We are very sorry to inform you that the recently announced meeting as part of the European Studies Unit (ESU), IFiS PAN “The Making of European Society: Towards the Sociology of European Integration” seminar series planned for March 5, 2025, 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. has been CANCELLED.

This cancellation is because our guest speaker, Professor Guglielmo Meardi had to cancel his study visit to Warsaw due to health reasons. We will soon let you know about our next seminar’s new date and topic.

Abstract

The rise of euro-sceptical populism has been explained mostly with cultural factors. Within the EU context, important socioeconomic factors related to loss of social security are also at play, and make rightwing populism different, in terms of social composition, to the counterparts in North America and in emerging economies. In particular, the importance of labour regulations of migration, of social policy, and of selective collaboration with trade unions can be detected in several European cases. The examples of UK, Italy and Poland (countries at three different ends of the EU space) will be considered in detail, with the aim of detecting the distinctive features of rightwing eurosceptical populism in the social sphere. 

Guglielmo Meardi is Professor of Economic Sociology at Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence (Italy), where he chairs the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences and coordinates the PhD in Transnational Governance. Previously, he was Professor of Industrial Relations and Director of the Industrial Relations Research Unit at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the Editor of the European Journal of Industrial Relations and co-coordinator of the Research Network on Work, Employment and Industrial Relations of the European Sociological Association. His research focus is on changes in the world of work following globalisation and Europeanisation, with regard in particular to multinational companies, migration and supranational regulations. He has recently edited the Research Handbook on Migration and Employment (Elgar, 2024).