Beyond Defeat and Austerity

David Bailey is a Senior Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham. He is the author of The Political Economy of European Social Democracy: A Critical Realist Approach (Routledge) and co-editor of European Social Democracy During the Global Economic Crisis: Renovation or Resignation? (Manchester University Press). He recently co-edited a special issue of Comparative European Politics, on contention in the age of austerity in Europe.Mònica Clua-Losada is Associate Professor in Global Political Economy at the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She is also an executive board member of the Johns Hopkins University- Universitat Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Center in Barcelona. Her research focuses on the contestation, subversion and resistance by labour and other social movements of capitalist relations of domination. She has written and researched on the effects of the current financial crisis on the Spanish state, the British labour movement and social movements in Spain. Her work has been published in different languages and outlets. Nikolai Huke is a Research Assistant and Lecturer in Political Science at Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen. He is the author of two recent books on social movements in Spain during the Eurozone crisis (Krisenproteste in Spanien (2016) and ‘Sie repräsentieren uns nicht’. Soziale Bewegungen und Krisen der Demokratie in Spanien (2017)). His research interests include European integration, democratic theory, Critical International Political Economy, vulnerability and resistance, everyday agency, transformations of welfare states, industrial relations and migration policy.Olatz Ribera-Almandoz is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. She is also a visiting PhD student at the University of Manchester and a member of the Johns Hopkins University-Universitat Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Center. Her doctoral research investigates the interaction between social movements and the state in contexts of multilevel political arrangements, with special focus on the (new) demands for social justice, reproduction and welfare in Spain and the United Kingdom.

• Introduction Beyond Left Melancholy: towards a disruption-oriented accountThe limits of market-based pacification: Labour unrest and European integration In search of a new radicalism? Workers and trade unions during the European crisis Resisting neoliberal Europe, responding to the dismantling of welfare states Defending the common: struggles against marketization and austerity in educationEveryday endeavours towards a needs-based housing policyTrapped between authoritarian constitutionalism, pragmatic prefigurative movements and Brexit? Disrupting neoliberal Europe

"This book successfully debunks the idea that neo-liberalism and austerity are firmly established in Europe. In fact, austerity is constantly contested by a new, disruptive form of agency at the workplace and across society. This volume is a contribution of utmost importance to understanding exploitation and resistance in Europe, a must-read for everyone interested in progressive ways out of the crisis!" - Prof. Andreas Bieler, Professor of Political Economy, University of Nottingham."This book brings a breath of fresh air to the debate about Neoliberal Europe. Prevalent Marxist CPE approaches to European integration fail to connect Critical Political Economy with the disruptive force of labour struggles at the grassroots. To engage with this, the authors offer a disruptive-oriented approach to CPE. They call this approach ‘minor Marxism’ for it focuses on disruption rather than domination. I believe that this minor Marxism is a major contribution to an understanding of the pre-figurative power of old and new working class resistances. The book shows that they can do both: challenge nationalistic and authoritarian tendencies of European integration and organise new anti-austerity radicalisms in defence of the commons, leading to an alternative integration from below." - Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, University of Bath, UK.