CALL FOR PAPERS: Social Europe - a pillar of European identity?

6 August 2018

Social Europe - a pillar of European identity?

Political, social and economic visions of mobility on the European labour market

 

The concept

For a number of reasons, today’s European Union member states differ in the social standards they uphold. The free movement of people, capital, goods and services poses a major challenge for the adoption of Social Europe principles. Do we need unified social standards on the labour market? Does European identity inherently entail the existence of diverse national social models and the constant raising of standards throughout the EU? Can certain systems be considered a model?

The aim of the publication is to spark a debate on Social Europe. Our goal is to account for differences between the southern and northern as well as eastern and western countries of the EU, their political and ideological perspectives, and the disconnect between the pragmatism of the European institutions and the experience of social and economic actors (such as trade unions, employer organizations) in individual countries.

We are confident that a look at Social Europe from diverse perspectives will help discover unnoticed parallels in on-going debates.

 

The problems

Our call for papers is designed for authors willing to address the following thematically-grouped questions:

I: The future of Social Europe

• How should the EU respond to existing structural differences between the countries of the west and the east as well as the north and the south of Europe?
• How can the downward levelling through social dumping that is feared by the "old" Member States be prevented?
• How can countries of the east and south of Europe avoid the middle-income trap and be helped to catch up with others?
• Are the EU Member States converging?
• What is your view on the future of the free movement of labour, and specifically the posting of workers, in other Member States?

II: The EU labour market – How uniform is it?

• Can the labour market deregulation proposed by the EU be considered a universal development model?
• Can any of the national models (such as French, German or Scandinavian) be considered universal throughout the the EU?
• What is the best course of action for the EU? Should it replicate the Schröder / Hartz reforms or bolster its social pillar?
• Current laws – Which legislation is working? Which laws need to be improved? Which factors drive and which factors impede economic growth?

III: Worker migrations

• Are internal markets changes taking place in the context of Directive 96/71/EC going in the right direction?
• Do European workers share common interests? Are their interests different in each country?
• Is the EC's proposed Directive a way to eliminate “disliked” competition?
• Should Poland base its development on cheap labour?

IV: Movement of capital, goods and services

• Can laws that facilitate the free movement of capital, goods and services be adopted without compromising workers’ rights?
• Can capital be attracted to both individual Member States and the EU as a whole while upholding high labour standards and social protections?
• Are high labour costs and rapid economic development mutually exclusive?
• Does labour market deregulation reduce innovation incentives? Is the low level of innovation in Poland caused by cheap labour?

The above list of questions is not exhaustive – papers addressing other research problems relevant for the subject matter of the book are also welcome.

 

Schedule

1. Submission of article titles and English-language abstracts (of up to 300 words) by 1 October 2018 to morozowski@iz.poznan.pl
2. Submission of English-language articles (20.000 to 40.000 characters including spaces) by 14 December 2018 to morozowski@iz.poznan.pl
3. Publication: February 2019

 

Papers will be subject to two academic reviews.

The book will be published in English in both paper and electronic versions.

 

Formal text-related requirements

1) Text written in English and covering from 20.000 to 40.000 characters including spaces.

2) Times New Roman font, 12, 1.5 line spacing.

3) Oxford references, e.g. (Znaniecki 1931: 38).

4) Bibliography as follows:

1. Surname Name. Year of Publication. Title. Place: Publishing house.
2. Surname Name. Year of Publication. Chapter’s title, Chapter’s pages 123—145. in: Surname Name. Book’s title. Place: Publishing house.
3. Surname Name. Year of Publication. Article’s title. Scientific journal’s title, Journal’s number: Article’s pages 123—145.
4. Surname Name. Year of Publication. Text’s title. Web page name. Web page address [access date].

 

Contact

Jacek Kubera, PhD kubera@iz.poznan.pl

Tomasz Morozowski morozowski@iz.poznan.pl

 

Institute for Western Affairs (Instytut Zachodni im. Zygmunta Wojciechowskiego

ul. Mostowa 27A, 61-854 Poznań, Poland