Struggling for a Social Europe

Protests at summit meetings have inspired intense debate over the nature and significance of the ‘anti-globalisation’ or ‘anti-capitalist movement’. The European dimension of this movement is largely unknown and in this book the author addresses this deficit by focusing on events that have marked the birth of a European social movement. The book relates the development of the movement to key matters as economic, employment and welfare state restructuring along neoliberal lines. The author challenges ideas about the nature of contemporary collective action and the character of present day social movements. He discusses the significance of the movement and its future development through a critical engagement with the work of key writers in European sociology and of academics influential in the wider global movement such as Pierre Bourdieu. A postscript is provided to bring readers up-to-date with developments in the type of ‘social Europe’ propagated by the institutions of the EU as well as in the maturation of a social movement to oppose it.