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This book contributes to the debate on what Europe means by demonstrating the complexities and contradictions inherent in the concept. They are seen most clearly when Europe is viewed from a long historical perspective. During the closing decades of the twentieth century Europe emerged as one of the main points of reference in both the cultural and the political constructs of the global community. An obsession with the concept of European identity is readily discernible. This process of identity construction provokes critical questions which the book aims to address. At the same time the book

Ideologies can be seen as cognitive structures with legitimizing functions. There is no principled or very clear demarcation between them & other knowledge structures, although there clearly are differences. In the old understanding ideology was seen in terms of some kind of representation. There was something behind the ideology, & the ideology made this "something" reappear. The erosion of the concept of representation during last decades has concurred with the erosion of the concept of ideology. This is not to say that ideologies have disappeared. The language of globalization & the ideas of clashes of civilizations are sufficient evidence of the role of ideologies, in the form of master narratives, with totalizing ambitions or pretensions of being the explanation of the world. However, the analysis of ideologies has become much more complex. Instead of taking ideologies as pre-given they must be critically deconstructed & contextualized. Their emergence must be historicized & their appearance must be understood much more in terms of opposition, discontinuities & contradictions, internally as well as externally, than in terms of cohesion & continuity. Adapted from the source document.

The nineteenth & most of the twentieth century of Europe were dominated by the perspective of the nation-states. At the core of the European nation building was the social question. The (West) European unification project after 1950 was a rescue operation of the Western national welfare states under the conditions of the Cold War. The European rescue operation dealt with the maintenance of the welfare states. These attempts became problematic in the 1970s when the international order established after 1945 collapsed. EEC tried to respond to the experiences of crisis by a transfer of the social commitments to the Community level. The conceptualisation of such a transfer failed, however. The article analyses the failure of three subsequent key concepts in the European unification project: integration, identity & constitution. The analysis emphasises the connection between politics & language. References. Adapted from the source document.

"Europe is not referred to as a territory but as an idea and a normative centre. Europe is a discourse translated into political and ideological projects. Europe does not have any essence beyond what is shaped by language, politics and ideological projects. Not only Europe but also representation is a discourse without any essence. Representation often assumes something essential behind it, e.g. a European demos. The point of departure here rejects such assumptions. From this theoretical and epistemological point of departure, this article sets out to critically discuss preconditions of a European democracy. The connection between the European unification project and the erosion of the previous conceptual unification of 'nation' and 'welfare state' is discussed as well as the relationship of the project to the concept of 'globalisation'. The argument is that a European democracy can only emerge through political contention. Any idea of Europe as a representation of a specific set of values beyond their contention is rejected as well as any other form of essentialist pre-understanding of Europe." (author's abstract)

Nordic modernity is often understood in terms of enlightened & progressive welfare politics & social equality. There is a more or less implicit connotation to images of a social democratic model. The aim of this article is twofold: to discuss the historical preconditions & construction of that model of progressive politics, & to discuss its relevance today & its future prospects. Concerning the first aim, the argument is that there is nothing historically predetermined of a progressive development path. Nordic modernity should not be understood as teleology or as given by a natural state of egalitarian peasant communities. Historically, all the Nordic societies except Iceland were under authoritarian or absolute rule. However, there were factors underpinning a more progressive & egalitarian development in the North, in particular the strength of the peasant freeholders & of the urban middle classes. The argument in this article is that these forces finally broke through in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression. Everywhere in Norden red-green Social Democratic-Farmers' Party reform coalitions emerged in attempts to cope with the economic crisis, & extreme political alternatives were marginalized. The Social Democrats were, with the exception of Iceland, the larger party in the coalitions. In that sense there is a Scandinavian Sonderweg. 27 References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications and Thesis Eleven Co-op Ltd, copyright 2004.]

The focus of this article is the deep transformation of labor markets & working life in the wake of "1968," where the class language culminated in slogans like co-determination, Mitbestimmung & autogestion, & in the development of new practices like sit-ins, work-ins, factory occupations, & so on. The massive criticism expressed in the new language posed a major challenge not only for organized capital, but also for organized labor, ie, the trade unions. However, the shop floor protests were quickly followed by the new neoliberal ideology emphasizing values like proximity & flexibility, & a growing role for the individual worker in a friendly relationship with the employer as opposed to the old class-based antagonism. The old Arbeiter became the Mitarbeiter; ie, the worker became the co-worker. The article discusses the preconditions of this conceptual transformation. 13 References. [Copyright 2002 Sage Publications Ltd.]

Der wirtschaftliche Boom in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren in Schweden stellt eine Art "Erntezeit" des sozialdemokratischen Gesellschaftsmodells dar. Im vorliegenden Beitrag untersucht der Autor am Beispiel Schwedens, welche Möglichkeiten die Politk hat, wirtschaftliche Prozesse zu steuern oder zu beeinflussen. Diese Frage ist eng mit einer anderen Frage verbunden: Inwieweit waren die fünfziger und sechziger Jahre in Schweden ein wirtschaftlicher und politisch-kultureller Strukturbruch? Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, werden zunächst die langfristigen Voraussetzungen und Entwicklungstendenzen der Wirtschaft und des Arbeitsmarktes seit dem Anfang des Industrialisierungsprozesses behandelt. Danach beschreibt der Autor die grundlegenden Züge der Politik der dreißiger Jahre in Schweden. (pmb)