The right to vote is considered a cornerstone of liberal democracy. But who wields the franchise depends on who holds citizenship. Securing this prized citizenship is often considered the ultimate indicator of happy integration into a new country; the zenith of the immigrant made-good story. As Rainer Bauböck, Professor of Social and Political Theory at the […]
Is France witnessing the apogee of electoral neo-fascism? In the wake of the sensational electoral victory secured by the extreme-right Front National (FN) in the first round of this month’s regional elections, this question no longer seems overly provocative.The Islamophobic and stridently anti-EU party topped the polls after the first round of voting.
The attacks that engulfed Paris last week have profoundly shaken a continent and left a mood of grim resignation in the French capital. Scores were killed in a chilling series of attacks on bars, restaurants, a concert hall and a stadium, in one of the worst atrocities on French soil since the 1961 Algerian Massacre. At the same time, last week dozens more were killed in bomb blasts in Beirut.
In 2017 Britain will vote in a referendum on whether to leave this European Union. Derided as the awkward partner since it joined the EU in 1973, Britain’s relationship with the EU has long been lukewarm. Like a standoffish party guest munching on the hors d’oeuvres but eschewing small talk, Britain it is assumed, has never fully reconciled itself to true union with its Continental neighbours.
Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0 Source: Wikimedia Commons
From Walter Benjamin to Virginia Woolf, cities have captured the imagination of philosophers, artists and critics grappling with the condition of (post)modernity. Oscillating between depictions of the city as a realm of Dickensian slums, vice and deprivation on the one hand, and a utopian vision of ordered social progress on the other, in recent years the urban space has also loomed large in policy-centred debates about economic growth, devolved governance and transnational capitalism.
”We know that the sum total of the emissions that are indicated for 2013 are too high for [the target of] 2°C. For me the test of success in Paris is not that by itself, but is learning from that, recognizing that there is a big gap and therefore discussing carefully and credibly how we raise our ambition beyond Paris. So in other words, Paris is the beginning of a process.”
”If [businesses] adopt the right policies they can really make a difference. They can promote environmental change in a good way. To get them to do this they need the know-how which can be partly supplied by NGOs but also to some extent they need to be pressured into it because business is ultimately about business.”
In the run-up to COP21 in Paris in December, EUI Times is publishing a series of features and interviews with leading academics and policymakers on the climate crisis and how Europe should respond. COP21 (Conference of Parties) will bring together 195 countries in pursuit of a legally binding and universal agreement on keeping global warming […]
Faith in the European Union is tumbling faster than Greece’s liquidity reserves. The bitter negotiations over the Greek debt crisis have stirred up resentment, discontent and even horror from Southern Europe’s citizens in a way never visible before. On the eve of the Greek referendum on the proffered bailout deal, protests for an Oxi (No) […]
A spectre is haunting Europe: persistent unemployment. So how can it be tackled, along with the poverty and despair it generates? One proposal is the Universal Basic Income (UBI). A beguilingly simple idea whereby each individual adult is granted an unconditional income, without means test or work requirement, the UBI has garnered supporters across the […]