Welcome to REScEU! (1 July 2014 - 30 June 2019)
“Reconciling Economic and Social Europe: the role of ideas, values and politics – REScEU” was a five-years research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) aimed at investigating the complex interplay between two precious legacies of the XX century, the nation-based welfare state and the European Union. The mutual relationship between those two spheres has been in fact fraught by unresolved tensions (and a potential “clash”), which the recent crisis has markedly exacerbated. The project purpose is to cast new light (theoretically and empirically) on the genetic roots of such tensions, their temporal swings, the possible institutional solutions and their political pre-conditions.
The key questions that drive the research project are essentially two:
- When, how and why did the initial “elective affinity” between the two spheres start to weaken?
- Is “reconciliation” possible and how?
The project started in July 2014 and was completed in June 2019, Principal Investigator was Maurizio Ferrera, Professor of Political Science at the University of Milan and President of the Network for the Advancement of Social and Political Studies (NASP).
REScEU reached its conclusion on 30 June 2019, but our research does not stop here! Maurizio Ferrera has won a Synergy grant - the most prestigious amongst European grants - for his Project SOLID, which he is carrying out with fellow PIs Waltraud Schelkle (London School of Economics) and Hanspeter Kriesi (European University Institute). A website for SOLID will be available soon.
