Changing Europe

This book examines the integration of major trade unions from the six biggest countries of EU`s Eastern enlargement into EU governance structures. Based on extensive empirical research, including more than 150 in-depth interviews, statistical data collection, document research, and eight ...

This timely collection offers fresh perspectives on the analysis of the ‘New Great Game’ – the fight for access to the former Soviet Union’s energy resources. Thus far the export of crude oil and natural gas has only been assessed through a geopolitical lens, which oversimplifies the ...

The global economic crisis of 2008/2009 has had a broad impact far beyond economic concerns. Most importantly, it has been seen as a crisis of governance and debates have not just questioned specific regulations, e.g. of global financial markets, but have additionally challenged the ...

Post-socialist transformations in Central and Eastern Europe have been characterised by historically shaped crises and conflicts on all levels of political, economic and societal life. Minority and ethno-political conflicts, many of them currently at a stalemate, have severely hampered ...

The collapse of the former socialist states has led to the transformation of their political, economic and social systems as well as a major change in international orientations. In this context, new economic and political elites of the former state socialist societies have emerged. How they ...

The end of socialism posed a historical challenge to European societies. The former socialist Central and East European countries were faced with what has been called a "triple transformation": Mutually dependent changes in the political, economic, and social spheres. At the same time, the old ...

The integration of ten Central and East European countries (CEEC) into the EU as part of the 2004 and 2007 enlargements poses new challenges to EU governance, as the number of countries involved has thereby increased dramatically. However, the actors coming from the new member states also face ...

Informal relations have been one of the major research topics of the social sciences since the 1990s. In order to allow for meaningful comparisons between different combinations of the positive and negative effects of informal relations on democratic representation, all the articles in this book ...

The book series Changing Europe contains edited volumes dealing with current political, economic and social affairs in Eastern Europe and the enlarged EU. The core of the series is formed by contributions to the Changing Europe Summer Schools, which are being organised by the Research Centre for ...

The changes in post-socialist Central and Eastern European countries have been affected by external influences more than any preceding wave of democratization. The contributions in this volume reflect the wide variety of Europeanization processes taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. They ...