Reducing Inequalities: A Challenge for the European Union?

Description

This edited collection analyses social inequality in the European Union, within and between countries. The work critically explores both vertical inequality, existing between those with high incomes and low incomes, and horizontal inequality, existing between groups according to nationality, age, ethnicity, and gender. Reducing Inequalities has been written by leading academics in the field who describe the current social situation in the European Union, focussing on inequality from a multidimensional perspective that includes income, poverty, social exclusion, education. The authors argue that social issues such as these have become national prerogatives for countries within the European Union. In response they ask: How does the European Union engage with inequality today? What principles of social solidarity ought to be applied between states and citizens of the European Union? What should be the role of European Union and its institutions regarding the challenge of reducing inequality? This book will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand inequality as a multidimensional concept, rather than solely as an economic phenomenon, across different geographical and historical contexts. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction (Renato Miguel Carmo, Cédric Rio, Márton Medgyesi)....Pages 1-10 Front Matter ....Pages 11-11 Disposable Income Inequality, Cohesion and Crisis in Europe (Michael Dauderstädt)....Pages 13-30 Drivers of Growing Income Inequalities in OECD and European Countries (Guillaume Cohen, Maxime Ladaique)....Pages 31-43 Unemployment, Precariousness and Poverty as Drivers of Social Inequality: The Case of the Southern European Countries (Renato Miguel Carmo, Ana Rita Matias)....Pages 45-61 Distributional and Categorical Inequalities in Europe: Structural Configurations (António Firmino da Costa, Rosário Mauritti, Susana da Cruz Martins, Nuno Nunes, Ana Lúcia Romão)....Pages 63-74 Income Poverty in the EU: What Do We Actually Measure? Empirical Evidence on Choices, Underlying Assumptions and Implications (Based on EU-SILC 2005–2014) (Orsolya Lelkes, Katrin Gasior)....Pages 75-95 Poverty and Social Exclusion Indicators in the European Union: The Role of Non-Monetary Deprivation Indicators (Brian Nolan, Christopher T. Whelan)....Pages 97-114 Inequality of Outcomes and Opportunities Among the Young (Márton Medgyesi)....Pages 115-134 Front Matter ....Pages 135-135 The European Union Social Tools in Question (Cédric Rio)....Pages 137-147 European Union Policy on Gender Equality: The Scope and Limits of Equality in the Single Market (Gwenaëlle Perrier)....Pages 149-159 European Union and Human Rights: Reducing Inequalities and Asymmetries in the Context of the Economic Crisis (Beatriz Tomás Mallén)....Pages 161-185 Normative Arguments for a European Social Union (Antoon Vandevelde)....Pages 187-212 Hayek’s Trap and the European Utopia We Need (Philippe Van Parijs)....Pages 213-223 Wealth, Taxation and Inequality (Thomas Piketty, Frederico Cantante)....Pages 225-239 Conclusion: Back to the Future – Towards a European Social Agenda (Renato Miguel Carmo, Cédric Rio, Márton Medgyesi)....Pages 241-247 Back Matter ....Pages 249-259