Today, the European Union is facing a crisis as serious as anything it has experienced since its origins more than half a century ago. What makes this so serious is that it is not a single crisis but rather multiple crises – the euro crisis, the migration/refugee crisis, Brexit, etc. – that overlap and reinforce one another, creating a cumulative array of challenges that threatens the very survival of the EU. For the first time in its history, there is a real risk that the EU could break up.  This volume brings together sociologists, economists and political scientists from around Europe to shed light on how the EU got into this predicament. It argues that the multiple crises that have plagued the European Union in the last decade stem to a large extent from flaws in its construction and that these flaws are consequences of the political processes that led to the formation of the EU – in other words, the decisions that made possible the development of the EU created the conditions for the multiple crises it experiences today.  This timely and wide-ranging book on one of the most important issues of our time will be of great interest to students and scholars in the social sciences, to politicians and policy-makers and to anyone concerned with Europe and its future.

Table of Contents:
List of Contributors List of Figures Introduction Part I: Economic Crises Chapter 1: The End of European Integration as We Knew It: A Political Economy Analysis Olivier Bouin Chapter 2: Making Sense of the Greek Crisis, 2010-2016 Manos Matsaganis Chapter 3: The Consequences of Crisis on the European Banking System Emilio Ontiveros Chapter 4: The Financial Crisis and the Restructuring of the Italian Banking System Sviatlana Hlebik Chapter 5: European Science and Technology in a Time of Crisis: ERC, EIT and Beyond João Caraça et al. Part II: Social Crises Chapter 6: Austerity and Health: The Impact of the Crisis in the UK and Rest of Europe David Stuckler et al. Chapter 7: Suffering: The Human and Social Costs of Economic Crisis John B. Thompson et al. Chapter 8: Achilles’ Heel: Europe’s Ambivalent Identity Manuel Castells Chapter 9: Europe Facing Evil: Xenophobia, Racism, anti-Semitism and Terrorism Michel Wieviorka Chapter 10: Europe and Refugees: Tragedy Bordering on Farce Paul Collier Part III: Political Crises Chapter 11: The Crisis of Legitimacy of European Institutions Sara B. Hobolt Chapter 12: Narratives of Responsibility: German Politics in the Greek Debt Crisis Claus Offe Chapter 13: The Double Crisis of European Social Democracy Colin Crouch Chapter 14: The Rise of the Radical Right Michel Wieviorka Chapter 15: From Crisis to Social Movement to Political Change: Podemos in Spain Manuel Castells Chapter 16: Italy: Autumn of the Second Republic by Pierfranco Pelizzetti Chapter 17: Brexit: The Causes and Consequences of the UK’s Decision to Leave the EU Geoffrey Evans et al. Chapter 18: Social Movements, Participation and Crisis in Europe Gustavo Cardoso et al. Conclusion