The welfare dimension: understanding trans (national) solidarity in Europe

Citation

Baglioni S & Montgomery T (2020) The welfare dimension: understanding trans (national) solidarity in Europe. In: Lahusen C (ed.) Citizens’ Solidarity in Europe: Civic Engagement and Public Discourse in Times of Crises. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 85-100. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789909500

Abstract
First paragraph: In times of crisis and polarisation, the value of being committed to mutual support, particularly in the absence of any legal obligations to do so or communitarian connections (Musso, 2015; Supiot, 2015) is one of the crucial components that can hold society together, along with welfare state policies and, more broadly, public interventions. We can best comprehend this type of support through the concept of solidarity and we can most easily recognise it through its organisational expressions, either formal or informal, via collective action. These organisational expressions of solidarity provide the vehicles through which collective action can reach beyond divisions and strive towards a common goal that brings benefits to vulnerable groups at different geographical levels, whether that is neighbourhoods, countries, continents or beyond.

Keywords
Social policy; welfare; collective action; civil society; solidarity

Notes
Results presented in this book have been obtained through the project ‘European paths to transnational solidarity at times of crisis: Conditions, forms, role-models and policy responses’ (TransSOL). This project was funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 649435).

• The Welfare Dimension