Exploring the cultural challenges to social democracy
Anti-migration populism, identity and community in
an age of insecurity
This substantial new Amsterdam Process publication confronts the choices and dilemmas facing European social democratic parties as they respond
to popular concerns about culture, migration and identity.
Summary
♦ Popular concerns over culture, migration and identity are of considerable
importance to the future of European social democracy; their neglect marks a
significant weakness and vulnerability.
♦ In losing sight of the need to provide people with a modern sense of
belonging, community and collective mission, the centre-left is losing its
guiding voice and with it the right to be heard by voters.
♦ The struggle to empathise with societal unease and respond to
anti-immigrant, anti-elite and anti-Islamic populism is creating cleavages and
fissures which cut through both the movement’s electoral constituencies and its
parties’ political and policymaking fraternities.
Berlin Conference
The papers in this volume were presented at an international conference in Berlin on 20-21 January 2011. This Amsterdam Process conference, organised by Policy Network and the Wiardi Beckman Stichting in partnership with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Das Progressive Zentrum,
brought together senior political leaders, experts and policymakers
from across Europe to discuss the cultural challenges to social
democracy. Keynote speakers included: Frank Walter Steinmeier, leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag; Job Cohen, Leader of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA); and Trevor Phillips, chair of the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Contents
The right
side of the argument? The centre-left’s response to migration and
multiculturalism
Tim Bale, University of Sussex
Liberals v
communitarians: the left’s civil war
David Goodhart,
Prospect Magazine
The populist
revolt against cosmopolitanism
René Cuperus, Wiardi Beckman
Stifting
Responding
to populist value triangulation
Laurent Bouvet,
University of Nice
An
electorate set free: culture, symbolism and social
democracy
Mark Elchardus, University of Brussels
Progressives
should embrace diversity
Philippe Legrain, author and
commentator
The Three
I’s: Immigration, Integration and Islam
Trevor Phillips, UK
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Progressive
multiculturalism: a social democratic response to cultural
diversity?
Elena Jurado, Policy Network
Reputations
matter: What is needed for a competent immigration policy and effective
integration policy?
Shamit Saggar, University of Sussex
The open society and its believers
Paul Scheffer, University of Amsterdam
Social
democracy and the fall-out from multicultural
collectivisation
Dilsa Demirbag Sten, Swedish author and
journalist
How can social democrats
cherish identity and community in a multi-ethnic, cosmopolitan
era?
Maurice Glasman, London Metropolitan
University
Rethinking
suburbia in an age of insecurity: hard times on the
edge?
Rupa Huq, Kingston University
Identity and
politics in Europe, Flanders and Belgium
Tinneke Beeckman,
University of Brussels
Media contact
If you have any queries or comments about this publication please contact Michael McTernan on 0207 340 2215 or email mmcternan@policy-network.net.