Contentious Europeans: Protest and Politics in an Integrating Europe (Governance in Europe Series) - Softcover

Imig, Doug; Tarrow, Sidney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742500845 ISBN 13: 9780742500846

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001

Synopsis

Is the process of European integration shifting the targets of social movements from the national arena to the European Union level? Does the EU remain isolated from the reach of national democratic politics? Or are social movements responding to the transnational issues posed by the European Union, but continuing to do so by treading the traditional pathways of nation-specific contentious politics?

Addressing these key but hitherto unexplored questions, this groundbreaking volume explores how European citizens are responding to the growing policymaking power of the EU. The contributors argue that the emergence of a supranational realm of European government offers new opportunities and constraints for domestic social actors. In this new transnational realm, groups such as environmentalists, students, and trade unionists can not only undertake traditional domestic forms of contentious action, but also link together across national borders. At the same time, the volume cautions against rushing to herald a new era of transnational mobilization, as significant barriers remain to launching contentious action in the transnational realm, national governments continue to play a primary role in policymaking before the EU, and tried-and-true routines of collective action and institutions attach citizens to their national political systems.

At the heart of the book is a newly developed theoretical framework, which is rigorously tested against the evidence offered by the editors' longitudinal and cross-national database on contentious political action, as well as by a series of sector-specific case studies. The combination of theory and original research will make this an important reference for scholars as well as a valuable supplement in courses on comparative politics, Western Europe, and social movements.

About this title

About the Authors

VIRGINIE GUIRAUDON is Research Professor at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Lille Nord de France.

Andrew Martin is the author of Early Work, a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and the collection Cool for America. His stories and essays have been published in The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, and T: The New York Times Style Magazine. He lives in New York with his partner, Laura, and their dog, Bonnie.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0742500845
• ISBN 13: 9780742500846
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304