European Values

Redefinitions of EU borders (enlargements, Brexit), geopolitical challenges (conflicts, migrations, terrorism, environmental risks) and the economic and financial crises have triggered debates on the common values that hold European countries and citizens together, justify public action and ensure the sustainability of European governance. This book discusses the genesis of and increasing references to "European values", their appropriation by diverse groups of actors and their impact on public action. It argues that European values are a broad and flexible symbolic repertoire, instrumental to serving diverging ends, and a resource for both negotiation and conflicts. Looking at the broader picture, the book reflects on the role of values in the institutionalization of the EU as a political order and paves the way to an assessment of its singularity in comparison with other polities across time and space. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU politics, comparative politics, IR, public policy, sociology and cultural studies.

Written by the team carrying out the EVS surveys in France, this book contrasts with the popular belief that values are converging. It demonstrates that increasingly individualized value systems do not necessarily mirror a more individualistic society.

The Atlas of European Values summarizes the beliefs and values of the Europeans in informative graphs, charts and maps. It includes all European countries and shows how Europeans think about work, family, sexuality, religion, politics, and morality.

Contrary to what is suggested in media and popular discourses, Europe is neither a monolithic entity nor simply a collection of nation states. It is, rather, a union of millions of individuals who differ from one another in a variety of ways while also sharing many characteristics associated with their ethnic, social, political, economic, religious or national characteristics. This book explores differences and similarities that exist in attitudes, beliefs and opinions on a range of issues across Europe. Drawing on the extensive data of the European Social Survey, it presents insightful analyses of social attitudes, organised around the themes of religious identity, political identity, family identity and social identity, together with a section on methodological issues. A collection of rigorously analysed studies on national, comparative and pan-European levels, Values and Identities in Europe offers insight into the heart and soul of Europe at a time of unprecedented change. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in social attitudes, social change in Europe, demographics and survey methods.

Who are the Europeans? How do they think about life after death, work, sex, euthanasia, immigration or freedom? What traditions do they cherish, and which modern values gain ground? This second Atlas of European Values summarizes the beliefs of Europeans in almost two hundred informative graphs, charts and maps. This Atlas is the result of the European Values Study, a research project that has measured values and beliefs throughout Europe since the 1980s. Today, the study spans a full generation, revealing value changes on topics such as homosexuality and working moms, but also demonstrating firm European traditions in democracy and rejection of bribes. The unique Atlas of European Values covers all European nations from Iceland to Turkey, and from Portugal to Russia. It graphically illustrates the rich diversity of values and beliefs of the more than 800 million Europeans living inside and outside the European Union today.

The Atlas presents European ideas and beliefs in the form graphs, charts and maps. Values such as democracy, freedom, equality, human dignity and solidarity are held by almost all Europeans, but the survey points to differing views about marriage, religion, work and such topics as euthanasia, happiness, sexuality and death. This unique Atlas covers all European nations from Iceland to Turkey, from Portugal to the Ukraine. It graphically illustrates the rich diversity that is Europe.

This book provides insights in and explanations of the varieties and similarities in values in Europe in a number of life spheres at the turn of the millennium.

This book investigates and compares the values and dynamics of value changes in important life domains of the Europeans from an economic, political, social, and religious-moral point of view and explores the relationships between value orientations and societies' structural characteristics.