Estonia top of the (digital) class
After the summer holidays, schools across Europe have been fretting about if and when they will have to switch back to digital distance learning—but not in Estonia.
Politics
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on political issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
Including the precariat
The coronavirus crisis has highlighted how the welfare state of the future must include the growing mass of precarious labour, especially among youth.
Hazardous! Occupational safety and health in the care economy during the pandemic
Protecting the health and safety of all workers in the care economy is essential, but for this to become a reality major changes are needed.
Shifting the burden: can Covid-19 do it for women’s unpaid work?
Lockdown conditions have put in question the disproportionate burden of unpaid work placed on women, evidence from Turkey shows.
The EU needs a new story on race and inclusion
If the sensitising impact of ‘Black Lives Matter’ is not to ebb, a new European narrative and concrete actions are needed.
Workers’ rights: negotiating and co-governing digital systems at work
Algorithmic systems are a new front line for unions as well as a challenge to workers’ rights to autonomy.
Anticipating the Covid-19 restructuring tsunami
There’s time to avoid the carnage of employer-led restructuring following the pandemic—but only if workers and unions set the agenda.
Workers in critical occupations face triple disadvantage
At the height of the pandemic workers in critical occupations enjoyed nightly public applause. Now they need longer-term, concrete appreciation.
Building an electoral coalition: social-democratic parties in western Europe
It is sometimes suggested social-democratic parties are torn between ‘communitarian’ workers and ‘cosmopolitan’ professionals—but it’s not so simple.
Where did Trumpism come from?
A new book turns away from the ‘demand side’ focus of much populism analysis to the ‘supply’ of a plutocratic, ever-more right-wing Republican party.
How digitalisation must be harnessed to save jobs
A framework agreement between the social partners should ensure job security and worker involvement are prioritised across the European Union.
Spain’s fight for a just recovery
The ERTE job-protection scheme to combat the economic effects of the pandemic has left Spain well-prepared to face its aftermath.
The supermarket of citizenship and European democracy
European citizenship must be invested with more political significance—and never treated as a commodity for sale.
The politics of identity and inclusion
Karin Pettersson argues that struggles around race and gender are fundamentally about inclusion on an equal footing in the political community.
Black lives matter in Europe too
No one should be smug about racism in Europe. Here too there is a toxic interaction between ethnicity, equality and the environment.
An economic, as well as a monetary, union?
The mammoth European Council meeting agreed a diminished recovery package—yet one with still huge ramifications.
Poles apart—the presidential election in Poland
The presidential election in Poland was an intolerant affair—and the argument isn’t over yet.