Citizens in Europe

In the Community-building process, citizens are the most invoked and feared, but at the same time the least known subject. This lack of knowledge nourishes the citizens' detachment from the European Union and itself emerged in well known cases such as the French and Dutch referenda on the Constitutional Treaty or the public concern towards the EU policy on immigration. This gap is true especially for active citizenship organizations operating in the European policy making, not only in Brussels, but also and above all at national and local levels, and this book is aimed at filling this knowledge gap.  The book is divided into two parts.  The first part of the book focuses on the way in which the literature on EU governance and citizenship and on participatory democracy deals with citizen activism in public policy making.  The second part discusses a number of empirical research projects on civic activism in Europe.   This book aims, on the one hand, to bridge the academic debate to more policy oriented debates in which active citizenship organizations and policy makers are involved; and, on the other hand, to bridge theoretical discussion of the nature of the EU with the empirical literature based on the study of civic activism in Europe and at the national level. The distinctiveness of the book is that it tries to overcome both the 'methodological nationalism' that affects the research and public debate on the EU, the normative attitude of most part of European studies in favor of an approach aimed at describing phenomena, and the habit of dealing with civic associations in Europe by referring only to the 'Brussels Civil Society,' making it of interest to both policy makers as well as students and scholars in European Studies, Political Science, Sociology and International Relations. ?    

Giovanni Moro is a political sociologist engaged in research, training, cultural dialogue and advice on citizenship, civic activism in public policies, new forms of governance and corporate responsibility. He has been president of FONDACA, a European think-tank, since its establishment, in 2001. He teaches Sociology of Political Phenomena and Sociology of European Integration at the Faculty of Political Sciences of Macerata University and Theories and Practices of Active Citizenship at the Faculty of Education of Roma Tre University. He published in 1998 'Manuale di cittadinanza attiva' (Handbook of Active Citizenship), in 2003 together with Alessandro Profumo 'PlusValori. La responsabilità sociale d'impresa' (Surplus Values: the Corporate Social Responsibility), in 2005 'Azione civica' (Civic Action), in 2007 'Anni Settanta' (The Seventies), in 2008 together with Ilaria Vannini 'La società civile tra eredità e sfide. Rapporto sull'Italia del Civil Society Index' (Civil Society Between Heritage and Challenges. The Civil Society Index Report on Italy) and in 2009 'Cittadini in Europa' (Citizens in Europe, Capalbio Prize for Europe 2010). 'La moneta della discordia. L'euro e i cittadini dieci anni dopo' (The Currency of Discord. The Euro and Citizens after Ten Years) is forthcoming. For several years he was general secretary of the Italian movement Cittadinanzattiva and founded its European policy program Active Citizenship Network, which he is now advisor of.