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Reproducing or Remaking the Social Contract with Young People in the Europe 2020 Strategy?

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology ((PSEPS))

Abstract

Europe has suffered a severe economic crisis leaving millions of Europeans unemployed, indebted, excluded, and feeling hopeless and betrayed. These problems began as a financial crisis in 2007–2008 but soon expanded into economic, political and social domains. The financial sector failed, property bubbles burst and nation-states’ economies collapsed. Austerity measures were adopted to secure bailout loans from the tripartite committee known as the Troika, formed by the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Unemployment rates rocketed, while protests, riots and social unrest took place in the countries worst hit by the crisis (Mason 2012; Feixa and Nofre 2013; Varoufakis 2013).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, research and development (R&D), youth policies, labour market policies , education policies , social policies , environmental policies , industrial policies and cohesion policies (European Commission 2010a).

  2. 2.

    The recent difficult employment situation for engineers in Finland is largely related to Nokia’s lack of success in competitive markets and the related running down of handset production , which also affected the chain of sub-contractors.

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Oinonen, E., Tervonen-Gonçalves, L. (2018). Reproducing or Remaking the Social Contract with Young People in the Europe 2020 Strategy?. In: Heiskala, R., Aro, J. (eds) Policy Design in the European Union. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64849-1_9

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