Economic integration across the territory of the European Union (EU) precludes the adoption of national-level redistributive measures. This chapter works with a conceptualisation of 'social democracy' as a political ideal and assumes that we are therefore able to evaluate the degree to which a particular political programme is social democratic or otherwise. EU social policy developments during the Great Recession fall into three key areas: labour market regulations, pro-employment policies and anti-poverty initiatives. Much debate within social democratic parties has focused on potential opportunities through which to achieve a 're-social democratisation' of social democratic party programmes, and especially the opportunities presented by the process of European integration. This debate provides us with an insight into the question of how we might understand social democratic parties' supranational-level responses to the Great Recession.

This chapter elaborates upon the notion of music worlds through a discussion of the work of Howard Becker and other relevant writers. It addresses how these worlds come about and how, in particular, punk and post-punk came about. Both 'subculture' and 'world' were formulated in the work of the Chicago School sociologists. In British sociology, the concept of subculture acquired a more specific meaning, following its appropriation in the work of Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies (CCCS). Subcultures, as the CCCS define them, are networks of working-class youths characterised by: the music they listen to; styles of dress, argot and ritual; distinctive activities; territories which they claim as their own. The CCCS's chief concern is working-class youths' resistance to domination. Music is important to this when and to the extent that subcultures identify with specific musical genres.

The emergence of Irish studies in the 1980s took place in the context of economic recession and bitterly contested social change in the South and a worsening, bloody war in the North. Irish literary studies has never been interested in affirming, projecting or protecting 'Irish difference' but in analysing the complex historical processes through which ideas about Irish difference have been discursively produced, circulated and resisted. At a symposium, held at NUI Maynooth in June 2012, examining the future of Irish studies in the wake of the 2008 crash, Heather Laird argued that while the global crisis is clearly economic and political it is also a crisis of narrative. Thinking about the future of Irish studies invariably meant considering the past of Irish studies, and Laird was one of several contributors to note that the intellectual project had its beginnings in an earlier period of economic and political crisis.

With the Battle of Algiers, armed struggle moved to the cities. While the Soummam Congress promoted the primacy of the political struggle over the military, the war had its own logic. Posing the political and military in opposition accentuated the tension between the FLN’s political and military wings. Nonetheless, the FLN’s ruthless drive for unity masked its internal power struggle, and waves of young people joined. The FLN’s ascendancy seemingly left little political space for the PCA, which was seriously weakened by mass arrests – although the arrests and trials kept its name in the press. Nonetheless, Communists fought in the ALN, organised in prisons, exposed torture and continued their underground propaganda. Concerned with the FLN’s primarily military emphasis, they called for civil society organisation The December 1960 protests that swept across Algeria’s cities in response to Charles de Gaulle’s visit that month reinforced the Communist belief in civil society’s potential.

When the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) comfortably won the March 2008 general election, gaining a vote higher than the previous historic peak obtained when the party entered office in 2004, there was ample reason for satisfaction. At the November 2011 general election, the PSOE obtained under seven million votes and almost four million behind the victorious Popular Party. This chapter considers the situation in which the Socialist government found itself after its re-election in 2008 with respect to its main achievements and challenges. It covers the government's reaction to the economic crisis during its second term in office 2008-2011, most particularly after the onset of the Greek sovereign debt crisis in May 2010. The chapter also considers the party's record in opposition since its crushing defeat at the 2011 general election. It provides an appraisal of the PSOE's performance, together with an attempt to identify its chief failings.

Chapter 4 provides a historical overview of the ideological evolution of social policy in Ireland and the contemporary politics of old age in Ireland. It provides an introduction into the development of social policy in Ireland, with a particular focus on social policy towards older people. It offers an overview of the emergence and evolution of older people’s interest organisations in Ireland and outlines the institutional and political structures facilitating their participation.

This chapter extends the analysis of the domestic propaganda strategy and develops a thematic argument, highlighting the trends that were crucial to propaganda policy-making within the countries. It shows the importance of informal structures in coordinating defence planning in the information war and discusses the implications of this for accountability. The chapter highlights two characteristics in the propaganda war across militaries and bureaucracies: public service and initiative. In foreign policy, a strong component of British 'public service' has been an underlying assumption that strengthening British value to the US, and British global political stature, are in the interests of the country. The notion of public service is rooted in established ideas of the state derived from classical social contract theory and translated in contemporary society into the idea of a representative government in the service of citizens.

This chapter begins by tracing developing patterns of divergence and convergence in the perceived interests dominant in each country's leadership. It argues that Britain's defence strategy was pragmatically steered towards complementing the US capabilities and spinning its 'expertise' in counter-insurgency warfare. The chapter shows how in some instances, the US restrictions and the perceived 'obstacles' could be navigated through Anglo-American relationships. British policy emphasised 'interoperability', converging doctrine and providing unique capabilities in an attempt to secure 'fit' and relative value to America, all factors which shaped the propaganda war. A significant military contribution was perceived by the leadership to be the way to secure influence with America, but British resource was quite limited. Notions of British 'expertise' were emphasised during the 'War on Terror' as a means to unify Britain's domestic military, and also played on the American sentiment for tradition.

This chapter explores the responses to the Ryan Report and, more generally, to analyse differing explanations for the system of industrial and reformatory schools that operated for over 100 years. It describes the Irish experience in comparative perspective. Ireland was not unique in confronting abusive regimes in institutions where children were maintained by state, religious and other philanthropic bodies for their protection, reclamation and rescue. The chapter presents some methodological difficulties associated with understanding and interpreting past practices in such institutions, and with the use of commissions or committees of inquiry, which aim to serve both investigative and therapeutic functions. All of the institutions cited in The Magdalene Sisters of the alliance between Catholic Church and Irish state operated across Europe and North America; thus they were not unique to Ireland, as is sometimes intimated.

Lindsay Anderson's film, This Sporting Life (1963), is the subject of this chapter. This chapter provides a sustained discussion of the relationship between the film's style and meaning. The key to understanding this film is to examine the relationship between the film's organisation of space and its deployment of characters within this space. This movie demonstrates a remarkable predilection for filling its frames with bodies. In addition, the stylistic choices that Anderson makes in order to pursue this policy have resulted in some of the most interesting critical debates concerning New Wave film. Thematically, there is an overwhelming desire for personal expression evident in Anderson's film. As the film unfolds, the demonstration of this desire is accompanied by the inevitable dissatisfaction that comes from a lack of personal fulfillment. Internally, both of these things contributes with equal ferocity to the wide spaces of the rugby pitch that Frank Machin (Richard Harris), the film's protagonist, plays upon and the narrow rooms of the house he shares with Margaret Hammond (Rachel Roberts), his landlady.

Prior to the 1970s, the history of post-war British anarchism had been a story of patchy, partial and inconsistent advance, intertwined with often prolonged periods of retrenchment. Division and disunity still afflicted sections of the anarchist movement, but the upturn in the current's fortunes and the volatile political context of early Thatcherism continued to keep centrifugal pressures in check. Anarcho-punk provided the momentum to re-energise the movement, but its impact changed its profile and the centre of political gravity within it. As anarcho-punk had been able to do five years earlier, Class War seized the initiative and the notoriety of the movement. The particular culture and form of the anarchist punk milieu and that surrounding Class War made the brokering of alliances with other activist forces extremely difficult, reinforcing an isolating 'otherness'.