Social Class in Europe. Étienne Penissat

3. The dominant class in European countries

       Graphs

       1. The employed labour force in European countries by sector of activity

       2. Ability to afford one week’s holiday in Europe

       3. A representation of the European social space, based on a number of surveys

       4. A typology of the different social classes in Europe

       Tables

       1. Socio-economic groups within the working class in Europe

       2. Non-European foreigners among the European working class

       3. Unemployment among Europeans

       4. Hardness of working conditions in Europe

       5. Poverty among European households

       6. Socio-economic groups within the middle class in Europe

       7. Characteristics of the socio-economic groups comprising the European middle class

       8. Weekend work in Europe

       9. Reading practices in Europe

       10. Socio-economic groups within the dominant class in Europe

       11. Incomes in the EU

       12. Intensity of leisure practices in Europe

       13. Mastery of foreign languages in Europe

       14. Rate of participation in elections to the European Parliament since 1979

       15. European socio-economic groups

       Abbreviations

      AT: Austria

      BE: Belgium

      BG: Bulgaria

      CY: Cyprus

      CZ: Czech Republic

      DE: Germany

      DK: Denmark

      EE: Estonia

      ES: Spain

      FI: Finland

      FR: France

      GR: Greece

      HU: Hungary

      IE: Ireland

      IT: Italy

      LT: Lithuania

      LU: Luxembourg

      LV: Latvia

      NL: Netherlands

      PL: Poland

      PT: Portugal

      RO: Romania

      SE: Sweden

      SK: Slovakia

      SL: Slovenia

      UK: United Kingdom

      EC: European Community

      ECB: European Central Bank

      EU: European Union

      GDP: Gross Domestic Product

      IMF: International Monetary Fund

      OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

      AES: Adult Education Survey

      EWCS: European Working Conditions Survey

      LFS: Labour Force Survey

      EU-SILC: European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions

       Acknowledgements

      A first version of this book was published in French, entitled Les classes sociales en Europe (Paris: Agone, 2017). The initial idea came from Cécile Brousse, whose work inspired us a lot. Access to European surveys was first made possible by our participation in the ESEG research group at the Institut national de la SEE. Our three laboratories, CERAPS, IRIS and CRESPPA-CSU, provided us with logistical and financial support for the publication. Our bibliographical research benefited from the suggestions of several colleagues who helped us to better understand social class in different countries: Virgilio Borges Pereira, Bruno Monteiro, Angeliki Drongiti, Jani Erola, Mihaela Hainagiu, Michał Kozłowski, Clemence Ledoux, Thomas Maloutas, Enrique Martin Criado, Pablo Lopez Calle, Harri Melin, Mikael Palme, Andreas Melldahl, Marie Plessz, Spyros Sakellaropoulos and Yiorgos Vassalos. Thanks to these correspondents, we were able to feed our demonstration of qualitative research conducted in different European countries.

      Thomas Amossé, Philippe Askenazy, Audrey Mariette, Tristan Poullaouec and Delphine Serre reviewed all or part of the manuscript and offered us valuable suggestions. The remaining imperfections are obviously our sole responsibility.

      The entire text was translated by Rachel Gomme, with the exception of chapters 2 and 3, which were translated by Eunice Sanya Pelini.

Introduction

      The European Union has become the subject of intense conflict, as evinced by the ‘no’ votes in the French and Dutch referendums on the constitutional treaty in 2005, the Greek debt crisis of 2010, and the vote for Brexit in June 2016. In every country in Europe, an enduring political split has opened up between supporters and opponents of the European project.¹ Supporters take the view that this project represents the best way of ensuring economic progress and business competitiveness through the increase in trade; for opponents, it encourages social dumping and brings down standards of living for the majority. The tensions caused by relocations and competition between workers lead certain groups to demand protection for their national space. In response to these anxieties, journalists and politicians usually adopt a simplistic frame of reference that pits insiders against outsiders, globalisation’s winners against its losers, with the stereotype of the Polish plumber competing with the French, German or British worker. Although the social question lies at the heart of this political conflict, very few recorded data are available on social inequalities between European