Preamble and Introduction

Abstract

The book provides an overview of key issues in the debate concerning the emergence of active citizenship. The specific focus of enquiry is the promotion of patterns of civic and political engagement and civic and political participation by the EU and the relative responses drawn by organizations of the civil society operating at the supranational level and in three different countries (Italy, Turkey, and the UK). More specifically it addresses key debates on the engagement and participation of organized civil society (Boje 2015) across the permanent state of euro-crisis, considering the production of policy discourses along the continuum that characterized three subsequent and interrelated emergency situations (democratic, financial, and migration crises) that hit Europe since 2005. As such, it sheds light on the reframing of key policy priorities by institutional and nonstate actors in regard to civic and political engagement and civic and political participation along this period. At the same time, the book discusses the key challenges emerging for civil society activists in terms of capabilities to guarantee social inclusion and solidarity across these crises. Of particular interest are in fact the debates about the nature and level of political participation and engagement of civil society organizations representing disadvantaged groups, as they are vulnerable to social exclusion, especially in the present financial and migration crises.