Are ILO labour standards up for sale?
In its centenary year, the International Labour Organization received a poisoned chalice from the United Nations—an institutional reform which could represent a threat to ILO labour standards.
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.
Reframing the European welfare state
The European welfare state does not have to be rebuilt from scratch. But it does have to focus on renewal rather than repair and on social solidarity rather than individual subjection.
From Europe-as-project to a real political community
Continuing our Europe2025 series, Marija Bartl argues that the metaphor of Europe as a ‘project’ foregrounds market integration and forestalls the emergence of a European public sphere.
European youth need something to vote for beyond precarious work
At first sight, it might appear that life for young people is becoming more comfortable. Advances in technology mean it’s easier to speak to friends,
A Social and Green New Deal to reverse the populist tide
The setback to the immediate plans of those seeking the UK’s exit from the European Union provides a window of opportunity to go on the offensive for an anti-populist, continent-wide alternative.
Populism and the embrace of complexity
Populists may often thrive with simple narratives. But Sheri Berman warns that simple explanations of populism itself will not pass muster.
Europe’s destiny is at stake
Léonce Bekemans initiates a ‘Europe2025’ series on Social Europe, which will look beyond the May elections to the challenges in the next term, with a call for a mobilising vision.
Does Zuzana Čaputová’s victory signal a new politics in Slovakia?
Zuzana Čaputová emerged as the winner from Slovakia’s presidential election. Although viewed as a step away from populist and nationalist politics, the battle for the country’s political future is only just beginning.
The future of manufacturing—is it in Europe?
Europe can remain a manufacturing hub if it ensures early adoption of game-changing technologies, engages with global supply chains and manages the green transition.
Emissions inequality—a gulf between global rich and poor
When it comes to responsibility for global greenhouse-gas emissions, some are more equal than others.
The new spirit of postcapitalism
Capitalism emerged in the interstices of feudalism and Paul Mason finds a prefiguring of postcapitalism in the lifeworld of the contemporary European city.
‘Full and good employment’ and reviving the European ideal
The logic of a Euro-Keynesian recovery, towards socially useful full employment, leads inexorably to a rediscovery of wider European political ambition.
Normalising fascism in the EU
Uproar followed comments by the Italian president of the European Parliament in qualified praise of Mussolini. They raise big questions about the direction of the European centre right.
PiS attacks LGBT+ rights in Poland, as elections loom
Amid simmering social discontent and with the Catholic Church wracked by sex-abuse scandals, Poland’s clerical-nationalist party is exploiting homophobia to drive a wedge into the opposition.
Memory, myth and ‘post-truth’
In the era of 'post-truth', history isn't what it used to be—which makes solving the problems of the present so much more difficult.
Can data-labour unions break the monopoly capture of data?
Karin Pettersson begins a series of Social Europe columns by arguing it’s time to rethink ‘free’ data as the product of labour.
Restoring trust in Europe—wage rises and workplace democracy
Flatlining wages, denial of workplace voice and precarity are undermining trust in Europe—and assisting the siren calls of the populists.