Bursting the Brussels Bubble


Book Description

Summary: Written by some of the leading experts on lobbying transparency in Europe, this collection provides an eye-opening insight into decision making within the European Union - and offers a valuable guide to fighting for greater transparency and accountability. "Bursting the Brussels bubble" is a valuable tool for anyone concerned with decision-making and democratic accountability within the European Union. It reveals how lobbyists from the world of big business have successfully embedded themselves inside the European Union's decision-making process, creating a political culture where, behind closed doors, the influence of business has become the norm.




The Impact of Populism on European Institutions and Civil Society


Book Description

What is the impact of populism on the EU? How did the EU institutions and civil society react to the recent rise of populist parties? To answer such relevant questions and understand populism in terms of ideas, political outcomes, and social dynamics, academia needs to engage with institutional actors, civil society organizations, and policy makers. By bringing together academics, members of European institutions and agencies, and leaders of civil society organizations, this edited volume bridges the gap between research and practice. It explores how populism impacted on European institutions and civil society and investigates their reactions and strategies to overcome the challenges posed by populists. This collection is organized into three main sections, i.e., general European governance; European Parliament and Commission; European organized civil society. Overall, the volume unveils how the populist threat was perceived within the EU institutions and NGOs and discusses the strategies they devised to react and how these were implemented in institutional and public communication.




Europe, Discourse, and Institutions


Book Description

This book focuses on how discourse and various narratives contribute to the construction of the European Union as a political actor, thus seeking to challenge the more established approaches to the study of the Union. It sheds light on the way discourses about the European Union are created, perpetuated and then translated into policy outcomes. Most of the contributions attempt to account for the differences that usually arise between discourse and policy practices. The methods employed range from more traditional variants of discourse analysis to other more radical versions that emphasize power, or to critical or differential reading of policy narratives and ethnography. Policy areas such as trade, enlargement, foreign policy and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) are discussed, while a particular interest is awarded to the European Parliament and the Commission. In doing so, the contributions shed light on the role discourse plays in relation to policies, institutional practices, and value representations at the European level. Moreover, the authors analyse the different actors and structures that create and perpetuate discourses within the EU, highlighting new insights that a focus on discourse can bring to the field of European Union studies. This book was published as a special issue of Perspectives on European Politics and Society.




Lobbying in the European Union


Book Description

This book sheds new light on how lobbying works in the European Union. Drawing on the first-hand professional experience of lobbyists, policymakers, and corporate and institutional stakeholders, combined with a sound academic foundation, it offers insights into successful lobbying strategies, such as how alliances are formed by interest groups in Brussels. The authors present key case studies, e.g. on the shelved EU-US trade deal Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), lobbying scandals, and the role of specific interest groups and EU Think-Tanks. Furthermore, they highlight efforts to improve transparency and ethical standards in EU decision-making, while also underscoring the benefits of lobbying in the context of decision-making. Understanding the tools and techniques of effective lobbying, as well as the dynamics and trends in EU lobbying, will allow professionals involved in the lobbying process, such as policymakers and corporate and institutional stakeholders, to improve their performance and achieve better results when pursuing their respective interests.




Framing TTIP in the European Public Spheres


Book Description

This book explores the debate and politicisation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations in the Spanish, French and British public spheres. It addresses the questions of how and to what extent the national media discourses about TTIP were Europeanised, and how this type ofEuropeanisation contributes to the democratic legitimacy of the EU. The author argues that the politicisation of TTIP should be seen as a symptom of the ‘normal’ politics of a democratic polity, as it enlarges the political arena by embedding European issues into national political debates. Demands for ‘Another Europe is Possible’ empower rather than hinder the legitimacy of the EU.




Nursing in the European Union


Book Description

Europeanization has generated a galaxy of regimes, laws, organizations, new actors, and networks that have diluted institutional barriers to interaction across national borders. Many nation-based policy competencies have been transferred to the European level. The European Union (EU), the world's first regional regulator, bears consequences for the development of public policy and for policies affiliated with the nursing profession.With limited exception, the EU does not have formal powers in the health care arena. However, as a result of its efforts in other fields, it has been heavily involved with health care and its providers. Nursing in the European Union demonstrates how the organization has refashioned the nursing world throughout the member states via its power in many other policy domains. This volume focuses on the EU's impact on nursing education, regulation, and research endeavours, and suggests strategies to achieve desired objectives. Volume 2, Nursing in the European Union: The World of Work, to be published in Fall 2016, focuses on real-life situations and problems EU nurses face: wages, stress, and dispute resolution.Sondra Z. Koff integrates the European experience with a discussion of nursing in the real world, and presents the nursing profession in light of the European Union, its components, its mechanisms, and its output and activities.




Media and Communication in Europe


Book Description

This timely book explores how the media shape the Europeanization of the public sphere within the European Union (EU). Bringing together a range of international scholars in media studies and journalism and covering both traditional and online media, it argues that Europeanization is not just an idea - it is a real, ongoing process that we are experiencing every day. Assessing a wide range of actors and processes and acknowledging the diverse relationships between media and politics, the chapters edited by Agnieszka Stepinska reflect contemporary conceptualizations of Europeanization and unravel the complex mediatization of European politics. It covers topics as diverse as children's socialization within the European Union via kid's TV programmes; the impact of the 'Euroblogosphere' on policy decisions; and international broadcasting as one of the key elements to understanding new public diplomacy in Europe. Using the Polish EU presidency of 2011 as an extensive case study, the book's latter part shows what impact Poland's presidency had on its representation, both domestically and abroad, and questions the Presidency's actual power of attracting media attention. 'Media and Communication in Europe' is a valuable resource for any student and researcher interested in the complex relationship between the media and the EU.




The Oxford Handbook of Pierre Bourdieu


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Pierre Bourdieu examines the legacy of one of the most influential social thinkers of the last half-century. Taken together, these writings offer a comprehensive overview of Bourdieu's biography, his main theoretical ideas, and his ongoing influence on the social sciences.




Global Activism in Food Politics


Book Description

Who should provide food, and through what relationships? Whose livelihoods should be protected? For over 20 years the peasant farmers of La Via Campesina have been engaged in the fight against injustice, hunger and poverty under the banner of food sovereignty, 'the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems'. They campaign for healthy, sustainable alternatives to an industrial food system controlled by agribusiness companies and the architects of unfair trade agreements. This book draws on grounded case studies of agrarian movements in the Americas and Europe as exemplars of a 'power shift,' as local opposition scales up to global action in an effort to wrest control of our food away from transnational corporations and back to communities.




Responsible Lobbying


Book Description

This study investigates the awareness and practice of responsible lobbying in the EU and analyzes benefits and antecedents. A multidimensional model of responsible lobbying is developed which provides normative guidelines and allows for determining the degree of responsible lobbying in practice. The empirical part analyzes responsible lobbying in the EU by combining a quantitative analysis based on a survey among 142 lobbyists with a qualitative examination based on interviews. The analysis reveals that criteria of responsible lobbying are fulfilled to a large extent according to the lobbyists. This study comes at a time when researchers and practitioners increasingly recognize the need to establish responsible lobbying by aligning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and lobbying.




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