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, patterns of rights in different social spheres, the development of mass consumption, the evolution of risks, the spatial range of economic and cultural change, collective memory and identities, the geography of happiness, and modes of collective action. The author relates these issues to the two great social steering projects of the period – socialism in the East and the European Union in the West.
Daftar Isi
PART ONE: THEORY AND HISTORY
Structure, Culture and Modernity
Europe in Modern History
PART TWO: STRUCTURATIONS
The Boundaries and the Peopling of Europe
Tasks
Divisions of Labour
Rights to Claim
Membership and Welfare
Rights to Act
Politics, Sex and Property
Means
`The Glorious Years′
Risks and Opportunities
PART THREE: SPACING
Cities and States
The European Economic Space
Europe′s Cultural Space
PART FOUR: ENCULTURATIONS
Issues of Identity
Horizons of Knowledge and Times of Belief
Values of Contemporary Modernity
PART FIVE: COLLECTIVE ACTION AND SOCIAL STEERING
Civil Societies and Collective Action
Eastern Socialism and Western Union
Two Processes of Social Steering
PART SIX: MODERNITY AND EUROPE: SIX QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERS
Tentang Penulis
Göran Therborn is Professor of Sociology at the University of Göteborg, Sweden. His previous books include The Ideology of Power and the Power of Ideology (1980), Why Some Peoples are More Unemployed than Others (1986) and Can the Welfare State Compete? (with A. Pfaller & L. Gough, 1991). He is a former President of the Nordic Sociological Association.