Egalitarian Social Movements in Western Europe: Can They Survive Globalization and EMU?

Abstract

Scholars have traditionally explained egalitarian social movements in terms of interest-based politics applied to specific policy domains and defined by distinct and immutable identities, such as class, nation, race, or gender. Recent contextual changes limit the analytical power of this traditional mode of analysis. This essay proposes that globalization and European regionalism have opened space for social movements organized by “modular” and context-dependent politics, in which identities are not fixed but multiple, interchangeable, and crosscutting. The convergence criteria of European integration, in tandem with the deregulatory pressures of globalization, repress egalitarian interests in national policy agendas. But the uncertain and overlapping authorities across territory and identity provide new political opportunities for broad-based mobilization, especially when wedded with strategies that take advantage of modular politics. Two recent cases illustrate the increasing significance of context-dependent identity formation in West European social movements. In Sweden, wage-earner feminism gained prominence for its appeal when it went beyond gender interests and captivated a broad-based alliance for a post-Fordist labor compromise. Similarly, the 1997 Eurostrike against Renault gained concessions, for it cast a wide net to attract different identities: class, nation, and Europe. The interplay among European regionalism, globalization, and “modular” politics will ultimately shape the future of egalitarian social movements in Western Europe.