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Globalization pressures result in a new ideological conflict among Europeans. We use detailed items from the Eurobarometer survey on issues of immigration and European integration that measure the ideological perspective underpinning positions toward the EU. This provides a fine-grained analysis of the ideologies underlying the poles of the new globalization-centered conflict line, which we define as cosmopolitan and communitarian. Our results show that, next to socio-demographic characteristics, subjective measurements have a considerable additional power in explaining the divide among Europeans along the communitarian–cosmopolitan dimension. Subjective deprivation, evaluation of globalization as a threat, and (sub)national and supranational identities play an important role in dividing Europeans into groups of winners and losers of globalization in both Western and Central and Eastern European countries. At the country level, the national degree of globalization is associated positively with the communitarian pole and negatively with the cosmopolitan pole in all EU countries.

The paper draws on the LIS data to describe the socio-economic situation of the Middle Classes for a selection of European countries over the last 30 years. The LIS data were used as they cover a wide range of countries, including not only European countries, but also American and Asiatic countries like India, China, Russia, Brazil, Peru or Chile. In addition, for some countries, LIS time series start in the seventies, which is particularly interesting for analysis over time. The paper starts with an historical and sociological review of the middle class concept in France, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Different options are considered then to define the middle classes, namely using subjective (self-assessment) or more objective criteria like income level, education attainment or type of occupation. The income-based definition is finally chosen as comparative data on income are now available in the European countries from sources like the LIS or EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Besides, income is generally correlated with socio-economic characteristics like age, education attainment or occupation. Based on this definition, summary statistics (size, mean income.) are produced for the middle class households in European countries. We observe that the situation of middle class households varies from one country to another: the group is getting smaller in some countries, while getting larger in others. With regard to income levels, the mean income of middle class households has been increasing over the last decades. However, it should be noted that the increase was in some key European countries (such as France) slower than the increase for lower class or upper class households.

PurposeThis article seeks to explore some of the principal issues and debates on the relationship between institutions, firm level governance and employment relations outcomes in Eastern and Central Europe.Design/methodology/approachThis paper particularly focuses on the countries that are encompassed by the papers covering the special issue.FindingsIntroducing new and meaningful forms of labour regulation becomes very much more difficult in times of economic crisis. This means that the regulation of employment relations is likely to be diminished, or, as is probably more likely in the case of the bulk of countries in the region, a situation of "muddling on" is likely to persist. Firm level employment relations practices are likely to be persistently diverse, both within and between countries. Key areas of division are in terms of country clusters, which range from proto‐social democratic through to "wild capitalist", distinguished by variations in terms of firm size, and between the formal and informal economies.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the extent to which institutional variations and change may mould the choices made at firm level.Originality/valueThere is a tendency to conflate the region into a loose transitional category. This paper highlights the divergent paths followed by the countries in the region, and the extent to which this has been associated by diversity in employment relations both within and between countries.