Active citizenship in Europe

Palgrave Studies in European

Political Sociology

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Carlo Ruzza

Department of Sociology and Social Research

University of Trento

Trento, Italy

Hans-Jörg Trenz

Department of Media, Cognition & Communication

University of Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark

Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology addresses contempor￾ary themes in the field of Political Sociology. Over recent years, atten￾tion has turned increasingly to processes of Europeanization and

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Cristiano Bee

Active Citizenship

in Europe

Practices and Demands in the EU,

Italy, Turkey, and the UK

Cristiano Bee

Kadir Has University

Istanbul, Turkey

Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology

ISBN 978-1-137-45316-7 ISBN 978-1-137-45317-4 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-45317-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017937943

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

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To Stavroula and Kimonas

Acknowledgments

The analysis presented in this book refers to original insights and data

that I collected over the years as part of my direct involvement in a

number of EU-funded projects. The book presents data collected as part

of fieldwork that I conducted in Brussels in 2008/2009, thanks to my

involvement in the GARNET JERP 5.2.7 ‘The Role of Non-State

Actors and Civil Society in the Global Regulatory Framework’; to data

collected in Italy, Turkey, and the UK between 2009 and 2012 thanks

to my involvement in the PIDOP WP2 ‘Analysis of Current Policies’; to

data collected in Turkey in 2015/2016 as part of my Marie Curie IEF

fellowship titled ‘The Europeanization of the Organized Civil Society in

Turkey. The case of the Youth organizations in the prospect of the

European Integration’ (EUROCS) and to data collected independently

through interviews and analysis of policy documents between 2012 and

2016. In addition, it also benefitted from the interaction with the

numerous scholars that took part in the activities of the Jean Monnet

Module that I coordinated at the University of Surrey (UK) in the

period of time 2013–2016 and titled ‘Current trends in European

Integration Studies: Beyond the Eurocrisis.’ I would like to thank the

European Commission, main funder of these grants, the coordinators of

such projects and of relative work-packages for their support, and all the

research fellows that participated in the PIDOP WP2.

vii

Besides, I would like to thank all the colleagues I worked with at the

European Institute of the Free University of Brussels, at the Department

of Politics of the University of Surrey, and at the European Institute of

Istanbul Bilgi University. Compiling a long list of names would be

difficult, probably impossible, without incurring in the risk of forgetting

someone important. The interaction with these colleagues has had a

strong impact on my professional development. Besides, I would like to

thank the students that attended my classes at the University of Trento

(Course Sociology of European Integration), at the University of Surrey

(Course European Social Dimension), and at Istanbul Bilgi University

(Courses Political Sociology of European Integration and Politics of

Cultural Diversity in the European Union). Various parts of the book

have significantly improved, thanks to the interaction with them and

their critical point of view has been essential in order to revisit and

question specific issues.

I also would like to express my gratitude to my family, in Austria,

Chile, and Greece, for the support across the years and since I started my

academic career.

Last and most important, I would like to thank Stavroula, for the

help, feedback, support, and fondness that she transmitted to me across

these years and that has been a key determinant to write this book, and

to our son, Kimonas, for his indirect support but overall for his patience

while I was trying to explain him that the drafts of the book were not a

game to be spread around the house. This book is dedicated to them.

viii Acknowledgments

About the Author

Cristiano Bee is assistant professor at the Department of Political

Science and Public Administration of Kadir Has University in

Istanbul. He was a Marie Curie Fellow at the European Institute of

Istanbul Bilgi University where he was principal investigator in the

research project ‘The Europeanisation of the organised civil society in

Turkey. The case of youth organisations in the prospect of the European

integration’ (EUROCS – www.actineurope.com). In the past, he was

lecturer in public policy at the University of Surrey, where he also held

the Jean Monnet Module ‘Current Trends in European Integration

Studies: Beyond the Eurocrisis.’ He has published widely on the devel￾opment of active citizenship in Europe, European public sphere, and

identity. His work appeared on Turkish Studies, Southeast European and

Black Sea Studies, Journal of Civil Society, European Societies, European

Political Science, Journal of Contemporary European Research, Perspectives

on European Politics and Society, and Sociology Compass.

ix

Contents

1 Preamble and Introduction 1

2 Insights on the Social Construction of Europe: Patterns in

the Permanent State of Euro-Crisis 13

3 Europeanization, Public Sphere, and Active Citizenship 37

4 Active Citizenship and Its Components 57

5 Active Citizenship: Policy Developments at the EU Level 81

6 Engagement and Participation: Opportunities and

Challenges for the Organized Civil Society in the EU 107

7 Active Citizenship in Italy 133

8 Active Citizenship in Turkey 159

9 Active Citizenship in the UK 185

xi

10 Conclusion 211

Bibliography 223

Index 255

xii Contents

List of Abbreviations

ACEVO Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organizations

AKP Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party)

ARCI Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana (Italian

Recreational and Cultural Association)

CGIL Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (Italian General

Confederation of Labour)

CHP Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican People’s Party)

CILAP Collegamento Italiano Lotta Povertà (Italian Network for the

Fight Against Poverty)

CIR Consiglio Italiano per I Rifugiati (Italian Council for Refugees)

COSPE Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti

(Cooperation for the Development of Emerging Countries)

CRER Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights

CSO Civil Society Organisation

EAPN European Anti-Poverty Network

EESC European Economic and Social Committee

ENAR European Network Against Racism

EPN European Neighborhood Policy

ERYICA European Youth Information and Counseling Agency

EU European Union

ESF European Social Fund

EWL European Women’s Lobby

EYF European Youth Forum

xiii

FONDACA Fondazione per la cittadinanza attiva (Active citizenship

Foundation)

JEF Jeunes Européens Fédéralistes (Young European Federalists)

HDP Halkların Demokratik Partisi (People’s Democratic Party)

İHH İnsani Yardım Vakfı (Humanitarian Relief Foundation)

KADER Kadın Adayları Destekleme ve Eğitme Derneği

LEF Coordinamento Italiano della Lobby Europea delle Donne

MHP Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (Nationalist Movement Party)

NAGA Associazione Volontaria di Assistenza Socio-Sanitaria e per i

Diritti di Cittadini Stranieri, Rom e Sinti onlus (Voluntary

Association for Socio-Sanitary Assistance and for Foreign, Sinti

and Roma Citizens’ Rights)

NCVO National Council for Voluntary Organizations

NGO Nongovernmental organization

OXFAM Oxford Committee for Famine Relief

TOG Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı (Community Volunteers

Foundation)

TÜSEV Türkiye Üçüncü Sektör Vakfı (Third Sector Foundation of

Turkey)

UKIP UK Independence Party

UKREN UK Race and Europe Network

YEU Youth for Exchange and Understanding

xiv List of Abbreviations

List of Tables

Table 3.1 Phases of the empirical research 51

Table 4.1 Examples of components and indicators of active

citizenship 71

Table 4.2 Examples of components and indicators of active citizen￾ship as a practice 74

Table 4.3 Examples of components and indicators of active citizen￾ship as a demand 77

Table 10.1 Characteristics of each country 216

xv

1

Preamble and Introduction

In the course of writing, the issue of active citizenship has become even

more prominent and contentious than it was when I started working on

the contents of the book. Various dynamics have emerged both at the

supranational level and in the national arenas under consideration. In

particular, different events have affected the domestic contexts of interest

for this book (Italy, Turkey, and the UK). These three countries have in

fact recently experienced mobilizations of various kinds, offering valu￾able insights in terms of civic participation and conventional and non￾conventional political participation. Between the many, it is worth to

remind briefly here three recent examples of bottom-up processes of

mobilization that are particularly significant because of the resonance

they had in the contexts under consideration but also internationally.

In the spring of 2016, wide mobilizations have taken place on the

Italian borders as a result of the threat of the Austrian Government to

build a wall in order to block the influx of migrants in the Tyrolean part

of the region. This event has attracted much attention, triggering strong

reactions, both from the organized civil society and from newly emerging

social movements that actively protested on the site. This reaction of the

civil society is rather important for at least two reasons. First of all, it has

© The Author(s) 2017

C. Bee, Active Citizenship in Europe, Palgrave Studies in European

Political Sociology, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-45317-4_1

1