Peripheralisation is determined in socio ‑demographic, economic, political and identitarian factors. It is, many say, by definition, characterised by a willingness to migrate, in particular among the ...younger generations. European citizenship comes with the right to migrate – to relocate, to work and to be treated as equals in many respects to the local citizenry. In this research paper, I explicate the results of twenty interviews in six CEE countries with 7
‑graders who were asked what they thought of European citizenship. Those who knew what this is give widely divergent answers, but there are two dominant themes running through their perspectives: they do not feel great affection for the EU, and whilst willing to migrate, they do not appreciate the need to do so. Thus, they feel the EU does not live up to its promises to deliver equality for all Europeans. One explanation they give for this is that ‘the Iron Curtain did not dissolve very well’: the burden of history is acutely experienced.
This article considers what Brexit means for British citizens living in France. Drawing on empirical research I examine the emotional and material impacts that uncertainties about their futures have ...had on their lives. The article documents the measures they take (or anticipate) in their bids to secure their future rights to stay put in France. However, not everyone is well placed to secure their own future. Foregrounding Brexit as bordering – the social and political process through which judgements are made about who is ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ of the privilege of (European) belonging – I question who among these Britons is newly bordered through Brexit and with what impacts? As I argue, Brexit is unevenly experienced, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and generating new fault lines of belonging among the British in France as they are repositioned in relation to hierarchies of European belonging.
EU citizenship is strongly linked to digital transformations, as digitalisation redefines how citizens engage, communicate and participate within the EU. Digital advancements have transformed the ...European public sphere and are radically changing democratic deliberation by enhancing access to information, facilitating transnational dialogue and fostering new forms of civic engagement. E-governance and digital public services streamline administrative processes, making it more convenient for citizens to access various services. Digitalisation of interaction among EUs’ citizens can support their mobility and connectivity. However, rapid digital advancement also brings challenges of evolving multifaced EU identity in fast paced, post-truth, increasingly complex social system like the EU.
The main goal of this article is to show the relevance of postmodern theories for the creation of a theoretical framework for digital European citizenship and the digital European public sphere. By embracing complexity, encouraging critical reflexion and prioritizing adaptability, a postmodern theoretical framework can enhance our understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by digital technologies in the EU context, ultimately contributing to more inclusive, democratic and responsive forms of digital citizenship and public discourse.
However, as this article shows, the synthesis of a postmodern perspective and digital technologies can also bring its own challenges, such as fragmentation, epistemological uncertainty or ethical dilemmas. Addressing these challenges requires critical engagement with both postmodern theories and digital technologies, acknowledging their complexities and contradictions while striving to promote ethical and inclusive uses of digital technology that empower EU citizens.
This article examines the representation of the European protagonist in Autumn by Ali Smith from a gender, intersectional and cultural studies perspective. The novel is a pioneering work in Brexlit, ...an emergent literary movement which aims to reflect the current political and social landscape of the United Kingdom after the 2016 European Union referendum. Firstly, this article offers an overview of the political, social and literary phenomenon of Brexlit, followed by an outline of Sara Ahmed’s theorisation of the sociological concept of the stranger. Secondly, the article further contextualises Brexit fiction, presenting its crucial role in putting forward a fair portrayal of migrants, a collective largely misrepresented in the UK media. The article then considers the centrality of Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet to the reworking of the British social imaginary. The subsequent two sections explore the encounters in which Daniel’s strange(r)ness manifests itself through his heterogeneous and relational yet singular identity, owing to his connection to the migratory experience. Retaining his differences and from a position of agency, the solidary bonds he establishes with Elisabeth convey strange(r)ness as a label that must be overcome in order to ensure a better coexistence within the British nation.
A criação da cidadania europeia pelo Tratado de Maastricht não foi recebida com entusiasmo. Os direitos que conferia eram essencialmente os que já vigoravam na Comunidade Europeia. A jurisprudência ...do TJ deu substância à cidadania europeia, qualificando-a como “o estatuto fundamental dos nacionais dos Estados-membros”. A interpretação do TJ modelou este novo estatuto e os respetivos direitos, tornando-o num instrumento para proteger os migrantes nacionais dos Estados-Membros, especialmente importante para indivíduos em situação vulnerável: v.g. deficientes, homossexuais, até estudantes deslocados, acolhendo no exercício hermenêutico judicial um conceito amplo de vulnerabilidade (Fineman 2010), quer estrutural e permanente, quer individual ou conjuntural; no que respeita às crianças, a vulnerabilidade justificou a extensão da proteção aos progenitores. A análise seguinte percorre alguns dos “leading cases” da cidadania da União, focando o alcance protetor desse estatuto no contexto da situação concreta “sub judice”. The creation of European citizenship by the Maastricht Treaty was not enthusiastically received. The rights it conferred were essentially those already in force in the European Community. The case law of the ECJ gave substance to European citizenship, describing it as “the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States”. The interpretation of the ECJ shaped this new status and its rights, making it an instrument to protect migrant nationals of Member States, especially important for individuals in vulnerable situations: e.g. disabled people, homosexuals, even displaced students, welcoming in the judicial hermeneutic exercise a broad concept of vulnerability (Fineman 2010), whether structural and permanent, or individual or conjunctural; with regard to children, vulnerability justified the extension of protection to parents. The following analysis goes through some of the “leading cases” of Union citizenship, focusing on the protective scope of that status in the context of the concrete situation “sub judice”. Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1205
The highly fragmented, layered and complex regulatory policy framework of the European Union hides a wealth of resources for social Europe. This article aims at exploring the social opportunities ...offered in this intricate legal framework on the basis of the resource-based understanding identified in the first contribution of this Special Issue by Corti, Ferrera and Keune. Accordingly, it pinpoints and discusses several guaranteed subjective powers to obtain certain social benefits or services in each of the pre-identified tripod of power resources: normative, instrumental and enforcement power resources. The analysis contradicts, to some extent, the negligible role attributed to EU law in terms of social rights. Overall, it finds that there exist abundant power resources at the EU level. Whereas these certainly add to the plethora of resources available to reach a certain standard of living, this abundancy is paired with a heightened complexity. Consequently, it is not always clear how the power resources interact among each other. Moreover, there is a disproportionate use of the tripod. Binding normative resources are used rather marginally in comparison to instrumental and enforcement resources, which is not necessarily a consequence of the lack of competence at the EU level.
Stratified Social Rights Limiting EU Citizenship Bruzelius, Cecilia; Reinprecht, Constantin; Seeleib‐Kaiser, Martin
Journal of common market studies,
November 2017, Letnik:
55, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Differences in Member States' economic development and national social protection systems can translate into significant differences in the substantive social rights of EU migrant citizens. The ...substantive rights of economically inactive EU migrant citizens are dependent on the ‘export’ of social rights from their country of origin to the Member State of destination, in particular during the initial phase of their residence in a new Member State as a jobseeker or a pensioner. This paper demonstrates that EU citizens' social rights are substantively stratified, not only by economic status, but also according to the Member State of origin and destination. Stratified social rights, it is argued, generate unequal opportunities to free movement and eo ipso challenge the very concept of EU citizenship. The paper concludes with a proposal for a European Minimum Income Scheme to at least partially overcome the shortcomings of existing EU citizenship.
In this paper, I present the mobile commons and migrant commoning as the constituent power of a Europe-to-come. The theoretical basis for the proposed conceptualization comes through a well-known ...dispute around the concept of the 'nomos' that involves Carl Schmitt, on the one hand, and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, on the other. I revisit this argument, and suggest that it expresses a difference between two ways of constituting Europe. The Schmittean line is organized around current policies of enclosures of borders of EUrope. The nomadic line today takes shape in a migrant (auto)nomos that resists enclosures, institutes mobile commons and possibly transgresses the concept of citizenship to the institution of commonship. I draw on contemporary theories of the commons and commoning to develop arguments for a nomadic approach to European belonging. Besides contributing to the debate on mobile commons, the article intervenes in the discussion on the future constitution of Europe in the context of migration.
This article uses the current ‘refugees/migrants crisis’ and Brexit as illustrative of the numerous challenges the European Union faces today when it comes to its identity and the construction of a ...‘European citizenship’. By discussing the proliferation of borders on the European continent and by analysing the sociological significance of such proliferation, the article argues that Europe is experiencing an ontological and epistemological rather than an existential crisis that relates to its incapacity to acknowledge, and critically engage with, its fundamental neo-colonial and neo-liberal matrix. The article argues that the stalemate experienced by the European Union with respect to its regional and global relevance can only be overcome by bringing to the surface buried or disqualified knowledges about ‘who counts as European’ beyond whiteness.