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2 - Social Movements in Germany and the United States: The Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement
- Edited by Detlef Junker, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany
- Edited in association with Philipp Gassert, Wilfried Mausbach, David B. Morris
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- Book:
- The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1990
- Published online:
- 05 January 2013
- Print publication:
- 17 May 2004, pp 430-436
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Summary
MOVEMENTS, MARKETS, STATES
After 1968, citizen participation in virtually all the advanced capitalist countries expanded beyond political parties and reconstituted itself in new forms. Most if not all parties subscribed to a “politics of productivity” based on economic growth as a solvent for potential class antagonisms. The terms of this postwar settlement left little room to accommodate sensibilities of affluent new middle-class strata, which focused on quality-of-life issues. Between 1968 and 1978, it became obvious that baby boomers reaching college age around 1968 were only the spearhead of a broader change in both the themes and modalities of politics. The emerging social movement sector involved an impressive variety of actors, which, in addition to peace and antinuclear protestors, included environmentalists, activists for the Third World, human-rights groups, women's groups, gay and lesbian initiatives, squatters, and alternative economy projects.
Although some movements were by no means new, they shared a novel element that justifies their designation as “new social movements.” Both the peace and environmental movements turned largely on risks associated with the introduction of potentially life-threatening mega-technologies. An additional novelty was the cyclicity of protest. In some countries, movement segments and campaigns blossomed for brief periods into a generalized challenge of the entire social and political order. This “totalization” pattern distinguishes continental European movements from those of the United States. The persistence of the state in continental Europe has created the conditions for a social-movement configuration quite unlike America’s. Therefore, despite common themes, individual movement segments as well as the entire movement ensemble are specific to national context.
Preface
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- By Carl Lankowski, Research Director, AICGS, Jackson Janes, Executive Director, AICGS
- Stanley W. Black, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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- Book:
- Europe's Economy Looks East
- Published online:
- 03 February 2010
- Print publication:
- 28 March 1997, pp xiii-xiv
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Summary
Economic relations between the European Union (EU) and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs) underpin hopes for stability on the continent after the Cold War. The EU plays a central role in Europe's emerging architecture. In May 1995 the European Commission presented its White Paper, Preparation of the Associated Countries of Central and Eastern Europe for Integration into the Internal Market of the Union. The document specified the steps the CEECs were required to take to adapt to the acquis communautaire, focusing on twenty-three separate areas of legislative activity from free movements of goods, services, capital, and labor, to social policy and agriculture. Germany plays a central role in establishing the economic ligature between East and West by virtue of its location, economic magnitude, and experience with unification. CHonsensus reigns across all parties represented in the German Bundestag that CEEC membership is a vital German interest. In an effort to contribute to a better understanding of the forces at work between the two halves of Europe, the Economic Studies Program of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies commissioned a set of papers that were discussed at the Institute conference “Europe's Economy Looks East: Implications for Germany and the EU, ” held in May 1995. This volume presents the papers, together with an introduction by Stanley W. Black, the Director of the Economic Studies Program.
The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at The Johns Hopkins University is committed to advanced research, study, and discussion of the Federal Republic of Germany.