The Contentious Politics of Unemployment in Europe Welfare States and Political Opportunities

This collection provides a novel approach to unemployment as a contested political field in six European countries. Combining two theoretical traditions that so far have followed quite separate tracks (the literature on social movements and contentious politics and the literature on the comparative political economy of the welfare state), this study provides evidence about the impact of welfare state regimes, conceived as political opportunity structures specific to this field, on public debates and collective mobilizations in unemployment politics. Drawing on original data from a major EU-funded research project, contributors show how the prevailing national models of the welfare state influence the contentious politics of unemployment, both in its visible side as claim-making in the public domain and in its less visible side as intervention within policy networks. In addition to national debates and mobilizations, the book also addresses political contention over unemployment at the European level.

Marco Giugni is a researcher at the Laboratoire de recherches sociales et politiques appliques (resop) and teaches at the Department of Political Science at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. His research interests include social movements and collective action, immigration and ethnic relations, unemployment and social exclusion.

The Contentious Politics of Unemployment: An Introduction; M.Giugni
PART I: CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITIES
Welfare States, Political Opportunities, and the Claim-Making in the Field of Unemployment Politics; M.Cinalli & M.Giugni
The Protest on Unemployment: Forms and Opportunities; D.della Porta
Networks and Political Contention over Unemployment: A Comparison of Britain, Germany and Switzerland; M.Cinalli & K.Füglister
PART II: ACTORS AND DYNAMICS
A Precarious Balance of Interests: Unions and the Unemployed in Europe; A.Linders & M.Kalander
The Role of Civil Society Actors in the Contentious Politics of Unemployment; S.Baglioni
Transcending Marginalization: The Mobilization of the Unemployed in France, Germany and Italy in a Comparative Perspective; S.Baglioni, B.Baumgarten, D.Chabanet & C.Lahusen
PART III: UNEMPLOYMENT POLITICS AND THE EUROPEAN UNION
Globalization and the Contentious Politics of Unemployment: An Empirical Assessment of the Denationalization and Convergence Theses; C.Lahusen, M.Giugni & M.Berclaz
Europeanization and the EU Supranational Multi-Organizational Field over Unemployment: Elite-Dominance or New Opportunities?; P.Statham & M.Cinalli
When the Unemployed Challenge the European Union: The European Marches as a Mode of Externalization of Protest; D.Chabanet
The Contentious Politics of Unemployment: Some Conclusions; M.Giugni