Thread by @Usherwood

As we continue our online discussions on the final day of #UACES2022, it's worth reflecting on the bigger themes that have shaped our exchanges and which will be things that @UACES colleagues will be considering in the next period

1/

Most centrally, there's a sense that the frame of the 'polycrisis' is less and less useful in understanding Europe, European integration and the EU

2/

Partly this is because the responses to Covid and (especially) Ukraine by the EU have been much more efficient, generally more effective and arguably regenerated some legitimacy among publics

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As @PaulMagnette so ably discussed, we now see how the various immediate and structural challenges are interconnected, opening up windows of opportunity for European politicians to advance new agendas and build new longer-term alliances

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In that sense, the ball is on the ground, waiting to be picked up

But as @vivienaschmidt noted, it is not inevitable that it will be any one in particular who drives the next phase: populists and neo-liberals have as much opportunity to make the running as progressives do

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This resonated very much with the work of our Lifetime Achievement Award winner Loukas Tsoukalis's new book, which makes a clear case for how the EU can become a more meaningful means of addressing popular interests and needs

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politybooks.com/bookdetail?boo…

(we have a podcast with Loukas coming shortly, which explores this more)

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But again, Tsoukalis also recognises that politics requires people to make choices and that if we ourselves don't play that role, then others will do it for us

And that's the second big theme from #UACES2022: we all have a part to play in shaping our polity

8/

Time and again in Lille, I was talking to colleagues who see that and who take an active role in trying to inform and enrich public and political debate, because academia cannot be a passive observer

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In this context, a big shout out to @QUBelfast colleagues who have done so much to demystify issues around the NI Protocol and to provide an impartial and evidence-led resource

@DPhinnemore @hayward_katy @BillyMeloAraujo @LisaClaireWhit1

10/

qub.ac.uk/sites/post-bre…

So, the tl;dr is simply that we all can and should make a contribution to our evolving polity

/end