The idea of a united Europe. Political, economic and cultural integration since the fall of the Berlin Wall

Book abstract:

This book deals with the problems and issues thrown up by the reintegration of Europe since the revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe in the years 1989 and 1990. The essays collected here are united by their concern with changes to European identity in the decade of reintegration. Six of the chapters deal with the continent of Europe while two focus on problems in the reunited Germany as a kind of microcosm for the reintegration issues which confront Europe at large.

Contributions to the volume are a result of collaboration between members of the Department of European Studies at the University of Hull, and close colleagues involved in research networks across Europe. Several of the chapters were given as papers at an invited international research colloquium held in the summer of 1998 at the University of Hull. The contributors take a multidisciplinary approach covering political economy and contemporary history. In particular the discussion covers the concept of identity in Europe and changing socio-economic requirements in the European Union and beyond. The impact of new technologies on politics and the state in Europe is also examined. Differences within Europe and forces for integration on a political level are then assessed in the course of this quest to examine what Europe has become at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

The chapters are: Introduction: the idea of a united Europe; The question of European identity and the impact of the changes of 1989/90; Order and constitutional disorder: lessons from the UK; The corridor model: towards the further development of an EU social policy; Gender and employment in East Germany: continuity, change and comparison; The epicentre of reunification: Berlin in Germany and Europe since the end of the Cold War; 'Policy Push' for European integration: implications of the information society; and 'New' Europe and international society: conflicting forces in an informationalized world.

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