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In the Storms of Transformation
Two Shipyards Between Socialism and the EU
Ulf Brunnbauer (Author), Philipp Ther (Author), Piotr Filipkowski (Author), Andrew Hodges (Author), Stefano Petrungaro (Author), Peter Wegenschimmel (Author)
9781487550325
Hardback, published 24 December 2024
290 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm, 0.55 kg
In the 1990s, states in what would become the eastern edge of the European Union transformed their political systems and economies, leaving state socialism behind for liberal democracies and free markets. In the ensuing decades, two shipyards that were once the pride of their cities – in Gdynia, Poland, and Pula, Croatia – went bankrupt, unable to withstand global competition. Through an interdisciplinary study of these two shipyards, In the Storms of Transformation brings together a team of researchers to re-evaluate the shift from state socialism to market capitalism and offer a new periodization. With perspectives from social anthropology, sociology, and business history, the book argues that this transformation began with the oil crisis of the early 1970s and ended with EU accession – in 2004 in Poland and in 2013 in Croatia – highlighting the EU competition laws and global competition that pushed the shipyards into bankruptcy and diminishing the role of the revolutions of 1989. In the Storms of Transformation bridges local labour history with global market forces, going beyond prevalent narratives of loss and nostalgia or successful neoliberal change to offer a novel and nuanced reading of post-communist transformation and its contradictions.
List of Maps
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Weathering the Storms of Transformation: Shipbuilding and Social Change in Eastern Europe and the EU since the 1970s
2. Forever on the Verge of Going Under: A Tale of Two Shipyards
3. A Safe Haven? The Role of the State in the Transformation
4. Welded Together: Community Building in the Shipyards
5. Added Value: Ships, Labour, and the Production of Meaning
6. Keel Up? The Future of Shipbuilding in the EU
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index