Birkbeck, University of London

Events at Birkbeck, University of London

• Roundtable on the French Elections of 2012 at Birkbeck College

  Special Event

  22 Mar 2012

  What is at stake in the forthcoming French elections? In what way do the platforms put forward by parties and presidential candidates differ from each other? The purpose of this event is to bring together French and British experts who will provide an answer to this question.

• Social Democracy and Europe's Crisis at Birkbeck College

  Special Event

  16 Feb 2012

  The financial crisis, the subsequent economic crisis and the crisis in the Eurozone have multiple facets that highlight and, in some respects, exacerbate social democracy’s malaise. They are crises of values, programmatic beliefs, policies, leadership and institutions. They raise in the most pressing manner the issue of the real contemporary meaning of reformism, internationalism and solidarity, the relationship between the political sphere and the economic sphere, the boundary between the public and the private, the appropriate level(s) of action (national, European, global), and the search for leadership and effective institutions. However, the ongoing crisis is above all a crisis of neo-liberalism and not enough (as well as a particular kind) of Europe. Yet, it was the Centre-Right and its allies that won the 2009 European elections. Crucially, they did so on the basis of a theme and slogan with clear social democratic overtones: to help create “l’Europe qui protège”.