della Porta, Donatella, and Caiani, Manuela: Social Movements and Europeanization, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009, 215 pp., ISBN 978-0-19-955778-3
Concerns about the democratic deficit of the European Union are commonplace. With ever-growing legislative and regulatory powers in the hands of European institutions, a loud and worried chorus of scholars, social actors and pundits is demanding new, and better, accountability mechanisms. Della Porta and Caiani's book engages with these concerns. The book discusses the role of social movements and civil society organizations in the formation of a ‘European public sphere’; such a sphere would complement traditional institutional (i.e., electoral) accountability mechanisms by offering European peoples a space for debate, participation, discussion and deliberation. A central thesis of this book is that social movements and civil society organizations, an umbrella definition that somehow surprisingly includes trade unions, have an important role to play in the formation of such a public sphere. In addressing European institutions directly, in bringing about truly European social movements, or in addressing national institutions to shape European public policies, social movements give voice to interests that are too often banned from the routine machinery of consultation, commitology, and expert-based decision making at the European level. This is often referred as ‘Europeanization from below’.
This book addresses two main questions: firstly, ‘if and to what degree social movements Europeanize’ (168). Europeanization here is framed in terms of the inclusion of European actors, themes and policies in the claims-making, strategizing and targeting of domestic social movements as represented in the national media. Some attention is also paid to the consequences on Europeanization in terms of the ideas, structures of mobilization and values on those who protest. Secondly, the book explores the attitudes of social movements towards Europe: social movements might be critical of the current outlook of the EU and of some of its more resonant policies; this, however, cannot be read as an unqualified rejection of European integration. Data for this book comes from a prominent project on public representations of civic society claims in Europe that compares six EU Member States plus Switzerland (http://europub.wzb.eu/).
Social Movements & Europeanization will be somewhat disappointing a reading for those hoping to find a spirited defence of the contribution of social movements and civil society to a better Europe: the EU ‘is rarely targeted from below’ (47). The book largely confirms the view of the European Union as shielded against resources-poor, localized social movements. National newspapers seldom include the views of social movements regarding salient European debates; and social movements still see local and national politics as the natural domain for their protesting and claim-making activities. The authors, however, are adamant not to surrender to pessimism: social movements are also adapting to Europe, recognizing it as a key level of governance. A noticeable part of domestic contentious politics has in fact a European dimension, as national authorities are targeted ‘concerning European issues and framed with reference to European values and norms and frames’ (52). This is called ‘domestication’. Moreover, it is also possible to detect growing signs of an alternative route towards Europeanization: namely, ‘externalization’. In doing so domestic social movement and civil society organizations enter into transnational advocacy coalitions and engage with European institutions to shape national and local policies. The book is particularly engaging when emerging ‘European social movements’ are discussed, which might lead to the construction of ‘transnational identities through the recognition of similarities across countries’ (164).
This is undoubtedly an important book. Based on rich empirical evidence, it gives further consistency to some existing ideas regarding access by social movements to European institutions as well as shedding some light over the capacity of social movements to adapt to the complexities of multi-level governance. Readers of European Societies will be particularly keen on chapter four, where the authors discuss how protesters react to their own protesting activities in terms of new identities, discourses and visions of Europe. A stronger effort on the internal cohesion of the book would have caused no harm: each chapter reveals its own theoretical paradoxes and introduces new concepts and definitions, leading the reader to miss a more integrated effort. Also, the authors do not always pay all the necessary care in dealing with certain arguments. A good example is the discussion about the strategies of social movements when engaging with European institutions in general, and the Commission in particular. Compared with other kind of collective actors, social movements seem to make a disproportionate use of media-oriented strategies. However, the foundations of this strategy are not clearly discussed: sometimes one comes to think that lack of resources explains a good part of this story. However, the authors also acknowledge the bearing of European institutions in somehow forcing social movements to align with certain strategies (regardless of resources). The inclusion of trade unions in the group of social movements and civil organizations is controversial and, perhaps, could have been more thoroughly justified. In any event, the book makes for a very satisfying and illustrative reading; it touches on a central subject for those interested in the intersection of transnational dynamics, the evolution of domestic societies, and the processes that emerge in a relentless attempt to make Europe a tangible and enriching experience for everyone.
Kerman Calvo, Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales, Madrid