"In their fight against the debt crisis, the EU and its member states took measures that have profoundly changed the euro. As a result, it now differs fundamentally from when it was introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht. Surprisingly, this change has come about with hardly any formal amendment to the Union's 'basic constitutional charter', the Treaties. How, then, to understand this change? This book argues that the constitution of the EU has transformed, which occurs when constitutions change without amendment. The transformation is characterized by a broadening of the currency union conception of stability. Whereas it used to grant overriding importance to price stability, it now also attributes great significance to financial stability. Financial assistance operations for distressed member states well as government bond purchases by the European Central Bank are its key manifestations. Using solidarity as its lens, the book conceptualises the unity of the member states and analyses how this was preserved by political leaders during the crisis. It then shows how this changed the euro's legal set-up of and why the ECJ could not turn against this change in Pringle and Gauweiler"--

In their fight against the debt crisis, the European Union and its member states took measures that have profoundly changed the euro. It now differs fundamentally from when it was introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht. Surprisingly, this change has come about with hardly any formal amendment to the Union's 'basic constitutional charter', the Treaties. How, then, to understand it? This book argues that the constitution of the EU has transformed, which occurs when constitutions change without amendment. The transformation is characterized by a broadening of the currency union's stability conception from price stability to also financial stability. Using solidarity as a lens, the book conceptualises the unity of the member states and analyses how this was preserved during the crisis. Subsequently, it explains how that changed the currency union's set-up and why the European Court of Justice could not turn against the change in Pringle and Gauweiler.

"In their fight against the debt crisis, the EU and its member states took measures that have profoundly changed the euro. As a result, it now differs fundamentally from when it was introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht. Surprisingly, this change has come about with hardly any formal amendment to the Union's 'basic constitutional charter', the Treaties. How, then, to understand this change? This book argues that the constitution of the EU has transformed, which occurs when constitutions change without amendment. The transformation is characterized by a broadening of the currency union conception of stability. Whereas it used to grant overriding importance to price stability, it now also attributes great significance to financial stability. Financial assistance operations for distressed member states well as government bond purchases by the European Central Bank are its key manifestations. Using solidarity as its lens, the book conceptualises the unity of the member states and analyses how this was preserved by political leaders during the crisis. It then shows how this changed the euro's legal set-up of and why the ECJ could not turn against this change in Pringle and Gauweiler"--

Creating the European monetary union between diverse and unequal nation states is arguably one of the biggest social experiments in history. This book offers an explanation of how the euro experiment came about and was sustained despite a severe crisis, and provides a comparison with the monetary-financial history of the US. The euro experiment can be understood as risk-sharing through a currency that is issued by a supranational central bank. A single currency shares liquidity risks by creating larger markets for all financial assets. A single monetary policy responds to business cycles in the currency area as a whole rather than managing the path of one dominant economy. Mechanisms of risk-sharing become institutions of monetary solidarity if they are consciously maintained, but they will periodically face opposition in member states. This book argues that diversity of membership is not an economic obstacle to the success of the euro, as diversity increases the potential gains from risk sharing. But political cooperation is needed to realize this potential, and such cooperation is up against collective action problems which become more intractable as the parties become more diverse. Hence, risk-sharing usually comes about as a collective by-product of national incentives. This political-economic tension can explain why the gains from risk-sharing are not more fully exploited, both in the euro area and in the US dollar area. This approach to monetary integration is based on the theory of collective action when hierarchy is not available as a solution to inter-state cooperation. The theory originates with Keohane and Ostrom (1995) and it is applied in this book, taking into account the latest research on the inherent instability of financial market integration.

In times of global economic and political crises, the notion of solidarity is gaining new currency. This book argues that a solidarity-based perspective can help us to find new ways to address pressing problems. Exemplified by three case studies from the field of biomedicine: databases for health and disease research, personalised healthcare, and organ donation, it explores how solidarity can make a difference in how we frame problems, and in the policy solutions that we can offer.

This book aims to provide the reader with an insight into the relevance of a section of the economy, which is often referred to as the ‘social and solidarity economy’ (SSE); and highlight some of the current issues in the field, how they are being addressed and some of their future implications. Using case studies from around the world, this book ‘Social and Solidarity Economy: The World’s Economy With a Social Face’ provides an up-to-date account of the strengths and weaknesses of these initiatives across four continents including issues that have not been researched sufficiently before (e.g. circular economy, social propaganda and its dangers, social enterprise as a panacea for NGOs in developing countries, and ‘new’ social movements). There is growing interest in SSE initiatives among policymakers, foundations, researchers and academic institutions around the world. Despite this interest, SSE related research remains scarce. There are concerned that SSE initiatives, which contribute significantly to their local communities’ development, need to be more widely disseminated amongst the general public. The Social and Solidarity Economy: The World’s Economy With a Social Face will help promote the ground-breaking work being done by organisations and individuals but which remain undocumented and help to raise awareness of such initiatives as well as contribute to academia with a critical approach to the sector covering issues that have not been covered much before, such as the circular economy and the dangers of social propaganda. Aimed at researchers, academics and policy makers in the fields of Social Enterprise, CSR, Tourism, International Economics as well as supporting disciplines ‘Social and Solidarity Economy: The World’s Economy With a Social Face’ looks to establish and help define the field.

This book presents theoretical examinations of why and how connecting people yields different results from those of the market mechanism alone. With an ever-greater disparity between the world’s rich and poor, actions have been taken to remove the imperfections and remedy malfunctions of the market mechanism. An underlying theme of these activities is to connect people and make them directly visible to one another; thus the integrating concept of the “solidarity economy” emerges. This volume analyzes diverse examples and practices of solidarity economy. Adam Smith emphasized the importance of “sympathy” among people and the role of the “impartial spectator” in order to control otherwise reckless markets. These major concepts form the basis of a solidarity economy. The examples and practices in this book are based on this framework. The first is the idea of social business, promoted by Prof. M. Yunus of the Grameen Bank. Although the group of five members in the Grameen Bank organization is considered a system of mutual surveillance by some economists, it is not a system based on distrust but a mechanism for mutual help and encouragement. Also examined in this book is organic agriculture, which adheres to the necessity of face-to-face relationships. It pursues environmental concerns and food safety by bringing together consumers and producers in local areas and by sharing knowledge. When consumers and producers are widely separated, a system of certification assures consumers that no chemical pesticides and fertilizers are used. Connecting consumers and producers through certification systems can be seen as part of fair trade mechanisms. These mechanisms are applied in certified coffee programs, for instance, to reduce poverty, to protect the environment, and to safeguard human rights. This book proposes that all these seemingly different types of activities can be understood as part of the solidarity economy. With this unifying theme, the book will be useful for both theoretical investigations and practical applications.

The euro crisis, several sovereign debt crises, the Great Recession, the refugee crisis, and Brexit have all challenged Europeans’ willingness to show solidarity with other European citizens and member states of the European Union. European Solidarity in Times of Crisis provides a clear theoretical framework to understand European solidarity for the first time. It offers a systematic empirical approach to determine the strength and causes of European solidarity. The authors distinguish between four domains of solidarity and test a set of theoretically derived criteria with a unique dataset to investigate European solidarity. Based on a survey conducted in thirteen EU member states in 2016, the empirical analysis leads to some unanticipated results. Europeans display a notably higher degree of solidarity than many politicians and social scientists have presumed so far. This especially applies to the support of people in need (welfare solidarity) and the reduction of territorial disparities between rich and poor EU countries (territorial solidarity), but also to the domain of fiscal solidarity (financial support of indebted EU countries). This optimistic view is less true for the domain of refugee solidarity. While citizens of western and southern EU countries accept the accommodation of refugees and their allocation between European countries, the majority of people in eastern European countries do not share this point of view. The book will appeal to students and scholars in fields such as comparative sociology, political science, social policy and migration research, and European studies. It is also relevant to a non-academic audience interested in the development of the European project.

Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world. Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable. Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid. This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout. Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.

Starting in the 1980s, competitive pressures and the ideology of competitiveness have shaken and transformed traditional models of development, public policy, and governance in Europe. This edited book carries out a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and innovative analysis of the relationship between competitiveness and solidarity in the contemporary European Union. It offers an original contribution to the scholarly debates on the current developments and challenges of welfare states, social and economic policies, and forms of governance in the European Union. Bringing together an international team of cutting-edge scholars in the social sciences and the humanities, Competitiveness and Solidarity in the European Union sheds light on the conceptual richness and policy relevance of these relationships, pointing to important avenues to make the European Union more economically successful and socially fairer. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union studies and, more broadly, of EU Law, Public Policy, Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, and Contemporary History.