Informal Social Networks, Civic Learning, and Young Women's Political

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Informal Social Networks, Civic Learning, and Young Women's Political Informal social networks, civic learning, and young women’s political participation in Egypt A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Hassan H. Mohamed IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Roozbeh Shirazi, Co-Adviser Dr. Joan DeJaeghere, Co-Adviser December 2017 2 © Copyright, Hassan Hussein Mohamed, 2017 i Acknowledgment This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and support of many people. My deepest gratitude goes to my co-advisers Professor Roozbeh Shirazi and Professor Joan DeJaeghere. Thank you for being an outstanding advisers and mentors throughout the years of my doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota. You have guided my intellectual pursuits over the time of my study and while writing this dissertation with an amazing capacity for carefully allowing me to choose my own path. I appreciate the time and effort you have done throughout this period and the advices you have offered me to produce this work. Even though you were in sabbatical and research break, you were always there ready to read and meet to discuss and provide constructive feedback that was always useful to provide me the momentum to keep going. I am also grateful to your constant inspiration and guidance throughout my study time and the dissertation process. In addition, I would like to thank my dissertation committee members. Professor Michael Baizerman and Professor Christopher Johnstone. You dedicated much time to engage in intellectually stimulating academic discussions while also providing guidance in professional and life-related matters. My relationship with you went beyond the scope of the dissertation committee. I greatly appreciate the support you have offered me through this journey. Your time and availability to meet on and off campus to discuss my progress and update me with new research techniques and offering various perspectives of analyzing my data were outstanding and appreciated. In addition, you have generously contributed significantly in filling up my library with free books and publications that you always load me up every time we meet. I am also grateful to my colleagues and cohort at the University of Minnesota for reading my early work, provide insightful comments, and helping me develop as a scholar. Thank you for the fun time and for the scholarly community you have built: it was immensely inspiring to remain linked with your intellectual discussions. ii Special thank you is directed to the Population Council, Cairo Office for their support during my field research and during the preparation for the interviews. The appreciation extends to my research assistants in Fayoum and to their NGOs for the outstanding support and friendship while in the field. I humbly thank the participants of this study in the three villages in Fayoum for their time and willingness to share their stories with me; without their stories, this dissertation would not have been possible. I am indebted to my family for their never-ending care and support. You were very supportive throughout this journey and even before the journey has started. You instilled in me the passion to pursue knowledge and always encouraged me to fulfill my academic, career, and intellectual curiosity. iii Abstract When traditional avenues for learning and participation become inaccessible for marginalized people to learn and participate, people tend to develop other unconventional avenues to learn and participate in decisions that affect their lives. This dissertation examines how rural young women in Egypt utilize self-created social networks as unconventional avenues to learn and advance their civic and political participation. It turns the focus of public participation away from classical, formal Tocquevillian understandings to the unconventional avenues of participation that have remained outside of the scope of much research. It uniquely places the question of the pedagogical and political consequences of social capital into an analysis of women’s social interactions within social networks. The Study adopts constructivist qualitative approach to penetrate women’s realities and capture their unique forms of participation. 49 participants were interviewed through 36 individual in-depth semi-structured interviews and 3 focus group discussions to collect the primary data for this research. The findings reveal that self- created social networks create a space that is not found in other areas of marginalized rural young women’s lives; and that create a unique space for these young women to learn and participate in different civic activities in private and public political domains in Egypt in unconventional ways. Finally, this dissertation sets the groundwork for future study to examine political participation beyond the conventional civic and political activities aimed at marginalized groups in developing democracies around the globe. It also provides policy recommendations for education and international development. iv Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vii Abbreviations and Acronyms ....................................................................................................... viii Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................. 3 Study Purpose ...................................................................................................................... 10 Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................................ 11 Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 17 Origin of the Problem........................................................................................................... 19 Context of the Study............................................................................................................. 24 Historical Review of Education, Development, and Public Participation in Egypt ............. 28 The Neqdar Nesharek Program ............................................................................................ 38 Significance of the Study ..................................................................................................... 40 Organization of the study ..................................................................................................... 43 Chapter Two: Literature review ............................................................................................... 47 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 47 Civic Engagement and Social Capital .................................................................................. 48 Limits of Participation in Civil Society................................................................................ 60 Informal Learning and Civic Knowledge ............................................................................. 71 Informal Participation in the Middle East ............................................................................ 84 Gaps in literature and further research ................................................................................. 94 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 97 Chapter Three: Methodology and methods ............................................................................. 99 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 99 Study design and methodological consideration ................................................................ 100 Selecting research sites ...................................................................................................... 104 Sampling and recruitment of participants .......................................................................... 106 Research methods .............................................................................................................. 114 Data Collection .................................................................................................................. 120 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 123 Validity ............................................................................................................................... 128 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 130 Chapter Four: Paradoxical discourses ................................................................................... 132 Constraining discourses ..................................................................................................... 135 Encouraging discourses .....................................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Volume 43, No. 2-3, June-September 2015
    EAST EUROPEAN QUARTERLY Volume 43 June-September 2015 No. 2-3 Articles Glenn Diesen Inter-Democratic Security Institutions and the Security Dilemma: A Neoclassical Realist Model of the EU and NATO after the End of the Soviet Union 137 Yannis Sygkelos Nationalism versus European Integration: The Case of ATAKA 163 Piro Rexepi Mainstreaming Islamophobia: The Politics of European Enlargement and the Balkan Crime-Terror Nexus 189 Direct Democracy Notes Dragomir Stoyanov: The 2014 Electoral Code Initiative in Bulgaria 217 Alenka Krasovec: The 2014 Referendum in Slovenia 225 Maciej Hartliński: The 2015 Referendum in Poland 235 East European Quarterly Department of Political Science Central European University, Budapest June-September 2015 EDITOR: Sergiu Gherghina, Goethe University Frankfurt DIRECT DEMOCRACY NOTES EDITOR: Peter Spac, Masaryk University Brno BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR: Theresa Gessler, European University Institute Florence EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicholas Aylott, Södertörn University Stockholm Andras Bozoki, Central European University Budapest Fernando Casal Bertoa, University of Nottingham Mihail Chiru, Median Research Center Bucharest Danica Fink-Hafner, University of Ljubljana Petra Guasti, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Henry Hale, George Washington University Tim Haughton, University of Birmingham John T. Ishiyama, University of North Texas Petr Kopecky, Leiden University Algis Krupavicius, Kaunas University of Technology Levente Littvay, Central European University Budapest Grigore Pop-Eleches, Princeton University Robert Sata,
    [Show full text]
  • Alternatives in a World of Crisis
    ALTERNATIVES IN A WORLD OF CRISIS GLOBAL WORKING GROUP BEYOND DEVELOPMENT MIRIAM LANG, CLAUS-DIETER KÖNIG EN AND ADA-CHARLOTTE REGELMANN (EDS) ALTERNATIVES IN A WORLD OF CRISIS INTRODUCTION 3 I NIGERIA NIGER DELTA: COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE 16 II VENEZUELA THE BOLIVARIAN EXPERIENCE: A STRUGGLE TO TRANSCEND CAPITALISM 46 III ECUADOR NABÓN COUNTY: BUILDING LIVING WELL FROM THE BOTTOM UP 90 IV INDIA MENDHA-LEKHA: FOREST RIGHTS AND SELF-EMPOWERMENT 134 V SPAIN BARCELONA EN COMÚ: THE MUNICIPALIST MOVEMENT TO SEIZE THE INSTITUTIONS 180 VI GREECE ATHENS AND THESSALONIKI: BOTTOM-UP SOLIDARITY ALTERNATIVES IN TIMES OF CRISIS 222 CONCLUSIONS 256 GLOBAL WORKING GROUP BEYOND DEVELOPMENT Miriam Lang, Claus-Dieter König and Ada-Charlotte Regelmann (Eds) Brussels, April 2018 SEEKING ALTERNATIVES BEYOND DEVELOPMENT Miriam Lang and Raphael Hoetmer ~ 2 ~ INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION ~ 3 ~ This book is the result of a collective effort. In fact, it has been written by many contribu- tors from all over the world – women, men, activists, and scholars from very different socio-cultural contexts and political horizons, who give testimony to an even greater scope of social change. Their common concern is to show not only that alternatives do exist, despite the neoliberal mantra of the “end of history”, but that many of these alternatives are currently unfolding – even if in many cases they remain invisible to us. This book brings together a selection of texts portraying transformative processes around the world that are emblematic in that they been able to change their situated social realities in multiple ways, addressing different axes of domination simultaneously, and anticipating forms of social organization that configure alternatives to the commodi- fying, patriarchal, colonial, and destructive logics of modern capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Globalization and Its Political Consequences: the Effects On
    Globalization and its Political Consequences: The Effects on Party Politics in the West Helen V. Milner, Princeton University∗ Current Draft: September 20, 2018 Abstract Globalization has grown much since 1980s. What political trends have been associated with this growth? This paper examines two aspects of the political consequences of globalization. Economic globalization, according to some economic theories, has adverse consequences for la- bor, especially less skilled labor, in the rich democracies. If these voters are the median, then we might expect parties to respond to this by turning against globalization and the openness to flows of goods, services, people and capital that it brings. Have parties turned against economic openness? And have parties, especially extreme right-wing ones, that oppose openness advanced in terms of their electoral strength as a result? Furthermore, have these pressures from global- ization been mitigated by social welfare policies, as earlier research claimed? First, updating and extending the research of Burgoon(2009), I ask whether political parties in the advanced indus- trial countries have adopted more anti-internationalist platforms as globalization has advanced. Second, I examine whether parties have been affected deferentially by globalization; in particular, have extreme, right-wing populist parties gained vote share as globalization has proceeded, while mainstream left ones have lost. The evidence suggests that globalization, especially trade, is associated with a political turn to anti-internationalism and to extremist parties. Word Count: 13647 words (Excluding Abstract, Appendix, and References) ∗Prepared for the annual APSA conference, August 2018 Boston MA. Thanks to Dominic De Sapio, Sayumi Miyano, and Bryan Schonfeld for their excellent research assistance.
    [Show full text]
  • Forty Years of Populism in the European Parliament1 Luca Manucci2
    População e Sociedade 25 População e Sociedade CEPESE Porto, vol. 35 jun 2021, pp. 25-42 DOI: https://doi.org/10.52224/21845263/rev35a2 Forty years of populism in the European Parliament1 Luca Manucci2 Abstract: In May 2019, the elections for the European Parliament (EP) saw populist parties obtain almost a third of the available seats, with populist radical right parties making the biggest gains compared to the 2014 elections. Despite the results were less resounding than some predictions anticipated, a considerable amount of Members of the EP represent a populist party. This article first presents the performance of populist parties in forty years of EP elections, from their first occurrence in 1979 until 2019, and then focuses on populist radical right parties. The analysis suggests that (i) the number of seats occupied by populist parties in the EP continues to grow over time; (ii) right-wing populist parties no longer struggle to form political groups within the EP; (iii) radical right populist parties have become the most common type of populist party within the EP. Keywords: European Parliament; elections; populism; parties; political groups. Introduction Looking at forty years of elections for the European Parliament (EP), one of the most striking phenomena that took place is the constant growth of populist parties in terms of their overall number, electoral performance, and number of seats they occupy. This phenomenon is not particularly surprising since populist parties grew also in national elections during the same period, but it is significant because their growing influence poses serious questions about the European Union (EU), its common identity, its principles, and its future.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Notes Introduction 1 Labour History Archive and Study Centre: Labour Party National Executive Committee Minutes, 1 March 1934. 2 See N. Copsey, Anti-Fascism in Britain (Basingstoke: Macmillan-Palgrave, 2000), p. 76. 3 See J. Bean, Many Shades of Black: Inside Britain’s Far Right (London: New Millennium, 1999). 4 See Searchlight, no. 128, Feb. 1986, p. 15. 5 See for example, C.T. Husbands, ‘Following the “Continental Model”?: Implications of the Recent Electoral Performance of the British National Party’, New Community, vol. 20, no. 4 (1994), pp. 563–79. 6 For discussion of legitimacy as a social-scientific concept, see D. Beetham, The Legitimation of Power (Basingstoke: Macmillan-Palgrave, 1991). 7 For earlier work on the BNP by this author, see N. Copsey, ‘Fascism: The Ideology of the British National Party’, Politics, vol. 14, no. 3 (1994), pp. 101–8 and ‘Contemporary Fascism in the Local Arena: The British National Party and “Rights for Whites”’, in M. Cronin (ed.) The Failure of British Fascism: The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition (Basingstoke: Macmillan- Palgrave, 1996), pp. 118–40. For earlier work by others, see for example C.T. Husbands, ‘Following the “Continental Model”?: Implications of the Recent Electoral Performance of the British National Party’; R. Eatwell, ‘Britain: The BNP and the Problem of Legitimacy’, in H.-G. Betz and S. Immerfall (eds), The New Politics of the Right: Neo-Populist Parties and Movements in Estab- lished Democracies (Basingstoke: Macmillan-Palgrave, 1998), pp. 143–55; and D. Renton, ‘Examining the Success of the British National Party, 1999–2003’, Race and Class, vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Freedom in the World 1979 Complete Book
    Freedom in the World Political Rights and Civil Liberties 1979 RAYMOND D. GASTIL With papers by Bohdan R. Bociurkiw Herbert J. Ellison Lewis S. Feuer Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone Published by Freedom House in cooperation with G. K. Hall & Co. G.K.HALL &CO. 70 LINCOLN STREET, BOSTON, MASS. FREEDOM HOUSE 20 WEST 40 STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. International Standard Book Number: 0-932088-01-5 Freedom House, 20 West 40th Street, New York, N.Y. 10018 International Standard Book Number: 0-8161-8387-2 G. K. Hall & Co., 70 Lincoln Street, Boston, Mass. 02111 Copyright © 1979 by Freedom House, Inc. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Gastil, Raymond D Freedom in the world. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Civil rights. I. Bociurkiw, Bohdan R., joint author. II. Title. JC571.G336 1980 323.4 79-87596 Contents PREFACE ix PART I: THE SURVEY IN 1978 The Comparative Survey of Freedom: Nature and Purposes 3 Survey Ratings and Tables for 1978 15 PART II: FREEDOM, EQUALITY, AND CULTURE Freedom and Equality 63 National Cultures and Universal Democracy 75 PART III: SUPPORTING LIBERALIZATION IN THE SOVIET UNION Supporting Liberalization in the Soviet Union 85 The Struggle for National Self-Assertion and Liberalization in the Soviet Union 100 Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone Comments and Discussion 111 Religious Dissent in the Soviet Union: Status, Interrelationships, and Future Potential 115 Bohdan R. Bociurkiw Comments and Discussion 133 Reform and Repression in the USSR: The Western Influence, Herbert J. Ellison 137 Comments and Discussion 152 v vi CONTENTS American Activists and Soviet Power 161 Lewis S.
    [Show full text]
  • Communicating Europe: Italy Manual
    Communicating Europe: Italy Manual Information and contacts on the Italian debate on EU enlargement in the Western Balkans Supported by the Global Opportunities Fund – Reuniting Europe of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office 19 May 2008 Contents ABOUT THIS MANUAL ...................................................................................................................... 1 A. MEDIA ...................................................................................................................................... 2 1. ELECTRONIC MEDIA: TV AND RADIO ......................................................................................... 2 2. PRINT MEDIA: NATIONAL PRINT MEDIA ..................................................................................... 8 2.1. The quality dailies .............................................................................................................. 9 2.2. Weeklies ........................................................................................................................... 12 2.3. Press Officers of EU Institutions in Italy ............................................................................ 13 2.4. Online Media ................................................................................................................... 14 2.5. News Agencies ................................................................................................................ 14 2.6. Regional print media .....................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Old and New Fascism: Race, Citizenship, and the Historical and Intellectual Context of Casapound Italia
    Old and New Fascism: Race, Citizenship, and the Historical and Intellectual Context of CasaPound Italia by Caitlin Hewitt-White A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Social Justice Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Caitlin Hewitt-White 2015 Old and New Fascism: Race, Citizenship, and the Historical and Intellectual Context of CasaPound Italia Caitlin Hewitt-White Masters of Arts Social Justice Education University of Toronto 2015 Abstract CasaPound Italia is a contemporary fascist movement in Italy. An anti-capitalist movement, CasaPound has emerged under neoliberal conditions of youth unemployment and privatization of education. Although CasaPound uses tactics not typically associated with the extreme right, it shares several features with traditional Italian fascism. Like past fascist movements, CasaPound claims to offer an alternative to capitalism, communism, and the limits of a corrupt political spectrum. It also shares with past fascist movements a populist opportunism that feeds on the middle class's real frustrations, and rearticulates these in anti-immigrant racism. Despite these similarities, CasaPound denies that it is racist. This thesis argues that CasaPound's conscious inheritance of the legacies of Ezra Pound, Giovanni Gentile, and Julius Evola undermines its claims to be non-racist. Its activism further undermines these claims. This thesis also argues that CasaPound's emergence has been made possible by exclusionary and racialized citizenship practices central to hegemonic liberal democracy. ii Acknowledgments Thank you to the administrative staff at OISE for helping me navigate the institution's various policies, forms, and deadlines. Thank you to my classmates and instructors at OISE for feedback on earlier versions of chapters of this thesis, and for lively discussions we had in class.
    [Show full text]
  • On-Line Journal No. 12-September 2014
    On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe Issue no. 12/2014 Scientific Committee: • Prof. Dr. Gérard BOSSUAT, European Union Liaison Committee of Historians/ Professor Emeritus, Université de Cergy- Pontoise, France • Prof. Dr.dr.h.c. Wichard WOYKE, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Munster, Germany • Prof. Dr. Wilfried LOTH, President of the European Union Liaison Committee of Historians/Duisburg-Essen University, Germany • Prof. Dr. phil. habil Michael GEHLER, Universität Hildesheim, Germany • Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Reinhard MEYERS, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Munster, Germany • Prof. Dr. Dietmar WILSKE, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Munster, Germany • Prof. Dr. Sylvain SCHIRMANN, Director of the Institut d’études Politiques de Strasbourg, France • Prof. Dr. Ioan HORGA, Institute for Euroregional Studies, University of Oradea • Prof. Dr. George POEDE, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Iași • Prof. Dr. Nicu GAVRILUTA, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Iași • Prof. Dr. Vasile PUȘCAȘ, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca • Prof. Dr. Ovidiu PECICAN, Faculty of European Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca • Prof. Dr. Marius JUCAN, Faculty of European Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca • Prof. Dr. Gheorghe CLIVETI, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iaşi • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Adrian BASARABA, West University, Timişoara • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mircea MANIU, Faculty of European Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Simion COSTEA, Petru Maior University, Tg. Mureș • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Liviu ȚÎRĂU, Faculty of European Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Georgiana CICEO, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nicoleta RACOLTA-PAINA, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Florin DUMA, Faculty of European Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca • Assist.
    [Show full text]
  • De Tout Avec Ben De La Sauce» Community Organizing for Social Housing in an Immigrant Neighbourhood
    Université de Montréal «De tout avec ben de la sauce» Community Organizing for Social Housing in an immigrant Neighbourhood Par Jill Hanley École de service social Faculté des arts et des sciences Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l’obtention du grade de PhD en Service social Avril 2004 © Jiil Hanley, 2004 cet Université 4h de Montréal Direction des bibliothèques AVIS L’auteur a autorisé l’Université de Montréal à reproduire et diffuser, en totalité ou en partie, par quelque moyen que ce soit et sur quelque support que ce soit, et exclusivement à des fins non lucratives d’enseignement et de recherche, des copies de ce mémoire ou de cette thèse. L’auteur et les coauteurs le cas échéant conservent la propriété du droit d’auteur et des droits moraux qui protègent ce document. Ni la thèse ou le mémoire, ni des extraits substantiels de ce document, ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans l’autorisation de l’auteur. Afin de se conformer à la Loi canadienne sur la protection des renseignements personnels, quelques formulaires secondaires, coordonnées ou signatures intégrées au texte ont pu être enlevés de ce document. Bien que cela ait pu affecter la pagination, il n’y a aucun contenu manquant. NOTICE The author of this thesis or dissertation has granted a nonexciusive license allowing Université de Montréal to reproduce and publish the document, in part or in whole, and in any format, solely for noncommercial educational and research purposes. The author and co-authors if applicable retain copyright ownership and moral rights in this document.
    [Show full text]
  • Media, Communication and Social Change
    YOUTH ENGAGING WITH THE WORLD WITH ENGAGING YOUTH Yearbook 2009 Youth Engaging with the World The International Clearinghouse EDITORS: Media, CoMMuniCation on Children, Youth and Media NORDICOM and SoCial Change Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research T University of Gothenburg ho Box 713, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden M Telephone: +46 31 786 00 00 Fax: +46 31 786 46 55 A E-mail: [email protected] S T EDITORS: ThoMAS TUFte www.nordicom.gu.se U & FlorenCia Enghel F te ISBN 978-91-89471-82-5 & Floren C ISBN 978-91-89471-82-5 ia E ng H 9 789189 471825 el Yearbook 2009 The International The International Clearinghouse Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media, at on Children, Youth and Media A UNESCO Ini T iaT I V E 1997 Nordicom University of Gothenburg Box 713 SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG, Sweden In 1997, the Nordic Information Centre for Media and Web site: Communication Research (Nordicom), University www.nordicom.gu.se/clearinghouse of Gothenburg, Sweden, began establishment of the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth DIRECTOR : Ulla Carlsson and Media. The overall point of departure for the SCIENTIFIC CO -OR D INATOR : Clearinghouse’s efforts with respect to children, youth Cecilia von Feilitzen Tel:+46 8 608 48 58 and media is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Fax:+46 8 608 46 40 Child. [email protected] The aim of the Clearinghouse is to increase INFORMATION CO -OR D INATOR : awareness and knowledge about children, youth and Catharina Bucht media, thereby providing a basis for relevant policy- Tel: +46 31 786 49 53 making, contributing to a constructive public debate, Fax: +46 31 786 46 55 [email protected] and enhancing children’s and young people’s media literacy and media competence.
    [Show full text]
  • MAPPING the EUROPEAN LEFT Socialist Parties in the EU ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE by Dominic Heilig Table of Contents
    MAPPING THE EUROPEAN LEFT Socialist Parties in the EU ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE By Dominic Heilig Table of Contents The Rise of the European Left. By the Editors 1 Mapping the European Left Socialist Parties in the EU 2 By Dominic Heilig 1. The Left in Europe: History and Diversity 2 2. Syriza and Europe’s Left Spring 10 3. The Black Autumn of the Left in Europe: The Left in Spain 17 4. DIE LINKE: A Factor for Stability in the Party of the European Left 26 5. Strategic Tasks for the Left in Europe 33 Published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office, April 2016 Editors: Stefanie Ehmsen and Albert Scharenberg Address: 275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114, New York, NY 10016 Email: [email protected]; Phone: +1 (917) 409-1040 With support from the German Foreign Office The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is an internationally operating, progressive non-profit institution for civic education. In cooperation with many organizations around the globe, it works on democratic and social participation, empowerment of disadvantaged groups, alternatives for economic and social development, and peaceful conflict resolution. The New York Office serves two major tasks: to work around issues concerning the United Nations and to engage in dialogue with North American progressives in universities, unions, social movements, and politics. www.rosalux-nyc.org The Rise of the European Left The European party system is changing rapidly. As a result of the ongoing neoliberal attack, the middle class is shrinking quickly, and the decades-old party allegiance of large groups of voters has followed suit.
    [Show full text]