The Road to Social Europe

"Barbier's arguments really encourage the hope that Europe will one day be the finest place for living well together. His book is a success because it sketches the framework of a tangible utopia." - by Michel Lallement, La Vie des ides, March 2013. Barbiers analysis provides a welcome counterbalance to the varieties of capitalism literature and the Hofstedian view of culture, both of which encourage reductionism and determinism in theorizing these issues. His subtle examination of the notions of culture and language remind us of their uniqueness and embeddedness in complex, historical trajectories. In doing so, he also highlights the (very) long-term nature of the European social project, and in my view we should not be too hasty in abandoning political resolve in winning the arguments for greater social integration. His book should appeal to anyone academic or practitioner interested in the future of the EU. Michael Gold, British Journal of Industrial Relations

Jean-Claude Barbier is CNRS Research Director at Paris1 Panteon-Sorbonne University, France. His research interests include European integration, EU social policy, and employment policies in Europe and the USA.

Part I: Social Protection In Europe: National and/or European? 1. National Social Protection Systems at the Core of State Legitimacy 2. The Nation and Social Protection: Practices and Subjectivities 3. Fifty Years of Social Europe (19572007): A Realistic Appraisal Part II: Towards a Sociological Understanding of Cultural Diversity In Europe 4. Cultural Diversity: A Blind Spot? 5. Transcending the Quarrel between Universalism and Culturalism 6. The Ethical Principles Governing Cross-National Comparison Part III: Political Cultures and European Integration 7. The Collective "Imaginary", Language and Politics 8. A New Start for Social Europe: Giving Priority to Languages.