About the book
This volume approaches the current crisis of solidarity in the European Union from a multidisciplinary perspective. The contributions explore the concept of solidarity, its role in the European integration process, and analyze the risks entailed by a lack of solidarity.
Experts from various academic fields, such as political science, law, sociology, and philosophy, shed new light on contemporary challenges such as the migrant and refugee crisis, the Eurozone crisis, nationalist and separatist movements, and Brexit. Finally, they also discuss different solutions for the most pressing problems in EU politics.
The book has two main aims: Firstly, to show that solidarity is a key element in solving the EU’s contemporary problems; and secondly, to reveal how the crisis of solidarity has become a crucial test for the integration project, as the nature of the crisis goes beyond the well-known shortcomings in the EU’s structure and problem-solving capacities.
Solidarity and the case of the Eurozone crisis
Erik O. Eriksen takes a close look at how the Eurozone crisis raises the problem of structural injustice in his chapter. He claims that the beneficiaries receive a diverse array of benefits under an enduring social structure, and he studies the type of duties that this structure triggers. Particular actors have directly or indirectly participated in causing some injustices, and some injustices benefit them, some harm them and some do both. However, things may be wrong but not unjust in the sense that it is others' responsibility. Eriksen shows that we are confronted with the normative puzzle of injustice. These injustices benefit some while no one in particular is liable to pay damages. In effect, the Eurozone crisis gives rise to duties, but not in the form of compensatory obligations. Rather, it gives rise to duties of solidarity – to correct wrongs in order to satisfy political justice.
Full info
Chapter 8: Structural injustice: the Eurozone crisis and the duty of solidarity
Erik O. Eriksen
In: Solidarity in the European Union. A Fundamental Value in Crisis
Andreas Grimmel and Susanne My Giang (eds)
Springer, 2017
ISBN: 9783319570358