Brexit, division and individual solidarity: what future for Europe? Evidence from eight European countries

Solidarity among member states, one of the European Union’s (EU) fundamental values, has recently been put to the test by numerous and diverse challenges that have led to a “crisis of solidarity.” In the United Kingdom, the decision in June 2016 by the electorate to vote to leave the EU revealed the British dimension of this crisis. However, little is known about the perceptions of other European citizens on this decision, even though it has contributed to shaping the present and future of the EU. In this article, using a representative survey conducted in eight European countries, including the United Kingdom, we aim to explore and contrast cross-country evidence on individual perceptions on Brexit. We then aim to establish if an association exists between the opinions on Brexit and the individual solidaristic attitudes and concrete behaviors of the survey respondents. The complex relationship between opinions on this event and expressions of solidarity at different levels (local, national, European, and beyond) will be explored using multivariate regression techniques as well as the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the survey respondents

Social innovation and the autoimmunity of employability

The purpose of this article is to examine social innovation in the field of youth employment. It addresses both the shortcomings of supply-side approaches that are balanced towards issues such as employability and the impact of key demand side issues including low pay and precarity. The empirical analysis is based upon interviews with young people in employment or training with social innovations as well as interviews with senior policymakers and practitioners whose remit covers these issues. The study concludes by reflecting upon how the conduct of employability can operate as an autoimmune function

Towards Greater Openness in Judicial Conduct Commission Proceedings: Temporary Confidentiality as an Alternative to Inviolate Confidentiality—Garner v. Cherberg, 111 Wash. 2d 811, 765 P.2d 1284 (1988)

In Garner v. Cherberg, the Washington Supreme Court upheld certain rules of inviolate confidentiality adopted by the Washington Commission on Judicial Conduct. This Note examines the justifications for such confidentiality rules, and proposes temporary, rather than inviolate, confidentiality to better balance interests of fairness and the public\u27s right to know

On thermodynamic and quantum fluctuations of cosmological constant

We discuss from the condensed-matter point of view the recent idea that the Poisson fluctuations of cosmological constant about zero could be a source of the observed dark energy. We argue that the thermodynamic fluctuations of Lambda are much bigger. Since the amplitude of fluctuations is proportional to V^{-1/2}, where V is the volume of the Universe, the present constraint on the cosmological constant provides the lower limit for V, which is much bigger than the volume within the cosmological horizon.Comment: 4 pages, version submitted to JETP Letter

Defining the gig economy: platform capitalism and the reinvention of precarious work

Purpose – This article seeks to answer the question: how should we conceptualise the “gig economy”? In doing so the authors shall explore if gig economy work should be understood as a novel concept that stands alone, a concept that is a subtype, or whether it may in fact be conceptually redundant. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conduct a thematic analysis of interview data drawn from 27 interviews with policymakers, trade union officials, key figures within labour organisations and gig economy workers. Findings – The authors reveal how, from the perspective of key stakeholders, the concept of the gig economy exhibits a lack of “differentiation” from the long-established concept of precarious work of which it is best understood as a subtype. Research limitations/implications – The empirical findings from the authors’ study should be regarded as limited in terms of being situated in the specific employment context of the UK. Nevertheless, the implications of the study have a broader reach. The authors seek to provoke debate and discussion among scholars across disciplines and contexts working in the areas of precarious work and the gig economy. The authors’ analysis will be of interest to scholars who are concerned with how they conceptualise “new” forms of work. Originality/value – The analysis offers a novel intervention by revealing how key stakeholders perceive the gig economy through a prism of continuity rather than change and connect it with broader processes of precarity

‘Nothing about us without us’: organizing disabled people’s solidarity within and beyond borders in a polarized age

This article examines collective action and the alliances between social movement organizations engaged in the work of solidarity with disabled people within and across borders during austerity. Building upon social movement theory, specifically political opportunities and resource mobilisation, we focus our analysis on data from in-depth interviews with thirty-five organizations at the UK and European levels, where we examine both how solidarity is operationalized by such organizations and the everyday cooperation and alliances they build with others in a UK policy context that has been hostile to disabled people and a European context which disabled people’s solidarity organizations have sought to seize as political opportunities. Our study therefore adopts a multi-level approach by analysing the building of alliances between organizations at the local, national and transnational levels and it reveals the impact of the political context and organisational pressures which can diminish resources and generate competition, thus placing strains on solidarity between disabled people