Transnational Contention: Movements and Interest Groups in the EU

With the permissive consensus well and truly over, examining the role of civil society in EU matters is paramount. Civil society is a broad school however, with groups within it ranging from mass movements through to particularistic interest groups. Academic traditions in the study of each have tended to remain separate, yet it is increasingly clear that the roles of movements and interest groups intersect, and indeed that scholars of social movements and interest groups have much to learn from one another. This section seeks to foster some cross-fertilisation amongst scholars of social movements and interest groups engaged in a variety of different forms of transnational contention in the EU. The panels seek to bring together work focusing Europeanization dynamics, which include both bottom up citizen’s participation as well as the role of more formal organised civil society in EU contention and operating at EU level, and the links between the two. 1. Anti-Discrimination Movements and the EU 2. Mobilization around migration in the EU 3. EU interests and Environmental Policy 4. EU civil society and the populist right 5. Interest groups, social movements and democracy in the EU 6. Developments in the European Citizens’ Initiative 7. Judicial activism and the monitoring role of NGOs at EU level 8. Contention and the political economy of the EU / contention beyond austerity