept of muted vibrancy aids our theoretical understanding.
The legitimacy of the European Union is a much studied and highly contested subject. Unlike other works, this book does not engage in another review of the shifts of public opinion and perception regarding the EU. Instead, it offers a different and innovative perspective by focusing on constructions of legitimacy in the European Commission. Starting from the premise that legitimacy is discursively constructed, the book engages in a fine-grained analysis of legitimacy discourses in the European Commission since the early 1970s. Embedded in a poststructuralist theoretical framework, Hegemonies of Legitimation also sheds light on the conditions that made radical shifts of legitimacy discourses possible, and illustrates how these discursive shifts paved the way for different types of legitimation policies. As such, the book maps and reconstructs the historically variable discursive landscape of competing articulations of what legitimacy signifies in the case of the EC/EU, and provides us with a detailed picture of the history of the Commission's struggle for legitimacy.
This book explores the extent to which a transformation of public employment regimes has taken place in four Western countries, and the factors influencing the pathways of reform. It demonstrates how public employment regimes have unravelled in different domains of public service, contesting the idea that the state remains a 'model' employer.
Based on a 12-year long project, this book demonstrates the contested character of the communicative construction of Europe. It does so by combining an investigation of journalistic practices with content analysis of print media, an examination of citizens' online interactions and audience studies with European citizens.
Work is widely thought to have become more precarious. Many people feel that unions represent the interests of protected workers in good jobs at the expense of workers with insecure employment, low pay, and less generous benefits. Reconstructing Solidarity: Labour Unions, Precarious Work, and the Politics of Institutional Change in Europe argues the opposite: that unions try to represent precarious workers using a variety of creative campaigning and organizing tactics. Where unions can limit employers' ability to 'exit' labour market institutions and collective agreements, and build solidarity across different groups of workers, this results in a virtuous circle, establishing union control o...
This book presents insights from several countries in Latin America and beyond on how to organize critical sectors, such as education, roads and water, to improve quality, access and affordability. The innovative, multi-disciplinary studies in this volume discuss the outcomes of decentralization, school autonomy, participatory budgeting at the local level and other accountability mechanisms. Rich quantitative analyses are complemented and enhanced by insights from interviews and quotes from those on the front lines: politicians, bureaucrats and service providers; as well as a variety of case-studies focusing on wider political economy questions, on the intricacies of political competition and governance reform, and on public spending efficiency in countries as varied as Colombia, Peru, Chile and Uruguay. As the authors demonstrate, Latin America has much to share with the rest of the world in terms of governance and public service delivery experiments and learnings.
Graceland er en roman om at være langt væk fra dem, man elsker. Om at være på vej og om at længes efter sin familie, efter kærlighed, ro og andre ting, som man ikke altid ved, hvad er. Og om frygten for alle de forskellige katastrofer, som hele tiden kan blive virkelige. Romanen udspiller sig over en eftermiddag i december og er fortalt af tre stemmer. Det er to dage før jul. Familien skal samles i villaen i København, men lige nu er der stille. Daisy er alene hjemme og bevæger sig rastløst rundt i huset, juleferien er begyndt, hun er 12 år, og tiden føles uendelig langstrakt, som et dirrende vakuum. Daisys tanker kredser om flykatastrofer og storebroren, Theo, der er på vej hje...
Die Frage nach dem sozialen Zusammenhalt unter Bedingungen der Vielfalt ist in der Soziologie seit Bestehen des Faches zentral. In einer urbanisierten, modernen Gesellschaft erfordert sie immer neue Antworten. Der 36. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS) bot Raum für lebhafte Debatten über die wachsende Vielfalt von Orientierungsangeboten, Selbstund Fremdzuschreibungen, soziale Lagen, Arbeitsweisen und Lebensstilen sowie über Bedingungen und Formen des Zusammenhalts. Die Bände dokumentieren die Kongressbeiträge und bieten damit einen umfassenden Überblick über die Aspekte des Themas sowie den gegenwärtigen wissenschaftlichen Kenntnisstand.