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Recently, textiles and their end-of-life management have become the focus of public and political attention. In the European Union the revised waste framework directive defines textiles as municipal waste and stipulates their separate collection by 2025. In the context of these developments, this paper summarises briefly the current state-of-the-art in textile recycling. It is evident that recycling methods are not yet fully developed. This is especially the case with multi-material textiles, which are composed of two or more polymers that are incompatible for recycling. In the practical part of the communication, results are presented which show that enzymatic hydrolysis is a suitable process for recycling textiles made of cotton and polyester. After a complete removal of cotton, the remaining pure polyester fibres undergo a re-granulation and post-condensation step. The so obtained recycled polyester is fed back into the textile processing chain and finally towels are obtained. The main steering parameters of the enzymatic hydrolysis process are described. The study proves that solutions in accordance with the Circular Economy in the textile sector are available but an industrial implementation has not yet been realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes work carried out within the European Union (EU)-Russia Buterfli project to look at the control of transition-causing "target" stationary cross flow vortices, by the use of distributed plasma actuation to generate sub-dominant "killer" modes. The objective is to use the "killer" modes to control the "target" modes through a non-linear stabilizing mechanism. The numerical modelling and results are compared to experimental studies performed at the TsAGI T124 tunnel for a swept plate subject to a favorable pressure gradient flow. A mathematical model for the actuator developed at TsAGI was implemented in a linearized Navier–Stokes (LNS) solver and used to model and hence predict "killer" mode amplitudes at a measurement plane in the experiment. The LNS analysis shows good agreement with experiment, and the results are used as input for non-linear parabolized stability equation (PSE) analysis to predict the effect of these modes on crossflow transition. Whilst the numerical model indicates a delay in transition, experimental results indicated an advance in transition rather than delay. This was determined to be due to actuator-induced unsteadiness arising in the experiment, resulting in the generation of travelling crossflow disturbances which tended to obscure and thus dominate the plasma stabilized stationary disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past 25 years in Greece, welfare-state reforms have been the result of the interplay between domestic politics and European influences. While pension reform has been aborted, some targeted and small-scale reforms have proven more successful. Wholesale changes of the welfare system have met with strong resistance from private interests and bureaucratic mechanisms. The EU's impact has mostly been felt in the policies of employment, vocational training, regional development and, less so, social assistance. Other welfare-state reforms have remained mostly on paper. However, the Greek welfare regime is gradually undergoing a cognitive change, manifested in the diffusion of social rights, and has adopted EU-driven policy tools for consultation and decision making. Throughout, path dependence has interacted with reform dynamics, flowing from the country's integration into the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional transformations in recent decades have limited the weight and power of collective actors. Notwithstanding this, literature on employer associations (EAs) has argued a resilient performance in terms of affiliation. In this paper, we use comparative institutional analysis to evaluate the actual scope of these associations in terms of membership and the share of workforce employed by their members. Moreover, by utilising a logistic regression approach we delve into the drivers of the choice to join these organisations. Our results show a general decline of EAs, and point to large manufacturing companies as the great reservoirs of affiliation. However, institutional variations across Europe cause significant differences between countries. We thus demonstrate how membership is strongly influenced by the institutional framework, the relevance of the variables related to the provision of collective goods as a counterbalance to trade union activity and adherence to collective bargaining schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Waste Framework Directive obliged European Union Member States to set up separate collection systems to promote high quality recycling for at least paper, metal, plastic and glass by 2015. As implementation of the requirement varies across European Union Member States, the European Commission contracted BiPRO GmbH/Copenhagen Resource Institute to assess the separate collection schemes in the 28 European Union Member States, focusing on capital cities and on metal, plastic, glass (with packaging as the main source), paper/cardboard and bio-waste. The study includes an assessment of the legal framework for, and the practical implementation of, collection systems in the European Union-28 Member States and an in depth-analysis of systems applied in all capital cities. It covers collection systems that collect one or more of the five waste streams separately from residual waste/mixed municipal waste at source (including strict separation, co-mingled systems, door-to-door, bring-point collection and civic amenity sites). A scoreboard including 13 indicators is elaborated in order to measure the performance of the systems with the capture rates as key indicators to identify best performers. Best performance are by the cities of Ljubljana, Helsinki and Tallinn, leading to the key conclusion that door-to-door collection, at least for paper and bio-waste, and the implementation of pay-as-you-throw schemes results in high capture and thus high recycling rates of packaging and other municipal waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital false information is a global problem and the European Union (EU) has taken profound actions to counter it. However, from an academic perspective the United States has attracted particular attention. This article aims at mapping the current state of academic inquiry into false information at scale in the EU across fields. Systematic filtering of academic contributions resulted in the identification of 93 papers. We found that Italy is the most frequently studied country, and the country of affiliation for most contributing authors. The fields that are best represented are computer science and information studies, followed by social science, communication, and media studies. Based on the review, we call for (1) a greater focus on cross-platform studies; (2) resampling of similar events, such as elections, to detect reoccurring patterns; and (3) longitudinal studies across events to detect similarities, for instance, in who spreads misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the powers and competences of the EU to standardise public sector accounting of the member states and to take other EU action in the field of public sector accounting. We argue that public sector accounting forms part of the administrative organisation of the member states that is not a core EU competence. EU initiatives such as the European Public Sector Accounting Standards project, which aim to increase transparency and comparability, therefore need to follow the rules set out for administrative matters in general. The study reveals on the one hand that EU actions are essentially limited to voluntary cooperation and influences of other policy areas. But on the other hand, it shows that they do not need to be limited to the initiatives currently driven by Eurostat. Points for practitioners The future of the European Public Sector Accounting Standards project is uncertain. However, it is very unlikely that it will take the shape of a top-down set of readymade EU accounting standards that will force public administrations to adjust their inner workings. Public sector accounting is not (yet) a (typical) European policy, but simply a national one that the EU can support. The EU initiative can be considered as an opportunity for collaboration and knowledge sharing on how to increase transparency of public sector accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While transnational research infrastructure projects long preceded the formal integration process that created the European Union, their advancement is an increasingly central part of EU research policy and of European integration in general. This paper analyses the Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure–European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI–ERIC) as a recent example of institutionalized scientific collaboration in Europe that has formally been established as part of EU science policy. BBMRI–ERIC, a network of European biobanks, is expected to contribute to both European science and European integration. Yet its achievements in these domains are interpreted differently by various actors involved. This paper draws on STS conceptualizations of infrastructures as relational, experimental, and promissory assemblages. These support the formulation of a working definition of research infrastructures that in turn helps to explore the heterogeneous meanings attributed to BBMRI–ERIC. The paper describes the creation of this distributed European research infrastructure, and divergent understandings of what it means for BBMRI–ERIC to be distributed, to be European and to be a research infrastructure. This analysis demonstrates how building a research infrastructure is also an effort to define what it means to be European—a process in which what is European about science and what science can do for Europe is continuously (re-)imagined, contested and negotiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much evidence that the 'European social model' is under threat, with neoliberalism increasingly dominating policy both at EU and national levels. Within this trend, Britain stands Out as already having a long-established free market tradition - Anglo-American in both industrial relations and corporate governance systems. This article seeks to illustrate how British state allegiance to a 'flexible' labour market has brought new restrictions to accessing statutory employment protection, the chief defence for 'unorganized' workers - those who are neither unionized nor covered by collective agreements and who now comprise the majority of workers in Britain. The New Labour government, committed to voluntarism and flexibility, has used the very instrument it avers to avoid - legal regulation - to limit access to employment tribunals, the final resort for legal enforcement of employment rights. The government has thus constrained its concessions to the European social model, which comprise a range of laws since 1997 enhancing individual employment rights, in its overarching neoliberal policy, by ensuring legal regulation remains difficult to achieve and does not 'burden' business. This article, based on research both on legal developments, and on the social support mechanisms for non-unionized workers, seeks to demonstrate the extreme vulnerability of the unorganized worker in an increasingly free market Britain. How far this portrait has relevance to the rightward drift of Europe depends on the degree to which it can be exported, how far continental European systems are sufficiently institutionally embedded to resist this, and how successfully the European social model is defended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Brexit negotiations continue to draw criticism nearly two years on from the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, many media outlets have concentrated on making sense of what has been dubbed the 'Brexit circus'. In particular, significant media attention has been directed towards obstacles to Brexit's progression, such as the issue of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and the 'backstop' arrangement. Through an examination of different media efforts to explain the border issue, this paper will discuss how conventional reporting methods have been unable to make this issue comprehensible to the individual. This paper will suggest that a hypertextual aesthetic form would provide a more effective means of making sense of the complexity of the border issue and its relationship to global political and economic structures. However, an understanding of the border issue also requires an understanding of the affective reality of life in this region and the history upon which this reality is founded. In this manner, this paper also argues that representational regimes capable of conveying affective realities could contribute important experiential dimensions to efforts to render dominant political and economic structures both cognisable and contestable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing asbestos streams in developing and transition countries is particularly challenging. Deficiencies are often present for adequate procedures for the management of asbestos waste; solid quality data or databases on the quantities of asbestos production and usage are missing and asbestos inventories or the registry of asbestos-related diseases following European Union (EU) or other regulations are not in place. This paper aims to develop a model for determining and assessing the quantity of asbestos in the built environment of a transition country. Quantities of asbestos products and life expectancy of those products were assessed to develop a model that forecasts flows and stocks of asbestos products and wastes. The overall objective is to evaluate the model and show the manifestation of asbestos in the waste stream in a case study on a country with a transition economy, such as Serbia. Results show that total quantities of asbestos fibre consumption are approximately 0.5 million tonnes; the largest amount of waste generation is expected in the 2020s. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for the forthcoming quantities of waste by improving legal procedures, implementation of existing regulations, and provision of economic resources. An important link for the adequate management of asbestos waste is to raise public awareness of the dangers and importance of proper and timely disposal of asbestos products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with the gradual rise of neofascist parties in Europe, the present paper looks back at the past to analyse a speech delivered by one of the founding fathers of the European Union, namely Alcide De Gasperi. The investigation is part of a broader project on the analysis of Italian antifascist discourse. The speech that De Gasperi delivered at the 1946 Paris Peace Conference is reconstructed with the help of the pragma-dialectical model of a critical discussion, focusing on the passages in which the speaker dealt with Italy's non-fascist identity and its wrong perception by the audience. Emphasis is laid on the argumentative pattern underlying De Gasperi's discourse and the argumentative style characterising his address. Moreover, reference is made to the notion of argumentative equivalence to examine the translation of De Gasperi's speech into English; published in the New York Times the day after he delivered his address, it cast a shadow over the impartiality of the drafters of the English version of the speech, which nevertheless managed to go down to history as an argumentative classic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, the UK Government revealed its vision for a 'global' post-Brexit Britain. Despite emerging interest in Global Britain discourses, there has been no diachronic discursive analysis of how the Global Britain vision shifts in relation to the changing socio-political context of Brexit. This article takes a diachronic, corpus-assisted critical discourse approach to UK Government documents published between 2016 and 2019. It reveals changing representations of Anglo-European relations prompted by rising political tensions over Brexit. Focussing on the key semantic domain of Personal Relationships, the paper reveals a move from positive portrayals of a transactional UK-EU relationship towards antagonism and uncertainty. The article illustrates that the increasing improbability of a stronger UK-EU partnership undermines the Global Britain narrative, threatening to position Britain as an international 'outsider' and 'supplicant'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the generational experiences of young adults are believed to have an enduring impact on their attitudes throughout the life course, it remains unclear whether periods of stability versus different types of radical social change lead to substantive generational differences. In this paper, we examine attitudes toward meritocracy of four generations in Poland whose young adulthood was spent in (a) the "Little Stabilization" period of the 1960s and early 1970s; (b) the economic and political crisis of the late 1970s and 1980s; (c) the turbulence of the political and economic transformation of the 1990s; and (d) the relative stability of the first decade of the 21st century after Poland's accession to the European Union. Our data come from surveys dating back to 1988, before the regime change in Poland, and until 2020. The results show changing attitudes toward the value of education, innate abilities, talent, and hard work in Poland. There is a generational effect on perceived meritocracy. The generation of people born in 1956–1959, who entered adult life during the deep crisis of the socialist state, expresses the greatest distrust in meritocracy. Findings suggest that the experience of spending one's youth and young adulthood in a relatively stable political and economic system, either socialist or capitalist, has a positive influence on meritocratic attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reactor is an extreme environment of high temperature, high pressure, and high radiation dose. Damage accumulates in structural materials over service time. It will eventually lead to material failure, such as hardening, embrittlement, and swelling. The radiation damage accumulation is an inherent, complex, and multiscale process, which has been studied extensively with multiscale modeling and simulation methods. The rapid development of high-performance computing makes it possible to accurately operate multiscale simulation for the microstructure evolution of irradiated reactor materials. The European Union, the USA, and China have put great effort into this, and many related works have been carried out. This paper first outlines the basic application of multiscale modeling and simulation technology in understanding the effects of radiation on reactor structural materials. Then, some relevant projects carried out by the USA, the European Union, and China in recent years are summarized. Next, the paper focuses on three widely used simulation techniques at different scales: molecular dynamics, kinetic Monte Carlo, and cluster dynamics. For each method, some key developments in algorithms and computer implementations are reviewed. Finally, the comparison between them is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jean Raspail's controversial 1973 novel The camp of the saints predicts mass migration to Europe that will destroy European civilization. Decades later, the book has accurately predicted the hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving in Europe annually, prompting a continent-wide crisis. From Lesbos and Lampedusa to the Canary Islands and Calais, no one seems to know how to stem the flow of humanity. Borders are being resurrected, despite Schengen and European Union (EU) agreements, in an effort to control the movement of populations. European governments disagree on how to proceed and some are suggesting that the EU could be torn apart by differing approaches to the problem. But does this have to be the response to the migration crisis? This paper compares the predictions of The camp of the saints to events in Europe today and critiques the book's conclusions with regard to what is an ancient phenomenon: movements of migrants from surplus to deficit labor settings. The paper will also evaluate the response to migrants in the United States under its populist president, Donald Trump, and will review related issues in other parts of the world: Turkey, Russia, and Canada. Contrary to Raspail's predictions, world leaders will need to accept what has already become a de facto reality: large scale admission of migrants and refugees to the EU and North America, as full citizens, will be the only realistic way to preserve prosperity in the years to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste management in the new EU member states is currently undergoing rapid development in order to comply with the European legislation. In Poland there is a lack of capacity of waste treatment installations for residual waste which amounts to 5.5 million tonnes year−1. Detailed data on waste generation is needed to design new installations and ensure their efficient operation. This paper presents the results of the monitoring of municipal waste generation in Warsaw, being one of the largest agglomerations in the region. Detailed quantitative and qualitative results for both household and institutional waste are provided, as well as the technological properties of the household waste. The amount of municipal waste generated per capita amounted to 390 kg year−1. The main fractions contributing to the mixed household waste were: biodegradable kitchen waste, packaging plastics, non-packaging paper and cardboard, packaging glass and packaging paper and cardboard. The coarse fraction (> 100 mm) constituted 40% of total household waste, of which the majority were recyclables. The lower heating value of residual waste was sufficient to allow mass incineration. Data on historical developments of household waste quantities and composition since the year 2000 along with their estimates until the year 2020 are provided and discussed. Current problems of municipal waste management in Warsaw along with the proposed future solutions are briefly outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union has financed a 3-year research project to establish optimal spectral power distributions of LED light sources for use in offices, commerce and homes. This paper summarizes the general questions relevant to colour preference investigations and introduces the investigations performed in the three laboratories that participated in the research. Subsequent papers will deal with details of the investigations and provide recommendations for optimum spectra in different indoor applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While social policy falls predominantly under national rather than European Union (EU) jurisdiction, there are nonetheless multiple ways in which social policy and social outcomes in EU member states have been affected by EU membership. This paper draws on existing evidence and analysis to review the consequences for UK social policy of the decision to leave the EU. We focus predominantly on the implications of the British government's pledge to 'take back control' of money, borders and laws. Our conclusion is that Brexit is likely to have negative effects on the quality of public services and, for some groups in particular, social rights, and that these effects are likely to be greater the more distant are the future trading and wider relationships between the UK and the EU27. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship analyzing Russia's influence in Europe has focused primarily on the supply-side of this relationship, especially on the links between the Kremlin and specific parties. Surprisingly few studies have focused on the demand-side. My paper fills in this gap. First, I compile a dataset of pro-Russian parties in the European Union and show that Russia-sympathizers are found across different (left and right) party families. Second, I demonstrate that supporters of these parties across different party families show stronger Eurosceptic attitudes than the electorates of mainstream parties. This finding explains the endorsement of narratives and policies indirectly favorable to the Kremlin by political actors whose electorates harbor Eurosceptic sympathies. It also sheds some light on the opportunistic rather than ideological nature of Russia's influence operations in the European Union, which exploit opportunities presented in respective regions. In other words, these parties are the Kremlin's fellow travelers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the validity of three approaches to estimate party positions on the general left–right and EU dimensions. We newly introduce party elite data from the comprehensive IntUne survey and cross-validate it with existing expert survey and manifesto data. The general left–right estimates generated by elites and experts show a higher congruence than those derived from party manifestos; neither measure clearly materializes as more valid regarding EU positions. We identify which factors explain diverging estimates. For instance, disagreement among experts has greater impact than their mere number. The substantial centrist bias of the manifesto estimates persists even when alternative documents are used to substitute manifestos. Low response rates among elites have no systematic detrimental effect on the validity of party position estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the concept of the smart city in critical perspective, focusing on the power/knowledge implications for the contemporary city. On the one hand, smart city policies support new ways of imagining, organising and managing the city and its flows; on the other, they impress a new moral order on the city by introducing specific technical parameters in order to distinguish between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ city. The smart city discourse may therefore be a powerful tool for the production of docile subjects and mechanisms of political legitimisation. The paper is largely based on theoretical reflections and uses smart city politics in Italy as a case study. The paper analyses how the smart city discourse proposed by the European Union has been reclassified to produce new visions of the ‘good city’ and the role of private actors and citizens in the management of urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most contemporary work on public spheres tends to adopt, either explicitly or implicitly, Habermas’s idea of a deliberative public sphere as a normative model. There are, however, a number of other normative models available that are rarely the subject of empirical scrutiny: republican, liberal and multicultural. This article poses the empirical question of whether actually existing public spheres more closely resemble one model rather than another. To answer this question, the authors develop ways to measure public spheres, at both national and transnational level. They ground this attempt to move comparative media analysis forward conceptually and empirically via a case study comparing media content about the EU Constitution in six countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We start from the premise that the content of political competition is regularly remade by shifting contexts and by the strategic activity of political actors including parties. But while there are naturally thousands of potential issues on which politics can be contested, there are in practice and for good reasons ways in which structure and limits come to reduce the competition to more cognitively manageable and regularized divisions—in short, to issue dimensions. It is highly timely to return to these questions since, we argue, the social, political, and economic turbulence of recent years raises the possibility that the ideological structure of how parties present themselves to voters may be radically shifting. The papers in this special issue, therefore, each tackle an important aspect of the shifting character of the issues that underlie party competition in various European settings. In this article, we provide an overview of the relevant "state of the art" on issue dimensionality and how the subject is situated within the broad framework of understanding party competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a supranational actor, the European Union (EU), as a producer of energy diplomacy. This study uses a comparative analytical framework of state-centred vs. multistakeholder diplomacies to explore EU energy diplomacy towards the ‘emerging’ powers of Brazil, India, China and South Africa (BICS). It also elaborates the multistakeholder model by advocating the inclusion of a new element – a consumer of diplomatic actions – into its conceptualization. In this way the paper suggests a new synthesis of the concepts of multistakeholder and public diplomacies. Advancing the notion of energy diplomacy, our analysis suggests that this type of diplomacy goes beyond state actors as producers of diplomatic outcomes, and is no longer confined to the norms of security of supply and competitiveness; EU energy diplomacy is a complex blend of multistakeholder and state-centred diplomacies, participants (producers and consumers) and communication modes. This comprehensive approach to diplomacy – led in the EU’s case by norms of sustainability, competitiveness and security of supply – is a response to the challenges of global governance, multipolarity and multinational cross-sectoral networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, at a time of major downturn in the audiovisual sector, several regions and countries are reconsidering the scope and reach of domestic or regional audiovisual media governance and are developing policy instruments in order to involve transnational Video on Demand (VOD) platforms, such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, in the financing, distribution and visibility of local, national and regional audiovisual content. A key issue that emerges from this backdrop is to provide convincing answers about why public authorities are feeling the urge to develop new regulations towards global VOD streamers in a specific sequence and temporality and to focus on variables, which are expected to understand this cross-national policy momentum for regulating VOD services. In addition, even though transnational VOD services represent disruptive new actors, creating industrial, technological and institutional shock, this disruption does not lead to the same political issue cross-nationally and to the same kind of policy responses. Firstly, the article explores the key outlines that the academic literature highlights in order to understand the regulation of online platforms in the media sectors. Secondly, it provides a cross-national portrayal of policy initiatives towards the VOD streamers, focusing on the EU Member States, Australia, Canada, Mexico and South Africa. Thirdly, the article argues that political struggles over VOD platforms are expected to be framed and fought simultaneously by two crucial variables, dealing with state-society relationships and global interdependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the contested relationship between migration and income inequality, using labour migration to Norway as a case. The enlargements of the European Union starting in 2004 were followed by an unprecedented increase in labour migration to Norway. In particular, many rural regions, previously unfamiliar with immigration, have experienced a large influx of labour migrants. In the same period, income inequality has increased. This paper uses register data on the municipality level from 2005–2016 to discuss (a) the direction of the relationship between labour migration and income inequality; (b) the degree to which labour migration affects inequality (in general and within the native population) compared to other immigrant groups; and (c) whether the effects are different in rural and urban municipalities. Findings show that labour migration from the 'new' European Union countries is followed by higher income inequality in Norway. No support is found for the reversed causal relationship that increasing inequality causes higher numbers of labour migrants. The effect of labour migration on overall inequality is considerable, but not as strong as the effect of refugees. However, as opposed to refugees, labour migration also affects income inequality within the native population, but this effect is only significant in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foodservice is estimated to produce 12% of the total food waste in Europe, and it is a major target for policies against food waste. The amount of food lost during foodservice operations has been assessed in the literature as a figure ranging from 10% to 41% of the quantity prepared in the kitchen, either as non-served food or as plate waste. In this paper, a systematization of the current initiatives against food waste in EU school foodservice is provided. This background is used as a base to discuss the results of a direct assessment of food waste conducted in 78 primary schools in Italy, where 28.6% of the food prepared was not consumed by the diners. Part of it was saved for reuse, while the rest was disposed and treated as organic waste or, to a lesser extent, as unsorted waste. The flows of food waste, represented by a Sankey diagram, show that some actions may be implemented in order to save more food from disposal; for example, implementing donation programmes for non-served food or using doggy bags to avoid the disposal of plate waste. A greater effort shall be put on preventive actions, aimed at avoiding the generation of food waste; in this sense regular monitoring at schools may act as a first preventive measure as it can increase the awareness of students, teachers and foodservice staff over the issue of food waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores trade union strategies to protect wages in the face of EU migration after the enlargement of the European Union. We argue that unions have three instruments at their disposal to deal with the risks linked to downward wage pressure: closure through immigration control, equalisation through collective bargaining and minimum wages, and the organisation of migrant workers. Using comparative case studies of Sweden, Germany and the UK, we show how different types of power resources shape union strategies: unions with substantial organisational resources (in Sweden) relied on a large membership to pursue an equalisation strategy and expected to be able to 'afford' openness. German unions with low membership but access to the political system pushed for a mix of closure and equality drawing on political intervention (e.g. minimum wages). British unions, unable to pursue either, focused their efforts on organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road transportations still play a dominant role in goods delivery, and driving behaviours significantly affect the fuel economy of heavy-duty trucks. Plenty of fossil fuel is wasted as a result of unreasonable driving behaviours even in the case of highly experienced drivers. The objective of this paper is to analyse drivers' behaviours over two segments of motorways and estimate the potential benefits of fuel saving caused by a change in driving habits during national and international goods delivery. Drivers' habits on motorways change depending on the road situations. In the acceleration process, the fuel consumption rates are huge even under low-speed conditions. The truck fuel consumption rates are exaggerated by positive road slopes, but still dominated by acceleration. Accelerations are generally in normal distributions, with the median value being approximately 0.5 m/s2. The speed ranges corresponding to each gear enlarge with the increase in gear number. The potentials of annual fuel saving for parts of European Union countries are nearly 2 × 106 m3 by adopting proper driving behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the transformations that have taken place in Irish higher education under neoliberalism and, in particular, during the period of austerity since 2008. We adopt a critical political economic framework conceptualizing Ireland as a prototypical neoliberal state and maintain that the period of economic crisis since 2008 has witnessed a deepening of neoliberalism. We argue that restructuring in the education sector has been shaped by forces originating from the European Union, global institutions, as well as from the interests of Irish political and economic elites. We examine several aspects of the neoliberalization of the education sector, including privatization, commercialization, labor casualization and the erosion of work conditions. Empirically, the paper synthesizes and conceptualizes available data on neoliberalism and higher education in Ireland. Theoretically, it presents a useful framework to investigate similar cases in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper undertakes a textual and documentary analysis of the Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products Regulation, which was passed into law in the European Union (EU) in 2007. This law is significant for the development of regenerative medicine in the EU and globally. Regulatory texts such as this one provide significant material for addressing key concerns in recent theorising about innovative technologies in socio-legal studies, innovation studies, and science and technology studies. These concerns include expectations about future technologies and economic sector-building. By revisiting philosopher J.L. Austin’s well-known work on How to Do Things with Words, this paper deploys his concepts of performative utterances to inform its analysis. Pursuing Austin’s and later commentators’ analysis of performatives in language use, and drawing on Lindsay Prior’s application of actor-network theory to documents, the analysis shows two different types of performativity at work in and through the document. These are termed ‘generative’ and ‘enactive’ performativity. The ‘enactive’ type includes ‘legislative’ and ‘social’ forms. In addition, a more conventional content analysis reveals a range of actions, both legislative and discursive, in the regulatory document. The analysis shows a tension between standardisation and imprecision in the conceptual detailing of the document. Legislative texts produced through established politico-legal conventions are a special class of document that should be accorded a more prominent place in understanding the role of political governance processes in shaping emergent technoscientific fields and sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The problem of ranking and supplier selection in the uncertain environment is part of a purchasing plan and its relationship has a critical effect on the competitive advantage (high-quality products at lower cost with higher customer satisfaction) of each industrial organization. The considered problem can be stated as a multicriteria decision problem which includes both quantitative and qualitative criteria. The criteria present supplier performances which are defined by the purchasing Management Team depending on the size of industrial organizations and on production type. In this paper, the Management Team, using European Union (EU) recommendations, made a choice of criteria for supplier evaluation. The fuzzy rating weights of each pair of the considered criteria and uncertain criteria values are described by linguistic expressions which are modelled by triangular fuzzy numbers. The fuzzy extent approach for the synthetic extent values of the pairwise comparison for handling fuzzy analytic hierarchical process (AHP) is used to calculate the weight vector. The extension of the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is applied to rank the suppliers. The proposed model is illustrated by an example. It is shown that the developed model is highly suitable as a decision-making tool for reaching decisions about supplier selection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses urban planning practices in South Yorkshire to reveal how EU strategic spatial ideas and values are reproduced. Specifically, the paper examines how the notion of spatial justice was interpreted as the organising concepts within the European Spatial Development Perspective became situated within a territory severely affected by deindustrialisation in the 1980s, but subsequently a major beneficiary of EU Structural Fund programmes. The analysis reveals how policy-making at this scale used a construct of polycentric urban development that reasserted a model of economic growth based on the indigenous assets held in city centres at the expense of more redistributive measures targeted at the former coal-mining communities in the sub-region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the workings of symbolic power in diplomatic practice. At the level of empirical observation, it focuses on the intangible and incalculable ‘feel for the game’ that distinguishes a well-informed and relaxed insider from an ill-informed and ill-at-ease outsider in European Union (EU) diplomatic circles in Brussels. By highlighting the play of social resources, such as reputation, presence, poise, and composure in these circles, I examine EU diplomacy from an angle – symbolic power – that is often overlooked in the existing work on that field. Conceptually, the analysis focuses on the role of informal social resources rather than formal institutional structures in diplomatic practice. It also outlines the potential synergies between the study of diplomacy in international relations (IR) on the one hand and geography, anthropology, and sociology on the other. The paper thereby advances the analytical toolbox of diplomatic studies and practice theory. Such conceptual sharpening is needed, especially now that diplomacy is becoming more transnational and less linked to the foreign ministries of states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal legal cooperation in matters relating to prisoners has existed at European level for over 50 years. With the development of an European Union (EU) competence in criminal law from the Treaty of Maastricht 1992 onwards, now both the Council of Europe and the EU have adopted legal instruments in this sphere. This paper analsyses the scope and rationale of transnational European cooperation relating to prisoners. It first outlines Council of Europe instruments, including the relevance of the European Convention of Human Rights, conventions specifically on prisoners, and soft law. It then examines the more recent EU instruments, following which the relevance of constitutional principles and the prospects and potential difficulties of European cooperation are analysed. It concludes that cooperation can best succeed through a specification of minimum standards and greater coordination between Council of Europe and EU action, along with greater recognition of its specifically penal context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Akeel Bilgrami’s paper considers the populist surges of our times in three countries: Trump’s America, Brexit Britain, and Modi’s India, distinguishing the special features of each, and philosophically and politically analyzing the relations that populism bears to both liberalism and the capitalist political economies of liberal-democratic societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground coal gasification is a conversion and extraction process, for the production of useful synthetic product gas from an in-situ coal seam, to use in power generation, heat production or as a chemical feedstock. While many variants of the underground coal gasification process have been considered and over 75 trials performed throughout the world, the recent work has tended to focus on the control of the process, its environmental impact on underground and surface conditions and its potential for carbon capture and storage. Academic research has produced a set of mathematical models of underground coal gasification, and the European Union-supported programme has addressed the production of a decarbonised product gas for carbon capture and storage. In recent years, significant progress has been made into the modelling of tar formation, spalling, flows within the cavity and the control of minor gasification components, like BTEX and phenols, from underground coal gasification cavities (BTEX refers to the chemicals benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene). The paper reviews the most recent underground coal gasification field trial and modelling experience and refers to the pubic concern and caution by regulators that arise when a commercial or pilot-scale project seeks approval. It will propose solutions for the next generation of underground coal gasification projects. These include the need to access deeper coal seams and the use of new techniques for modelling the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main aims of the Erasmus programme is to promote a sense of European identity. Whereas several empirical studies have already investigated this relationship, few studies investigate what students actually mean when they refer to 'Europe'. Therefore, in this paper I investigate the different latent dimensions of the concept Europe, as well as which of these dimensions are particularly associated with an exchange period abroad. The analyses are based on an online survey conducted with higher education students in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Sweden in 2011 (n = 4278). The presented models reveal four latent dimensions, namely a 'cultural', 'political', 'rights' and 'experiential' dimension. Furthermore, the analyses suggest that exchange students are largely a self-selected group, being a priori more likely to identify with Europe and score higher on the four dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the rise in employment, consistently high EU-average poverty rates continue to generate debates about the factors that explain the level and changes in the relative poverty rate, both within and across countries. Assuming a strong negative correlation between poverty and employment, the article investigates the role of four mechanisms responsible for this blurred relationship. Using decomposition analysis and macro-level regression analysis, we investigate the extent to which (i) the distribution of employment across households with different levels of work intensity, (ii) the expansion of non-standard work, (iii) the change in the effectiveness of social welfare systems, and (iv) the change in median income and the corresponding shift in the poverty threshold have contributed to changes in relative income poverty in the last decades. We found that employment growth benefits poverty reduction, but this positive effect was partially offset by the precarious characteristics of some newly created jobs. If the distribution of jobs had favoured the jobless more in the pre-crisis period, the relative income poverty rate would have been lower. Although the share of persons in jobless households decreased during the recovery years, their risk of poverty increased due to the retrenchment of social transfers during and after the Great Recession. Furthermore, the use of a floating threshold, which is linked to changes in median income, underestimates the strength of the relationships between poverty, employment and social transfers: when the poverty threshold is kept fixed, not only do the dynamics of poverty look different, but the estimated coefficients are considerably larger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have so far not paid sufficient attention to the role of attributed responsibility of countries when they need to explain variations of European fiscal solidarity. Do citizens consider the responsibility of other countries when expressing solidarity with them? This article advances the argument that individuals apply similar heuristics to countries as to other individuals. When expressing solidarity with another country, individuals rely on cues about deservingness. The role of responsibility attributions is tested in this article using logistic regression on survey data from 10 EU countries. Results show that citizens in rich welfare states reduce their solidarity for other countries if they deem them responsible for their own crises. This suggests that rich welfare states hinder the development of solidarity beyond their national boundaries. This research contributes to our understanding of the role of deservingness attributions in European solidarity, as well as to our understanding of the role of the welfare state in solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many studies have investigated the problem of migration deaths, to our knowledge attention has never focused on how political actors appeal to law to legitimize these deaths. In our empirical enquiry, we interrogated how the European Commission legitimizes its role in migrant deaths in the Mediterranean through appeals to law. One compelling function of law in this legitimization process is that it presents a narrative as logical and objective. A second aspect of legitimization through law is related to its moral function. Instead of regretting not being more active in saving migrant lives, the European Commission inversed the moral charge, presenting itself as guarantor of law and order that saves migrants if they respect legality. We argue that political actors do not simply submit passively to laws but that laws can also be a resource for the legitimization of what might seem at first glance immoral – in this case an implicit 'right' not to protect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neo-Weberian occupational class schemas, rooted in industrial-age employment relations, are a standard socio-economic position measure in social stratification. Previous research highlighted Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarero (EGP)-based schemas' difficulties in keeping up with changing labour markets, but few tested alternative explanations. This article explores how job tasks linked to technological change and rising economic inequality might confound the links between employment relations, classes, and life chances. Using the European Working Conditions Survey covering the European Union (EU)-27 countries, this article analyses over time and by gender: 1) the task distribution between social classes; and 2) whether tasks predict class membership and life chances. Decomposition analyses suggest that tasks explain class membership and wage inequality better than theorised employment relations. However, intellectual/routine tasks and digital tools driving income inequality are well-stratified by occupational classes. Therefore, this article does not argue for a class (schema) revolution but for fine-tuning the old instrument to portray market inequalities in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the European Union (EU) increasingly strengthens its social integration, opposition towards this process can also be observed, here defined as 'welfare Euroscepticism'. To better understand this newly defined policy paradigm, this article aims to explain longstanding cleavages in both social policy and EU research: socioeconomic status (SES) divides. Contrary to the literature on public support for European integration, this article argues that higher SES groups are more likely to be welfare Eurosceptics than lower SES groups. This argument and its underlying explanations are examined through a multilevel approach using European Social Survey data from 18 EU member states, using the example of a potential EU-wide minimum income scheme. First, the results demonstrate that welfare Euroscepticism is indeed more prevalent among higher SES groups than lower SES groups (measured through occupation, education, income, and employment). The results indicate robust self-interest patterns among higher SES groups that do not want to carry (perceived) financial burdens of EU social policies. The opinion patterns also emphasize the multidimensionality of attitudes towards EU policies since the SES cleavages can reverse, depending on the policy in focus. Overall, the results indicate much potential to mobilize the larger proportion of the public to support EU social policies, that is, lower SES groups. However, potential conflicts may arise when the EU expands on policies that their traditional supporters – higher SES groups – are more likely to oppose. The article also shows that welfare solidarity on the individual and the country level can mitigate such conflicts. This is because higher levels of welfare generosity and lower levels of welfare chauvinism on the individual and the country level are related to smaller SES cleavages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains welfare chauvinistic policy reform, that is, targeted exclusion of non-citizens from welfare? Existing research suggest that contextual factors like far-right party success, perceived immigration pressures, party ideologies and institutions could spur such reform, but the processes behind reforms remain understudied. This article draws on public policy literature to call attention the critical role of agency and institutions in welfare chauvinist reform. It focuses on a law excluding migrant EU citizens from social assistance in Germany. Through process tracing and inductive reconstruction of the policy process, based on political documents, interviews, media reporting and descriptive statistics, we show that the policy proposal originated from German city administrations; that the city of Hamburg was key in pushing for exclusions; and that Hamburg's success in doing so crucially depended on the city's mayor. Several comparable German cities (in terms of party politics and levels of immigration) were equally concerned with 'welfare immigration' and complained about problem pressure, but only Hamburg had a committed mayor with the right political networks and institutional resources to lobby for welfare exclusions at the federal level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) pervades modern lifestyles, but its quick obsolescence is resulting in huge quantities of EEE to be disposed of. This fast-growing waste stream has been recognized for its hazard potential. The European Union’s (EU) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive was essentially in response to the toxicity of e-waste — to ensure that it was collected and treated in an environmentally sound manner. Since then, the WEEE Directive has expanded its aims to include recovery of valuable resources as a means to reduce raw material extraction. With these objectives in mind, the Directive sets a common minimum legislative framework for all EU member states. However, the transposition of the Directive into national legislations has meant many differences in actual implementation models. There are 27 national transpositions of the Directive with different definitions, provisions and agreements. Each legislation reflects national situations, whether they are geographical considerations, legislative history, the influence of lobby groups and other national priorities. Although this diversity in legislations has meant massive problems in compliance and enforcement, it provides an opportunity to get an insight into the possible operational models of e-waste legislation. Building on the study by the United Nations University commissioned by the European Commission as part of its 2008 Review of the WEEE Directive, the paper identifies some key features of the Directive as well as legislative and operational differences in transposition and implementation in the various members states. The paper discusses the successes and challenges of the Directive and concludes with lessons learnt from the European experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that EU institutions have demonstrated an interest in diet/nutrition for some time, but only in the last five years has obesity risen to the top of the agenda. How did the Commission and European parliament become involved in fighting obesity? It is not because national governments or societal interest groups or public health agencies pushed EU officials to reduce the body mass of European citizens. Rather, drawing on the literature on transnational policy actors, we show that the current attention to obesity is heavily influenced by WHO research reports. Moreover, the WHO's recommendations on obesity supply EU institutions with a new agenda, which in turn mobilizes pan-European groups and private sector interests. Obesity provides a further example of entrepreneurial Commission officials pursuing alliances with international institutions in order to take advantage of their scientific expertise and to carve out a new EU agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Our paper is based on a qualitative empirical study of forced marriage in the UK and offers a multidimensional view which challenges four key points that are currently central in the forced marriage debate. First, the study explores the problematic of current UK and European Union policies on preventing forced marriage which focus on raising the age of sponsorship and marriage age for non-EU nationals migrating to the UK. Second, current conceptualizations of forced marriage focus on consent at the entry point into marriage. In contrast, survivors of forced marriage, and women's organizations experienced in providing services to this group, both attach equal importance to exiting (forced) marriages. Third, within the forced marriage debate, South Asian and Muslim communities are perceived as being largely responsible for forced marriages, whilst our research demonstrates that the range of communities in which forced marriage occurs is much wider. Fourth, forced marriage is often seen as a product of a 'backward' culture or religion in a pathologizing manner. The narratives in our study illustrate the interplay between culture, religion, poverty and state practices including immigration practices which points to the need for a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of forced marriage. We end our paper by outlining measures that could be put into place to support women experiencing forced marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how flexible employment, particularly temporary and part-time employment, affect political support for social policy protection. Although their implications are a priori uncertain, the paper lays out how flexible employment conditions can be expected to generate various kinds of economic insecurity for workers that ought in turn to spur support for social-welfare policies. The paper finds broad support for such expectations in individual-level survey data from 15 EU member states. In particular, part-time employment, temporary employment and their combination tend to increase several measures of an individual's subjective economic insecurity. Further, partly due to such increases, the same measures of flexible employment tend to spur support for social policy assistance targeted at the unemployed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]