Tag archive for ‘Good Society’
English Football Needs Root and Branch Reform… And so Does the Labour Party
I can’t seem to separate two momentous recent events in my mind: the England team crashing out of the South African World Cup and the battle for the Labour leadership. The dynamics of the two keep colliding in my brain. Will an analysis of both help the other? Lets start with the football team. England, [...]
Letting Action inform Theory
All agree, the Good Society is sustainable, but what about the force needed for its realisation? The Good Society Debate was launched in response to many crises but also as an attempt to rise to a more profound challenge –the deafening loss of direction on the European left. A lack of leftwing imagination is much [...]
What next for European social democracy? The Good Society Debate and beyond
I posted a preliminary summary of the Good Society Debate a few weeks ago. In the meantime, Karl-Heinz Spiegel (Director of the London Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation) and yours truly have refined it further and developed it into a proper article. The result is a comprehensive essay that will be published in the next [...]
Towards a Co-operative Europe
Human flourishing requires conditions of relative equality. Progressives have always realised this and have traditionally looked to the state to deliver. This has led to many successes, particularly in the 1945-75 period when robust profitability (rooted in the re-stocking of manufacturing capacity destroyed in World War II) and the communist threat obtained many social concessions [...]
Europe at the Crossroads: It’s Now or Never!
The European Union is one of the grandest projects in human history – the creation of a new economic, and eventually social, super-state out of the ashes of post-war despair. The founders had a cunning plan: They would create an economic imperative around the production of essentials such as coal and steel, convinced that a [...]
The Good Society Debate continues…
Following the great success of the Good Society Debate, which was led on this website at the end of last year and brought together an unprecedented number of academics, politicians and activists to discuss the future of European social democracy, the organisers (Social Europe Journal, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung London, Soundings Journal and Compass) have decided to continue this [...]
The Cleavage within Europe
One of the striking characteristics of the Good Society Debate was an often fundamentally different assessment between contributors from North, West, and Southern Europe and those coming from Central and Eastern Europe. To be very clear, we do not want to blame anybody for their views or analyses, but it is important to stress that [...]
Where now? The Future of European Social Democracy
Moving on from the analysis of social democracy’s plight, the future of social democratic politics in Europe was the focus of attention for many contributors to the Good Society Debate. Changes to the general approach of social democracy appeared necessary to some authors. Stefan Berger of Manchester University for instance stressed the need for a [...]
The Origins of the Social Democratic Crisis
Many authors took the opportunity of the Good Society Debate to discuss the origins of the social democratic crisis in Europe and two questions in particular: First, why did the economic crisis not benefit social democrats but seemed to have had the opposite effect? And second – partially related to the first question – why [...]
The Good Society Conference – Organising Session
On 21st and 22nd January 2010 more than 50 participants from almost 20 countries participated in the Good Society Conference organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation London and Compass. The conference was based on the issues discussed during the Good Society Debate. Watch the session on the Good Society and organising below.
The Good Society Conference – Democracy Session
On 21st and 22nd January 2010 more than 50 participants from almost 20 countries participated in the Good Society Conference organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation London and Compass. The conference was based on the issues discussed during the Good Society Debate. Watch the session on the Good Society and democracy below.
The Good Society Conference – Equality Session
On 21st and 22nd January 2010 more than 50 participants from almost 20 countries participated in the Good Society Conference organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation London and Compass. The conference was based on the issues discussed during the Good Society Debate. Watch the session on the Good Society and equality below.
