Transnational Solidarity and Alternative Action Organizations in European Countries at Times of Crisis

Abstract

This panel aims to provide fresh and systematic analyses centering on alternative action and transnational solidarity organizations which engage in activities aimed to assist individuals and groups across European countries to confront hard times, especially in the context of the recent economic and refugee crises. The panel brings together experts from the field of social movements and civil societies who are currently engaged in comparative, cross-national research on how people cope with crises through individual, group or organizational activities. Specifically, the five papers draw on fresh empirical data related to solidarity organizations and initiatives, produced in the context of two European Commission projects*. One project focuses on alternative action organizations (including barter clubs, food banks, collective purchasing groups, free legal advice and social medicine, boycotts/boycotts, or self-‐management actions), and another on transnational solidarity organizations engaged in activities related to migrants & refugees, people with disabilities and the unemployed. The major methodological approach, presented in the first Paper, is used in all five Papers; it consists of a new hubs-based website analysis of solidarity organizations, which is based on the foundational social movements’ method of protest event analysis. It was developed in collaboration with search engine experts and offers large numbers of websites of alternative action organizations from which a random sample is drawn for coding purposes. Comparative accounts in three of the subsequent papers highlight internal features of the randomly selected solidarity organizations as well as the political opportunities and threats they face, either at the national and the transnational level during the recent economic as well as refugee crisis. Finally one of the papers focuses at the national level (Italy) and interrogates the social movement and political character of the alternative action organizations which flourished, especially during the crisis period.

Title	Details
Action Organization Analysis: A New, online-based Approach extending Protest Event Analysis through Hubs-based website Analysis	View Paper Details
Lost in translation? Building and sustaining transnational solidarity in times of crisis	View Paper Details
The Refugee Crisis, Political Opportunities and Threats and Transnational Solidarity Organizations in Greece and Denmark	View Paper Details
Direct Social Action: Coping with the Crisis and Pursuing Change in Times of Crisis in Italy	View Paper Details
Alternative Action Organizations in the Eurozone crisis period: Comparing the Greek and German experience	View Paper Details