The aim and organisation of the conference

The Conference marked that the CINEFOGO NoE is halfway through the first 4 year circle. - In May 2006 NC decided that CINEFOGO should arrange a midterm conference at Roskilde University, the International Coordinating institution of the Network. The aim was to discuss the results and accomplishments within the first 2 years of CINEFOGO and to focus on the debate on European Citizenship - the possibilities and constrains in further integration in Europe.

The theme of the conference was organized in 5 sub-themes

• Trends towards denationalization of citizenship
• Organised Civil Society – the contribution of non-profit institutions in enhancing civic participation
• Citizenship contested and renewed
• Public services in Europe and their link with Citizenship and Governance
• European Citizenship in a globalised world

The conference was organized as a mix of thematic plenary lectures, paper sessions and it concluded with a debate among the theme coordinators on future perspectives for the scientific work of CINEFOGO. Close to 100 participated in the conference.

Plenary sessions

The plenary speakers were (chronological order):

• Dr. Ulrike Liebert, professor, University of Bremen (Germany): “The Relationship Between Organised Civil Society and the Constitution of European Citizenship”
• Dr. Donatella della Porta, professor, European University Institute, Florence (Italy): “The Emergence of European Movements? Civil Society and the EU”
• Dr. Gerard Delanty, professor, University of Liverpool (UK): “After the Euro-peanization of the Nation-State: The Legacy of the EU Reconsidered”
• Dr. Göran Therborn, professor, SCASS and Uppsala University (Sweden): “From the City to the Union: Issues of European Citizenship”
• Dr. Barbara Einhorn, professor, University of Sussex (UK): “European Citizenship or Narrow Nationalisms? The Challenge of Gender”
• Dr. Carl-Ulrik Schierup, professor, University of Linköping (Sweden): “Migration, Citizenship and the European Welfare state”
• Dr. Adalbert Evers, professor, Justus Liebig University, Giessen (Germany): “Intertwined - Changes in Citizenship and Changes in the Provision of Social Services”
• Dr. Victor Pestoff, professor, Mid-Sweden University (Sweden): “Democratic Governance: Co-Production, the Third Sector and Citizen Participation in the Provision of Social Services”
• Dr. Claire Wallace, professor, University of Aberdeen (UK): “What makes a good citizen? European perspectives”
• Annamari Konttinen, University of Turku (Finland): “Political Participation as an Aspect of Good Citizenship: Normative Conceptualizations, Empirical Observations”

A short summary of the plenary lectures, from which we have a written contribution, are outlined below.

International Coordinator Prof. Thomas Boje, Roskilde University (Denmark), introduced the conference and gave a short presentation of the Network’s scientific themes and the topics of the Midterm conference.

Professor Donatella della Porta, European Institute (Italy), lectured on “The Emergence of European Movements? Civil Society and the EU” . The paper analysed recent EU summits and countersummits. The social movements and NGOs protests against a lack of attention for the social integration and inequality at EU level. The questioning and opposition to the EU economic integration process were seen as positive signs of an emerging European public sphere. and a “Critical Europeanism”, which is deemed necessary for a Europe, that is not only an elitist project.

Professor Gerard Delanty, University of Liverpool (UK), lectured on “After the Europeanization of the EU: The Legacy of the EU Reconsidered”. The lecture reflected on the current status of EU - 50 years after the treaty of Rome - the effects of the major social changes, and discussed whether there is talk of a crisis. Delanty outlined 3 major challenges ahead, social integration had to be rethought, an inclusive cosmopolitanism has to be fostered, and Europe has to become a cosmopolitan actor in the world. He concluded by stating that many of the EU’s objectives have been achieved and - at the current state - we cannot talk of a crisis but rather of state of uncertainty and indeterminacy – the collective sense of purpose needs to be recreated on a new basis.

Prof. Barbara Einhorn University of Sussex (UK), lectured on “European Citizenship or Narrow Nationalism? The Challenge of Gender”. The paper reflects on the current discussions on nationalism, EU and citizenship from a gender perspective. It concludes that despite the ongoing discussion of the weakening of the nation-state and the emerging of radical nationalisms, it is still the nation state that has the greater power to deliver gender-equitable citizenship rights.

Prof. Victor Pestoff, Mid-Sweden University (Sweden), lectured on “Democratic Governance: Co-Production, the Third Sector and Citizen Participation in the Provision of Welfare Services”. His presentation focused on the growth of new and different ways to involve users of welfare services in the co-production of services. He discusses 4 different approaches to user involvement, and pointed out that the approach concerned with larger involvement of citizen participation in the provision of social services is missing from the European debate, the future scenarios discussed are either more state or more market solutions. He concluded that to spread democratic ownership, and thus greater citizen participation, state support is essential.

Prof. Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen (UK), gave a presentation on “Social Capital and European Citizenship – What relationship?”  Claire Wallace et al. analyzed the effect of social capital on facilitating different normative concepts of good citizenship by interpretation of data from the European Values Survey 1999 at country level and at the level of individuals. The results showed that neither socio-economic status nor political participation had a significant impact on civic norms, but the level of urbanization showed some effect on adherence to social and civic norms. Leading to the conclusion that “More active citizens were the ones with more lenient attitudes to civic virtue and more passive citizens the ones with strict attitudes towards civic virtue,” (cf. Pichler & Wallace 2007: 19)

Paper sessions

This part of the conference was arranged in parallel sessions, in accordance with the 5 sub-themes mentioned above. More than 35 research papers were presented by the authors and discussed with the audience.

Conference documents, including programme, plenary lectures, paper session and the collection of abstracts of papers, can be found in the Outcomes database.