Bücher der Reihe Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology

In order to better understand processes of European integration, this book offers a new perspective that compares past experiences of change to current transitional moments at the European level. It addresses key questions about European society, EU integration and social change to reveal the social construction of emergent polities and societies.

This volume explores the variety of forms, strategies and practices of Islamic organizations in Europe and the United States. It focuses on the reactions of organized Muslims at local, national, and transnational levels to the on-going debates on their integration into society and the structures of state-church relations.

Contributors to this book show how the long EU accession process disseminates discursive tools employed in LGBT activist struggles for human rights and equality.

This international collection studies how the financial crisis of 2007 and the ensuing economicand political crises in Europe and North America have triggered a process ofchange in the field of economics, law andpolitics. Contributors to this book argue that both elites and citizens havehad to rethink the nature of the market, the role of the state as a marketregulator and as a provider of welfare, the role of political parties inrepresenting societyΓÇÖs main political and social cleavages, the role of civilsociety in voicing the concerns of citizens, and the role of the citizen as theultimate source of power in a democracy but also as a fundamentally powerlesssubject in a global economy.The book studies the actors, the areas and the processesthat have carried forward the change and proposes the notion of ΓÇÿincompleteparadigm shiftΓÇÖ to analyse this change. Its authors explore the multipledimensions of paradigm shifts and their differentiated evolution, arguing thattoday we witness an incomplete paradigm shift of financial regulations,economic models and welfare systems, but a stillbirth of a new political andeconomic paradigm.

This volume introduces and compares different concepts of culture in social movement research. It assesses their advantages and shortcomings, drawing links to anthropology, discourse analysis, sociology of emotions, narration, spatial theory, and others. Each contribution's approach is illustrated with recent cases of mobilization.

This book discusses the extent to which the theoretical relevance and analytical rigor of the concept of the public sphere is affected by current processes of transnationalization. The contributions address fundamental questions concerning the viability of a socially and politically effective public sphere in a post-Westphalian world.