In this book one of Europe's foremost sociologists offers a profound and accessible overview of the trajectory of European societies, East and West, since the end of World War II. Combining theoretical depth with factual analysis, Göran Therborn addresses the questions that underpin an understanding of the nature of European modernity, including: To what extent is the period 1945-2000 producing fundamental change and what are the areas of continuity? Have the societies of Europe become more similar to others on the globe or more distinctively European? What are the prospects of Europe after decades of postwar change and the end of the Cold War? Issues covered include the division of paid and unpaid labour,

The European Economic Space

The European economic space

The City Belt and the European Community

In his conceptual mapping of Europe – developed for purposes of explaining national political variations and, to my knowledge, never applied to the unification of Europe – the late Stein Rokkan used two geo-political variables of European history, which together formed an East–West dimension, centre formation and city network. The ‘seaward peripheries’ in the West, from Norway to Brittany, were weak in both. By contrast, the ‘seaward empire nations’, from Denmark to Spain and Portugal via England and France, were strong on both. In the east, the ‘landward buffers’, from Finland to Hungary, were weak in both centre formation and in urban network, whereas the ‘landward empire nations’, from Sweden to Austria, ...

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