"Social policy and citizenship in the European Union"

Shaw, Jo. (1997) "Social policy and citizenship in the European Union". In: UNSPECIFIED, Seattle, WA. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This paper undertakes a preliminary analysis of the relationship between social policy in the European Union and the gradual emergence of concepts of ‘citizenship’ or ‘membership’ at EU level. To this end it tests the extent to which three dimensions of a concept of social citizenship are represented in visible outputs from law-making processes in relation to the specific ‘social’ goals of the EC/EU (market citizenship, industrial citizenship, and welfare citizenship). This paper concentrates primarily on the search for a form of inclusionary social citizenship which can contribute to both the identity and rights-holding aspects of the constitution of the citizen of the EU. The political dimension is largely left aside, even though one underlying assumption of the paper is that a gradual transformation of the EU is something more than an international regime, namely a form of (as yet unspecified) multi-level polity is underway, even though neither the nature of that transformation in political or constitutional terms nor indeed the possible end-point of the transformation (if indeed there is one) have yet to be fully explored. Consequently, the paper does not discuss the issues raised by problems of governance, democracy and political participation in the EU, even though these are essential components of any citizenship-driven analysis.

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