Beyond Coal and Steel - A Social History of Western Europe After the Boom

Informationen zum Autor Lutz Raphael  is Professor of Contemporary History at Trier University. Klappentext In the 1970s, the economic and social foundations of Western Europe underwent an unprecedented transformation. Old industries like coal and steel disappeared, millions of people lost their jobs and formerly flourishing towns and cities went into decline. Traditional political agendas gave way to new social problems and concerns. What happened to industrial citizens - their workplaces, their careers and their homes? How did social rights and political participation of workers change when markets became global, management lean and financial capital dominant? What ideas and ideologies framed these dramatic changes in society? How did companies change and how were personal skills and work tasks were re-invented under the impact of new technologies? How did workers - men and women - live through these decades of uncertainty and upheaval?Lutz Raphael reconstructs the highly variegated story of deindustrialisation in Western Europe with a particular focus on Britain, France and West Germany. Extending over three decades, this transformation was accompanied by significant rises in productivity and consumerism, but it also came at a heavy cost, ushering in many low income jobs, growing inequality and a crisis of democratic representation. Its legacy is everywhere around us today - it is the transformation that has shaped our world. Zusammenfassung In the 1970s, the economic and social foundations of Western Europe underwent an unprecedented transformation. Old industries like coal and steel disappeared, millions of people lost their jobs and formerly flourishing towns and cities went into decline. Traditional political agendas gave way to new social problems and concerns. What happened to industrial citizens - their workplaces, their careers and their homes? How did social rights and political participation of workers change when markets became global, management lean and financial capital dominant? How did companies change and how were personal skills and work tasks reinvented under the impact of new technologies? How did workers - men and women - live through these decades of uncertainty and upheaval?Lutz Raphael reconstructs the highly variegated story of deindustrialization in Western Europe with a particular focus on Britain, France and West Germany. Extending over three decades, this transformation was accompanied by significant rises in productivity and consumerism, but it also came at a heavy cost, ushering in many low-income jobs, growing inequality and a crisis of democratic representation. Its legacy is everywhere around us today - it is the transformation that has shaped our world. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgements Introduction SECTION I. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW Three National Labour Regimes in Transition 1. Industrial labour in Western Europe after the economic boom from the perspective of the political economy 2. Farewell to class struggle and fixed social structures 3. Political history from below: labour conflict and new social movements 4. Industrial citizens and wage earners: labour relations, social benefits and wages 5. Skilled work, production knowledge and educational capital: conflicts of interpretation and readjustments. SECTION II.  CLOSE-UPS Fields of experience and horizons of expectation in times of upheaval 6. Life courses, work and unemployment in times of upheaval 7. Transformations in company regimes 8. Industrial districts, social spaces, 'problem neighbourhoods' and owner-occupier areas: social spaces and deindustrialization Conclusion: The history of deindustrialization as a history of contemporary problems. List of Illustrat...

Sommario

Acknowledgements
 
Introduction
 
SECTION I. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW
 
Three National Labour Regimes in Transition
 
1. Industrial labour in Western Europe after the economic boom from the perspective of the political economy
 
2. Farewell to class struggle and fixed social structures
 
3. Political history from below: labour conflict and new social movements
 
4. Industrial citizens and wage earners: labour relations, social benefits and wages
 
5. Skilled work, production knowledge and educational capital: conflicts of interpretation and readjustments.
 
SECTION II. CLOSE-UPS
 
Fields of experience and horizons of expectation in times of upheaval
 
6. Life courses, work and unemployment in times of upheaval
 
7. Transformations in company regimes
 
8. Industrial districts, social spaces, 'problem neighbourhoods' and owner-occupier areas: social spaces and deindustrialization
 
Conclusion: The history of deindustrialization as a history of contemporary problems.
 
List of Illustrations
 
Sources and literature
 
Notes
 
Index

Relazione

"This is an outstanding study of a major topical theme: the changes that have taken place in the structure, organization and orientation of the working class during the process of deindustrialization that has been underway since the 1960s. No one has analysed this transformation with this degree of thoroughness before, and, as Raphael shows, we are still living with its consequences. This is certainly an important book, and it has no rivals at the level of serious scholarship."
--Colin Crouch, University of Warwick
 
"This is comparative social history of deindustrialization in Western Europe at its best. Lutz Raphael has written an entirely convincing book that analyses transformations in the world of work, changes in the understanding of social classes and the impact of labour conflicts. Anyone wanting to know about changing social structures, life-course narratives of workers, unemployment, factory life, working-class neighbourhoods and de-skilling as well as re-skilling should read this book." "
--Stefan Berger, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Lutz Raphael, Raphael Lutz
• Con la collaborazione di: Kate Tranter (Traduzione)
• Editore: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pubblicazione: 24.11.2023
• EAN: 9781509554379
• ISBN: 978-1-5095-5437-9
• Pagine: 404
• Categorie: Scienze umane, arte, musica > Storia > Storia dei paesi e delle regioni; Geschichte, Politikwissenschaft, Zeitgeschichte, History, Political Science, Comparative Politics, Zeitgeschichte Europas im 20./21. Jhd., 20th Century & Contemporary European History, Vergleichende Politik, Zeitgeschichte Großbritanniens im 20./21. Jhd., 20th Century & Contemporary British History, Westeuropa /Geschichte, Politik 1945 ff