This book brings together twelve scholars from various universities and research centres in Europe and Canada. All look at developments in the collective action of marginalised and/or disadvantaged people such as Gypsies, migrants, cleaners, or unemployed people in contemporary West European societies. The authors analyse how these people organise and mobilise within or across countries such as Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, or Italy. They note that although the collective actions of marginalised and/or disadvantaged people are not necessarily unusual, all these nationally based or cross-national mobilisations have in common the fact that many of these people seek to overcome various cultural, social, and political obstacles, act collectively, and intervene in the public space.
The various contributors in this book observe that the mobilisations of the marginalised and/or disadvantaged are often linked to new patterns and forms of social and political marginalisation and inequality. The contributors analyse, therefore, these emerging patterns and they investigate the extent to which marginalised and/or disadvantaged people are of political significance in many of today’s West European societies.
