Bettin Lattes G. (ed.)

Comparing European Societies: Towards a Sociology of the EU

Monduzzi, Bologna, 2005

This book is the most recent of three publications of collected works on Europe from the Florentine school of sociology at ‘Cesare Alfieri’, carried out by an established team of scholars within the ambit of the Centro interuniversitario di sociologia politica (CIUSPO). The other two books are: G. Bettin Lattes (ed.), La societa degli europei. Lezioni di sociologia comparata (Bologna, Monduzzi, 1995), and G. Bettin Lattes (ed.), Mutamenti in Europa. Lezioni di sociologia (Bologna, Monduzzi, 2002). Whilst linked, each of these three works developed out of an autonomous research theme and responds to specific and contingent cognitive foci. However, all of them are the outcome of a consistent activity of study of basic social processes for the construction of Europe. The comparison between the three books outlines several thematic areas of convergence, as some material has been updated after five to ten years, years of epochal change on both the international and European scene. In other cases, new questions and issues, that had remained in the shade in the two earlier publications and which have now moved centre stage, have been introduced. The editors hope that this book will highlight the contribution made by Italian sociology to the study of contemporary European society. The individual chapters in this book have been translated by Simon Young, Donald Bathgate, Gerry Redmond and Debbie Payne. We would also like to thank Sabrina Messineo, Melissa Bancroft, Nathalie Kamphaus, Anna Raffaelli and Lorenzo G. Baglioni for editorial assistance. A particular vote of thanks goes to Winifred Tamey for her decisive intervention during the concluding stages of preparation. Finally, we are grateful to Adrian Favell for having read and commented on the first version of the manuscript.