Editor of the book “Shifting Baselines of Europe – New Perspectives beyond Neoliberalism and Nationalism”:
“In our effort to shift Europe in a direction that we can define as forward, radically democratic, commons-based and catering to the needs of all, we gave this book the title and the structure of the Campus (Cities, Media, Alliances) because we see in these thematics a strong need and potential for political leverage.
The phenomenon of shifting baselines means that the fundamental norms by which we judge what is acceptable are changing. They do so in a paradoxical way: on the one hand there is a lot of noise about the ‘populist age’, on the other hand, when it comes to the treatment of people fleeing war, to social security and solidarity, to what a good economic model is, what democracy and privacy mean, the shift is happening often gradually and going unnoticed. And in each of these areas there has been a shift, too often to the right, too often a race to the bottom. It would be fatal though, and also an incomplete analysis, to leave the picture like that. In the shadow of the big headlines, all over the continent, it is European citizens that every day keep the idea for a Europe for all alive through practicing it.”