• Podcast Series

  • 100 Shades of the EU: A Full Overview in 7 Podcast Episodes

  • 21 Jun 23 Posted under: EU Peripheries , Southern Europe , Central and Eastern Europe

  • This one-hour podcast series consists of seven short episodes and dwells on some key elements and findings of the study "Hundred Shades of the EU — Mapping the Political Economy of the EU Peripheries" published in March 2022 by transform! with the support of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation.

    What is a periphery and how has it been defined in Europe through history? What are the internal EU peripheries identified by the authors of the study Hundred Shades of the EU? Do all peripheral member states have the same economic pattern? How is the state of labour in these countries, and how is it articulated with global value chains and the globalisation, with the economic and overall evolution of the European Union, and with the globalised financialisation? What are the societal patterns and the political priorities in the peripheries, and do those allow for cross-national alliances beyond regional borders? How heavily reliant on the core are the peripheral member states? How deep does their marginalisation run into the EU bodies and the collective visions? What are the political perspectives for the EU and EU societies, and what recommendations can be drawn from that study for the left?

    This podcast offers 7 takes on transform!'s study in an attempt to synthesize its main findings. We invite you to listen to its episodes below.

    The study Hundred Shades of the EU — Mapping the Political Economy of the EU Peripheries was published in March 2022 by transform! europe with the support of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation. It can be read and downloaded on our website together with the executive summaries in English, Portuguese, Greek, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Italian, Polnish, German, Roumanian, and Spanish.

    Episode 1: What is the Periphery?

         Ep.1: What is the periphery?
    The first episode introduces the study “100 Shades of the EU: Mapping the Political Economy of the EU peripheries” and talks about what the peripheries are and how they were created historically. 

     

     "How did the
    periphery
    arise?" 

    Source: Report p. 217, excerpt     (left) / Podcast ep. 1, quote (right)

    Episode 2: What are the EU Peripheries?

         Ep.2: What are the EU peripheries?
    This episode explains which countries belong to the periphery of the EU and which are the core of power. It focusses on how do unequal exchange and development affect the EU and the integration process.

     

    Source: report p. 16, map (left) / Report p. 215, fig. 7.1 (right)

    Episode 3: Peripheral Economic Models

         Ep.3: Peripheral Economic Models
    This episode compares existing economic models in Southern Europe and Central Eastern Europe. On what do they stand, and why are they considered dependent?

     

     "The process of eastward enlargement of the EU
    has strengthened negative
    tendencies in the Southern
    peripheries [...] detrimental
    to convergence trends and promises." 
    Source: Rport p. 129, exerpt (left) / Podcast Ep.3, quote (right)


      

    Episode 4: The state of Labour in the EU Peripheries...

         Ep.4 : State of labour in EU peripheries
    ... Between Cheapness and Precariousness. This fourth episode traces the position of labour in the two peripheries of the EU. How did precarity in the South and cheap labour in the East become the main features of these economies?

     

         

    Source: Report p.100 (left) / Report p.77 (right)

    Episode 5 : On the Political Fringes of the EU

         Ep.5: On the political fringes of the EU
    The fifth episode talks about peripherality as a political issue. Do peripheral countries have an impact on the functioning of the EU, how well are they represented in the EU?

                 

    Source: Report p.184, figures 6.7 (left), 6.8 (right)

    Episode 6: How the Core sees the Peripheries...

         Ep.6: How the core sees the periphery
    ... or Old Wine in New Bottles. This sixth episode shows that the core countries of the EU, despite their declarations, perceive both the "South" and the "East" through the prism of the West-centric and colonial experiences of the world's core.

       "The peripheries'
    relationship to the core
    is characterised not only
    by dependence but also
    by difference." 
    Source: Report p. 214 (left) / Podcast Ep. 6 (right)

    Episode 7: What is Next?

         Ep.7: What's next?
    The series' final episode sums up the study's conclusions and points out some possible ways of changing the peripheral position and the EU.

      

    Source: Report pp.170/176/179, w/ transform’s study Radical in Diversity

     

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