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Following bailouts by the Troika (EC, ECB and IMF) due to the 2008 global financial crisis, between 2010 and 2013, new anti‐austerity movements, left‐wing parties and trade unions led large mobilisations against austerity policies in Greece and Portugal, with a deep impact in the political landscape of both countries. Besides the relevance of transnational decisions, these mobilisations mostly addressed national political institutions, whereas the governments that emerged from the protest period showed a clear pro‐European stance. Against this background, using two case studies with primary data on anti‐austerity protests and interactions amongst contentious and institutional actors, this article aims to shed light on a relatively unexplored aspect of Europeanisation in the context of the crisis, focusing on the relation between social movements and institutional politics. Explaining the critical pro‐EU positions that have been adopted in Greece and Portugal, it thereby contributes to the related debates on anti‐austerity social movements and their impact in times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential national responses to the European Union's environmental policy have led to the idea that two worlds of environmentalism exist in Europe. In its harsh version, Europe is divided into North and South, with the South suffering from a Mediterranean syndrome. Southern European countries are viewed as environmental laggards, a perception attributed to, among other factors, a weak civil society intertwined with political systems characterized by patronage, clientelism, and lack of respect for public authority. This article provides new evidence documenting that civil society in Greece, Italy, and Spain appears to be much stronger on environmental matters than anticipated by the proponents of the above view. It also offers an alternative theorization of environmental politics, emphasizing aspects of organizational structures and political processes. Keywords: environmental protest; Southern Europe; environmental politics; protest event analysis; evironmental movement; European Union; Mediterranean

A study traces the effect of political opportunities and alliances with the left on local environmental protest movements in Greece between 1974 and 1994. The focus is on grassroots activism and political participation in the campaigns.

European citizens continue to engage in solidarity activities in support of vulnerable groups within and beyond their own countries. Many of these organised practices of transnational solidarity provide research with important insights into the features and conditions of organisational forms of support. This article makes use of a unique dataset of transnational solidarity organisations in eight European countries during a period of economic recession and immigration crisis, and aims to empirically describe the different forms and types of solidarity prevalent within three different organisational sectors. It strives to identify the organisational features explaining the elective affinities between organisational forms and solidarity approaches. The empirical analysis validates that organisational traits and types matter when favouring vertical and/or horizontal forms of support towards vulnerable groups. Findings corroborate the relevance of professionalisation, aims, and values, in addition to action repertoires to explain organisational profiles and collective approaches to solidarity-based practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants into the European Union has posed a significant challenge to Europe, with solidarity being contested at two fronts: first, the question of solidarity with refugees in terms of meeting adequate measures of protection and satisfying their elementary needs; and second, the question of solidarity within the European Union in terms of sharing the costs and burden of hosting these refugees among the member states. One driving factor of these contestations is that the solidarity challenge in facing the 'refugee crisis' is taken up differently in transit countries in the South of Europe and destination countries in the North. Wishing to shed light on how national contexts impact transnational solidarity organising, we draw on a fresh set of cross-national evidence from a random sample of 277 transnational solidarity organisations (TSOs) in Greece, Germany, and Denmark. The aim is to illustrate the effects of political opportunities and threats during the 2007–2016 crises period on migration-related solidarity activities organised by TSOs. We will do so through tri-national comparisons tracing migration-related TSO patterns across time. The data used is produced in the context of the TRANSSOL project by a new methodological approach (action organisation analysis) based on hubs-retrieved organisational websites and their subsequent content analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solidarity with the deprived is a mission that many civic organisations share throughout Europe. The various crises, to which the European Union has been exposed to, have fueled and constrained this collective action at the same time. This article offers an introduction into this special issue. It highlights that the objective is to provide sound empirical findings about the magnitude and structure of the organisational field and to offer theoretical insights into the forces and constraints impacting on it. In addition, it presents the unique and new datasets on which the analyses are based on and stresses their comparative approach, given research carried out across fields (migration/refugees, unemployment, and disabilities) and countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK). Finally, the introduction to the special issue argues that the organisational fields are exposed to transformations that point to a more transnational scope of activities and a more encompassing and inclusive understanding of solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]