Outline for the Abstracts 

European Union institutions aim to involve social NGOs in deliberation and decision-making on the social dimension of European integration. National social NGOs gain access to new political opportunity  structures (beyond campaigning, lobbying and negotiating 'from below' within national contexts). The NGOs become better positioned to improve their capacities, coordinate efforts with NGOs in other countries and enlist support of EU institutions in exerting pressure on national governments 'from above'. Social NGOs can more easily confront national corporative structures and challenge other organisations' privileges and dominance in these structures. The stream invites papers that empirically and theoretically address European social policy from the perspective of social NGOs.

Especially papers comparing different national contexts, type of organisations and policy dimensions (e.g. gender, ethnicity,disability, age and exclusion) and their interactions:

• The European social dimension, a new arena for transnational activities? (e.g. interest mediation, lobbying and interaction patterns between EU institutions and European networks of social NGOs)
• Europeanization of national corporative structures? (e.g the impact of European social policy-making, European Social Fund programmes and OMC processes on national governments-NGOs relations. How do national organisations take advantage of EU- related opportunity structures? What factors affect their relative success and what organizational tensions emerge as a consequence of trans-national activities?).

The convenors will consider the feasibility of a special issue of an international journal on the basis of selected papers in the aftermath of the conference.

Convenors:

Dr Håkan Johansson (IVOSA - School of Health Science and Social Work, 351 95 Växjö University, Sweden,

e-mail:hakan.johansson@vxu.se <mailto:hakan.johansson@vxu.se>

Dr Rune Halvorsen, Department of Social Work and Health Science, NTNU, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway, e-mail: rune.halvorsen@svt.ntnu.no <mailto:rune.halvorsen@svt.ntnu.no> , &

Professor Bjørn Hvinden, Department of Sociology and Political Science, NTNU, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway, e-mail: bjorn.hvinden@svt.ntnu.no mailto:bjorn.hvinden@svt.ntnu.no>