European Society

The EU today is at a crossroads: either it becomes a great supranational union or it goes back to being an array of separate independent states. Alberto Martinelli and Alessandro Cavalli draw a grand fresco of the society in which the European Union is taking shape. Long-term social and cultural trends and main current developments in economics and politics are synthetically outlined. Key questions of identity and nationalism, immigration and inequality, welfare and economic governance, are thoroughly analysed. Main cleavages, conflicts of interest and different visions of member states, as well as institutional reforms and crisis management strategies are critically discussed. A detailed proposal for advancing the process of political integration concludes the volume.

Alberto Martinelli, laurea in Economics, Milan,1964; Ph.D. in Sociology, Berkeley, 1975, and Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science, Milan. His most recent books include Global Modernization (Sage, 2005); Transatlantic Divide (Oxford University Press, 2007), and Mal di nazione (Bocconi University Press, 2013).

Alessandro Cavalli, laurea in Economic History, Milan, 1963, and former Professor of Sociology at the University of Pavia, Italy. He has published several monographs on the history of sociology, youth, education, memory and time.