Europe Des Cultures/Europe of Cultures – serie

Europe is in crisis and the EU project risks disintegration. The refugee and Brexit issues, as well as recent events in Turkey, demonstrate how serious matters really are. In a EurActiv interview, in February 2016, Edgar Morin, the French sociologist and philosopher, speaks of a «planetary crisis» and the need «to change civilisation» in order to respond to the complexity of today’s world. Furthermore, the drama of terrorism, a new phenomenon for contemporary western democracies requires serious reflection regarding jihadism and its radicalisation.

These are but some of the issues addressed during the multiple conversations held with the three sociologists, Alberto Martinelli, Vittorio Cotesta and Alain Touraine and with the political scientist, Nadia Urbinati. All the interviewees are leading experts on European issues and institutions, as well as on democracy put to the test currently by rampant populism in almost all the EU countries. Alain Touraine fervently holds that «it is madness» not to want a united Europe at a moment when we need a new political and economic project capable of defeating the nationalism, walls and separation between states that now seem to prevail.

Europe finds itself in a dramatic position: it must choose innovation and construction, or disintegration, with all the unpredictable consequences this may entail.

Does Norway belong to Western Europe? This provocative question, put to the head of the Norwegian delegation to the conference on the reconstruction of Europe after World War II, begins the history of Norwegian attitudes towards European integration. From 1905 to 1994, Norway opposed practically all types of European and international cooperation. Had Norway’s views gained traction, Europe and the world would look very different today. Towards Europe demonstrates how little Norwegians knew before the 1994 referendum about the EU Single Market and the European Economic Area (EEA). The book takes the reader behind the scenes of secret negotiations between the EU and Norway, giving an unprecedented insight into how the EEA works in practice. It illustrates with concrete examples Norway’s ability to articulate its views and to be heard in Brussels, from the perspective of both government and interest groups. It also looks at Norway’s potential to tackle future EU challenges such as the Energy Union, migration policies, transatlantic trade and the Banking Union.

Towards Europe will provide the reader with pertinent insights into whether the EEA is a suitable alternative for Britain’s future relations with the EU.

This edition includes an extra chapter on how to influence the EU from a non-member country.

Why are a United States of Europe, in theory and abstract the most rational option, practically impossible today? This book analyses the contradiction implied in having enormous world-level potential whilst lacking the force to execute this due to the current structural limitations of the European Union. It examines the principal historical background to the idea of a federal Europe and its successive achievements after the European Community was constituted. It also aims to show how a union has been shaped where supranational and intergovernmental impulses coexist in a contradictory way. The Great Recession of 2008 and the refugee crisis of 2015 have also posed ever more profound challenges to European integration. Eurosceptic and Europhobic forces that encourage nationalist withdrawal and opt for recipes of authoritarian populism are taking advantage of the errors and hesitancy of the community "establishment". After describing and interpreting the context and results of the crucial elections to the European Parliament in 2019, the programmes of the main parties in the six most populated states of the union are analysed. This takes the form of a questionnaire regarding the greater or lesser degree of integration advocated by each state, providing a highly representative picture of the great plurality of existing options. Lastly, it includes a chapter on the constitution of the Von der Leyen Commission, the finalisation of Brexit and the serious crisis the European Union has faced due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This volume is written by an international and interdisciplinary team of scholars who are convinced about the importance of the small town as a research topic. It looks at how towns approach heritage, its instrumental use and its commodification in support of its survival, asking about towns' strategies to achieve resilience to external pressure.

The book focuses on Intercultural approach combining a conceptual and practical approach. It is composed by 18 "middle range concepts" - as social integration, migration governance, cultural identity, citizenship, reflexivity, overcoming racism - connecting specific issues with the theoretical dimension to have a good implementation of practices.