Citizens' Activism and Solidarity Movements ― Contending With Populism

This book explores the activism and solidarity movements formed by contemporary European citizens in opposition to populism, which has risen significantly in reaction to globalization, European integration and migration. It makes the counterforces to neo-nationalisms visible and re-envisions key concepts such as democracy/public sphere, power/empowerment, intersectionality and conflict/cooperation in civil society. The book makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to citizenship studies, covering several forms such as contestatory, solidary, everyday and creative citizenship. The chapters examine the diverse movements against national populism, othering and exclusion in various parts of the European Union, such as Denmark, Finland, the UK, Austria, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Italy. The national case studies focus on counterforces to ethnic and religious divisions, as well as genders and sexualities, various expressions of anti-migration, Romanophobia, Islamophobia and homophobia. The book’s overall focus on local, national and transnational forms of resistance is premised on values of respect and tolerance of diversity in an increasingly multi-cultural Europe.

Birte Siim is Professor at the Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark, where she has been responsible for Gender Research and Danish EU teams on European studies of citizenship, gender equality, nationalism, and diversity. Siim co-edited Negotiating Gender and Diversity in the European Public Sphere (2013).

Anna Krasteva is Professor of Political Sciences, Founder and Director of CERMES (Centre for Refugees, Migration and Ethnic Studies) at the New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria. She co-edited Recent Social Trends in Bulgaria (2000). She is editor-in-chief of the international journal Southeastern Europe.

Aino Saarinen is Senior Researcher Emerita at Aleksanteri Institute, Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland, where she has been responsible for Nordic-Russian projects and Finnish-EU teams focusing on agency and gender violence, and migration. Saarinen co-edited Women and Transformation in Russia (2014).