Towards a Social and Sustainable Green Deal? – Transforming Eco-Welfare in Europe (EcoWel)

In December 2019, the European Commission presented its plans for a European Green Deal (EGD) that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society without net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – an ambitious goal, monumentally framed as Europe’s man-on-the-moon moment. EcoWel understands the EGD as an encompassing European strategy that not only relates to EU-level politics, policymaking, and governance, but also touches upon issues such as domestic eco-social regimes, (trans)national social tensions, and the legitimacy of the EU. Five researchers from Spain, Slovenia, Italy and Germany collaborate in the initiative to comparatively analyse eco-social processes across several European countries and in an Europeanisation context. Their interdisciplinary approach draws on both sociological and political science approaches towards Europeanisation and the link between environmental and social concerns.

Related publications and presentations:

• Zimmermann, Katharina; Graziano, Paolo R. (2020): Mapping Different Worlds of Eco-Welfare States. Sustainability; 12: 1819.
• Zimmermann, Katharina; Kaasch, Alexandra; Gengnagel, Vincent; Graziano, Paolo: Organizing the conference stream "Overlapping or merging policy agendas? The emergence of EU eco-social policies" Presentation at the digital 2021 ESPAnet Conference (31.8. – 3.09.2021).
• Gengnagel, Vincent; Zimmermann, Katharina: "The European Green Deal – An inclusive moonshot for a climate-neutral yet prospering continent?". Presentation at European Sociological Association Conference 2021 (31.8. – 3.09.2021).
• Gengnagel, Vincent; Zimmermann, Katharina: "The European Green Deal – An inclusive moonshot for a climate-neutral yet prospering continent?". Presentation at the digital International Conference on Public Policy (5.7. – 9.7.2021).
• Zimmermann, Katharina; Graziano, Paolo R. (2020): Mapping Different Worlds of Eco-Welfare States. Sustainability; 12: 1819.