European Societies Forum

Explaining Participation in Undeclared Work: A Result of Exit or Exclusion?

Moderator — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:06:35 +0000

This paper evaluates critically competing explanations for participation in undeclared work that either read engagement through a structuralist lens as driven by ‘exclusion’ from state benefits and the circuits of the modern economy or through a neo-liberal and/or post-structuralist lens as driven by the voluntary ‘exit’ of workers out of formal institutions. Reporting a 2005/6 household work practices survey involving 313 face-to-face interviews in contemporary Moscow, the finding is that there is no single unique logic underpinning undeclared work in this post-Soviet city; such work is neither universally driven by exclusion nor exit. Different mixtures of the two prevail across different populations and forms of undeclared work. The outcome is a call for greater appreciation of the multifarious character of undeclared work and a move beyond simplistic explanations and policy responses. Click here to view article online.

Civil Society in the Old and New Member States: Ideology, Institutions and Democracy Promotion

Moderator — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:06:07 +0000

The paper examines the significance of ‘civil society’ promotion as a component of the new modes of governance proposed within the EU and its member states. The concept of civil society has had different meanings and roles in the evolution of the old and post-communist new EU members. ‘Civil society’ is analysed as a form of political coordination under capitalism; as a reform ideology in the process of opposition under communism; as a policy legitimising democratisation; and as an ideological component of neo-liberalism in the enlargement of the European Union. The paper proposes a model distinguishing the different roles played by ‘civil society’ discourse in the transformation of state socialism. In the post-state socialist societies a process of democracy promotion has included the sponsorship of civil society. Analysed empirically, significant differences are shown between the nature of civil society organisations in the old EU member states, new members and post socialist non-members. These data indicate the important changes which have taken place in the new member states. However, in the context of the post-socialist states, in which traditional forms of government have been weakened, there are significant structural weaknesses in civil society organisations. It is shown that there is a serious deficiency with respect to the efficacy of civil society associations as agents in the democratising process, as well as for the articulation and defence of community interests. It is argued that furthering ‘civil society’ forms of participation and management are a part of a neo-liberal economic and political agenda. It is concluded that strengthening democratic state forms of administration and coordination should be major policy concerns. Click here to view article online

Intersections and Boundaries of Work and Non-Work: The case of eldercare in comparative European perspective

Moderator — Thu, 27 May 2010 21:45:47 +0000

It is widely recognised that a work activity can be undertaken in a variety of socio-economic relations. However, the ways in which work and non-work are differentiated, or intersect, are under-specified in existing research. This article takes the social care of older people as a field through which to explore the articulation of work and non-work. It analyses the nature of the boundaries between what counts as work, and what counts as non-work; the intersections of work and non-work, and what forms this embeddedness takes; and the variation of this articulation across different European countries (Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, and England). Three dimensions of articulation of work and non-work emerged from the analysis: (1) love or money; (2) morality versus instrumentality; and (3) from professional demarcations to embeddedness in everyday life. The article sets out how these vary by country. Overall, the research makes a general contribution to the sociology of work, and to our understanding of cross-national variation in the labour and provision of eldercare. Click here to view the article online

Poverty Trajectories After Risky Life Course Events In Different European Welfare Regimes

cannonm — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:18:45 +0000

This article complements existing life course research on poverty by looking at the typical income poverty trajectories during the first five years after experiencing a risky life event such as partnership dissolution and leaving the parental home. By broadening the time frame of research into poverty transitions, a more complete picture can be drawn of the poverty patterns related to these life events. Latent class analyses of the European Community Household Panel show that the poverty risk after experiencing a life course event is not equally large and long-lasting for everyone. Broadly, four comparable latent classes can be found across Germany, Spain, Denmark and the United Kingdom: persistent non-poor, persons with a transient – or transient-recurrent – poverty risk, persons with longer-term poverty risk and late poverty entrants. Yet, the size and occurrence of the latent classes differs between countries according to welfare regime. The article discusses country differences and social determinants of the different poverty trajectories. Click to view the article online

Racism and Antisemitism

Moderator — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:21:33 +0000

Our ESA Network on Racism and Antisemitism brings together, into a common forum of discussion, research activity in each of these areas. An informing idea behind setting up this network is that a prevailing current in the sociology of race has been that of a black-white binary which excludes other forms of racism that do not fit this binary. Our conviction is that an explicit connection between racism and antisemitism (and other intra-European racisms) helps us redress such exclusions. We also recognise that prevailing currents in study of antisemitism have generally not led scholars to situate this phenomenon with the context of racism more broadly but rather to view antisemitism sui generis as an independent phenomenon. Our belief is that Sociology can play a more universalistic role in overcoming tendencies toward particularism and that the broadening of our sociological imagination will flow from recognition of connected sociologies.

The connection between racism and antisemitism may appear uncontroversial, almost banal, but today any sociology that seeks to connect the phenomena of racism and antisemitism must be willing to confront serious resistance arising from a number of related sources. On the one hand, there are specialists who have an interest in maintaining a kind of sub-disciplinary specialization and in saying that this form of racism is real whilst that form of racism is minor or marginal or not real at all. There are emphatic theories of difference that construct walls between one form of racism and another and find it difficult to recognize the sheer versatility of racism. There are standpoint epistemologies that say that only the victims can properly understand the racism or antisemitism directed at them and slip into paradigms of competitive victimhood that refuse to acknowledge the victimization of others.

In relation to antisemitism, most social scientists acknowledge that antisemitism was a major issue in the past but there are many who deny that antisemitism is any longer a significant issue in the present and argue that antisemitism has become more rhetoric than reality. They may embrace a philosophy of history that sees the new Europe as having overcome its darker, nationalistic temptations; or they may say that the conditions in Europe that once led to antisemitism have now been superseded and Islamophobia and other racisms have substituted for antisemitism. There is a temptation in sociology to resort to the symbolic erasure of antisemitism and disregard the mythological images antisemitism inherits from the past, because they are unwanted reminders of the subterranean streams of European civilization.

In terms of political argument it is sometimes said that the charge of ‘antisemitism’ is employed dishonestly as a means of deflecting attention from the allegedly racist character of Zionism and the Israeli state. It is said that a focus on Jews as victims of antisemitism serves to obscure the wrongs Jews themselves commit as victimisers. In these political debates we have to acknowledge that anti-racists can represent concern over the ‘antisemitism’ question mainly as a smokescreen for racism against Moslems, Arabs or Palestinians; and conversely we have to acknowledge that anti-antisemites can represent ‘antiracism’ as an ideology of those whose hostility to Israel is antisemitic in its effects if not its motives.

In the face of all these resistances, which we only touch upon here, our conviction is that the project of connecting racism and antisemitism – which is not at all the same as identifying them – is worth doing. Racism and antisemitism evolved together in European societies as coeval manifestation of how Europeans at once turned on non-Europeans outside Europe and on one another within Europe. To see their connectedness today is our way of keeping in mind the universalistic promise of the sociological imagination.

Robert Fine and Claudine Attias Donfut

EU Presidency: Sociological Perspectives

Moderator — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:00:52 +0000

After much discussion the government representatives in the European Union have decided on the appointment of the first permanent President of the European council. Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy has been chosen after much behind-the-scenes negotiation. Catherine Ashton, a member of the UK House of Lords was appointed as Vice President, responsible for Foreign Affairs and Securityt. Van Rompuy was supported by the French and German governments, who had opposed the suggestion that Tony Blair be appointed as President. Appointment of Lady Ashton was seen by political commentators as a ‘consolation prize’ for the UK.

Discussion of the selection process and its outcome has concentrated on the strategic bargaining of nation state representatives, taking a standpoint from contemporary politics and international relations. What might sociologists contribute to this discussion? There are many possible issues that could be raised from a sociological point of view: the social background of the candidates, the gender issues raised, the regional considerations, the consequences of the selection for welfare policy in the EU, the composition of the cabinet grouping and executive teams, and so on.

Sociologists need to make their voices heard in these discussions over the EU presidency. Here is the opportunity for readers of European Societies to put their views across and begin a debate on the contribution of sociology to the future of the European presidency. Post your comments and suggestions here and let’s get the great debate underway.

The Context and Trajectory of Lifestyle Migration

Moderator — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:00:04 +0000

This article focuses on British migration to the Lot, a rural, inland department in the southwest of France. It first emphasizes the diversity among these lifestyle migrants by proposing a typology based on the position migrants occupy in the life course at the time of migration, identifying three different types of Britons living permanently in rural France: the family migrants, retirement migrants, and mid-life migrants. Each group of migrants hold in common their reasons for leaving Britain, the circumstances of their migration, and their position in the life course. The article then examines how the context of their lives before migration influences life in the Lot. In particular, it analyses the role of practical considerations in residential choice and degrees to which the migrants integrate into the local French population. By understanding the context of the migrants’ lives before migration, certain aspects of their lives in the Lot are illuminated, helping to fragment stereotypes of expatriate populations and challenge the dominance of retirement migration within related literature.

Author: Michaela Caroline Benson

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Political Economy of Informalization

Moderator — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:00:44 +0000

This article has two main aims. The first is to problematize the dominant view of the informal economy as a sort of separate economy, related primarily to (immigrant) small business and distinct from the so-called formal economy, which for the most part encompasses big companies as well as state economic activities. In contrast, the present article assumes that all economic actors are increasingly ready to adopt informal economic strategies to secure their economical survival. In line with this assumption, the second aim of the article is to contribute to our knowledge of the causes of, as well as the actors within, the current informalization trends that characterize Western economies. The article concludes that the informalization of contemporary advanced economies in general terms is a result of a structural conflict between new economic trends and old regulatory frameworks. These frameworks, with their focus on decommodification, have become too restrictive for new forms of capital accumulation, with their focus on flexible adaptation, which include an increasing demand for the re-commodification of labour. The conflict emerges and intensifies, among other reasons, because of the radically different internal operational logics, agendas and priorities that characterize these two social processes.

Author: Zoran Slavnic

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