Europe, transnational mobilisations and civil society

This course deals with issues of collective action, mobilisation and civil society at the transnational (and especially European) level. Moving away from elections and party politics, it focuses on political action undertaken by a variety of actors outside the political field. These can be ordinary citizens organising grassroots mobilisations, but also non-political elites (business elites, lobbyists, intellectuals, ...) seeking to influence decision-making. At the European level, these mobilisations face serious challenges and raise the question of the possibility of the existence of a European civil society and a European public sphere, which are generally considered to be key elements of a democratic polity. The course provides a general overview of scholarship on these issues and presents numerous case studies of (trans)national mobilisations in Europe and beyond.