2010 Articles

Perspectives on Europe : vol. 40, no. 1 (Spring 2010)

Council for European Studies, Columbia University

In this issue of Perspectives we bring you two sets of stimulating contributions. The first set contains essays drawn from the three plenary sessions at the 17th Europeanists conference in April 2010, held in Montreal. The first two essays, by CES Chair Cathie Jo Martin and Axel van den Berg, are based on their commentaries in the plenary, "The Past and Future of Social Solidarity." The next two essays, by Peter Hall and Michèle Lamont, are based on the plenary, "Successful Societies," which was inspired by the eponymous book Successful Societies: How Institutions and Culture Affect Health (Cambridge University Press, 2009). The two essays together present fascinating insights into this project which explored the social conditions for societal success, understood not simply by measures of economic growth but broader indicators of human health and life satisfaction. The second set of contributions in this volume consists of research reports from CES pre-dissertation fellowship recipients. These reports provide intriguing early results on a range of fascinating projects by rising young scholars. Altogether these contributions convey a picture of many key questions about Europe which today occupy scholars across disciplines.