Tracce di un Rinascimento dell’Europa? La società europea tra conflitti di valore e sfide globali.

Does European society need a shared culture to create more links and foster integration, or will it be the diversification and plurality of values that will prove more productive, providing an antidote to autocratic and populist nationalist drifts? What are the institutional conditions for the emergence of a new social and political formation at European level? These are some of the questions that frame this volume, which analyses the different aspects of the European crisis in the light of the question of shared values, not only looking at the processes of division but also at the resources of creativity and cooperation at the social level. The reflection therefore aspires to bring out the signals, and to bring to light the traces of a process that could evolve towards a sort of European Renaissance. Non-discrimination, tolerance, social justice, equality between women and men are among the fundamental values of the European project, yet they are called into question by the many exogenous and endogenous challenges: the financialisation of the economy, environmental problems, new migrations, international terrorism, but also unemployment, poverty and growing inequalities. The need for security seems to have gained a position of absolute centrality in European societies, to the point of eclipsing and overshadowing all other values. However, there is another side to the coin. The crisis sets in motion processes of social mobilisation based on the values of solidarity and the defence of minority rights: particularly emblematic in this respect is the area of reception of migrants and refugees, which has been taken up here as a challenge and, at the same time, an opportunity to rethink the process of institution-building at European level.