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European Societies Lecture 1 The making of Europe and the European Dream

European Societies Lecture 1 The making of Europe and the European Dream. Professor Claire Wallace School of Social Sciences. 4 Major Phases. Agrarian societies Industrial societies Service society Information/Knowledge society. History: shaping European modernity. 3 major forces:

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European Societies Lecture 1 The making of Europe and the European Dream

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  1. European Societies Lecture 1The making of Europe and the European Dream Professor Claire Wallace School of Social Sciences

  2. 4 Major Phases • Agrarian societies • Industrial societies • Service society • Information/Knowledge society

  3. History: shaping European modernity 3 major forces: • Enlightenment (intellectual) • Industrialisation (economic) • Social structures (class, religion, gender organisation)

  4. Forces 1: The Enlightenment • Rational understanding of the world (science, nature, society) (Weber, Comte, Adam Smith etc.) • Discourses of liberation/emancipation and freedom (French and American revolutions) • Idea of progress • Social as well as physical engineering (welfare state, poor laws)

  5. Forces 2: Industrialisation • Creation of industrial centres • Movement from the land • Transformation of agriculture • Rationalisation of tasks • Separation of home and work • Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft • Organic and mechanical solidarity

  6. Social structures • Religion: Protestant vs. Catholic vs Judaism vs Orthodox • Family/gender organisation: neolocal nuclear family, late marriage, celibacy, inheritance (Hajnal line) • Social class: peasants to farmers, industrial working class, middle class, aristocracy and landowners (politics)

  7. Institutions of Europe • Greek democracy • Judeo-Christian religion • Roman law LATER • Nation state • Empires/New World • Supra national state

  8. Major Epochal Events • French revolution and Napoleonic wars (1789 ff) • Rise of nation states (19th C) • Rise of ideologies (Fascism, Communism) • First World War/Second World War • Russian Revolution • Cold War • Velvet Revolutions after 1989

  9. Clash of ideologies • Rise of Socialism • Rise of Fascism • Rise of Communism • Russian revolution and Cold War

  10. Velvet revolutions • 1980s Perestroika (reorganisation), Glasnost (openness) • 1989 – opening of Hungarian/Austrian border and flow of East Germans to the West • Collapse of communism • 1991 Collapse of Soviet Union

  11. New dimensions of Europe Europe and the EU The Euro New dimensions of policy making What holds Europe together? Identity, history, institutions, values, welfare state Future of Europe?

  12. What is the European Dream? • According to Jeremy Rifkin it eclipses the American dream • American dream: individual self-improvement, frontier spirit, material success • European dream: collectivism, solidarity, welfare, co-operation, quality of life

  13. The European Dream • Community relationships vs. individual autonomy • Cultural diversity vs assimilation • Quality of life vs accumulation of wealth • Sustainable development vs. unlimited growth • Play vs. Toil • Universal human rights vs. property rights • Global co-operation vs. unilateral power • (Rifkin p. 3)

  14. Differences US and Europe • Religiosity vs secularism • Minimalist vs comprehensive welfare state • Autonomy vs. embeddness • Autonomous civil society vs. state • Role of Enlightenment and 2 World Wars • European dream takes over where post-modernity tails off. • Fukeyama “The End of History” vs new history not true.

  15. The European Social Model • Social dialogue • Welfare state • Egalitarianism (regional and societal) – Income inequality (USA high income person earns 5.6x low income person. In Europe 3x) • Subsidiarity

  16. No European Social Model? • Tremendous internal disagreements • Many kinds of welfare state • Many varieties of capitalism • Elite project? • Sustainable with ageing society and increasing immigration?

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