ABSTRACT

This edited book sheds new light on the understanding of solidarity, reciprocity and fairness from the perspective of European Union (EU) citizens and, with this, how cohesion in the EU can be achieved.

Drawing on extensive focus group research across nine countries, the book presents the results of this large project to assess what citizens think they owe their fellow Europeans in other parts of the EU. It brings together participants from different social milieus – highly qualified professionals, low-paid and unemployed persons and young adults – and reveals much about how average citizens think and talk about the issues and crises facing the EU, such as the reasons behind their beliefs and the statements they develop when discussing such issues, and therefore, provides a deeper insight into how exactly EU citizens understand solidarity, reciprocity and fairness when it comes to transborder relations and their attitudes towards EU cohesion.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students in European studies/politics, and more broadly to comparative politics, international relations, civil society organisations and the wider social sciences.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

chapter 1|8 pages

Introduction

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chapter 2|15 pages

Cohesion, solidarity, fairness and reciprocity

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Clarifying the concepts in the EU context
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chapter 4|13 pages

Finland

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“We should not get help either if we're in a shitty situation and we've put ourselves there”
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chapter 5|16 pages

Germany

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“We profit if the EU, if other countries are doing well”
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chapter 6|15 pages

The Netherlands

Title
A “small frog country”, but also the “best boy in class”?
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chapter 7|11 pages

Greece

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“What it should be? It should be everybody giving and everybody helping”
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chapter 8|13 pages

Portugal

Title
“We are living at the expense of European funds but these funds have been misused”
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chapter 9|15 pages

Spain

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“A second-class country lagging behind Europe”: “The better Europe does, the better Spain will do”
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chapter 10|15 pages

Latvia

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“We should stand strongly together and support each other as much as we can”
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chapter 11|15 pages

Lithuania

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Consistently pro-European but still “a bit of a scrooge”
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chapter 12|15 pages

Slovakia

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“Why should we save their ass, when it's their own fault?”
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chapter 13|24 pages

Solidarity in the European Union

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Results of comparative analysis of the focus group discussions
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chapter 15|10 pages

Conclusion

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