The Danish Welfare State and Transnational Solidarity in Times of Crisis

This chapter investigates transnational solidarity action across the fields of unemployment, disability and immigration in Denmark. It discusses how solidarity is manifested and organised by civil society, focusing on 30 qualitative interviews conducted with the so-called transnational solidarity organisations (TSOs). The chapter explores solidarity challenges that Danish TSOs were facing in the context of the welfare retrenchment and the structural reform in 2007, as well as the 2008 financial crisis and the migration crisis of 2015. Our interviews confirm that the effects of the financial crisis, austerity measures and the migration crisis were not easy to separate from the welfare retrenchment in the Danish system. These recent changes to the welfare state have been experienced as dramatic as they have loosened the traditionally close ties between the Danish civil society and municipalities in providing welfare services. The voluntary sector has, in response, become more political, not only providing services to affected groups but also increasingly seeking to defend their social rights, as well as entering into conflict with the government

Mutual adaptation of a membrane protein and its lipid bilayer during conformational changes

The structural elucidation of membrane proteins continues to gather pace, but we know little about their molecular interactions with the lipid environment or how they interact with the surrounding bilayer. Here, with the aid of low-resolution X-ray crystallography, we present direct structural information on membrane interfaces as delineated by lipid phosphate groups surrounding the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase (SERCA) in its phosphorylated and dephosphorylated Ca(2+)-free forms. The protein-lipid interactions are further analysed using molecular dynamics simulations. We find that SERCA adapts to membranes of different hydrophobic thicknesses by inducing local deformations in the lipid bilayers and by undergoing small rearrangements of the amino-acid side chains and helix tilts. These mutually adaptive interactions allow smooth transitions through large conformational changes associated with the transport cycle of SERCA, a strategy that may be of general nature for many membrane proteins

The Making of Target Publics for Welfare Policies. From Targeting Practices to Resistances of Governed People

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