Guglielmo Meardi Knihy

Focusing on the social and employment challenges of EU enlargement eastwards, this book draws on fifteen years of fieldwork across Central and Eastern Europe. It critically examines the failed implementation of EU social regulations, the threats of social dumping by multinational companies, and the vulnerabilities faced by migrant workers. This work stands out as the first comprehensive analysis from a social sciences perspective, linking geopolitical and institutional factors with the dynamics between the EU, national governments, and corporations.

This title was first published in 2000: This text concerns the transformation of class consciousness. It shows that differences between trade union activists from the East and West are not inherited from the past but are socially constructed, and that Eastern trade unions are no longer like their Western counterparts, as opposed to not yet like them. The study concentrates mainly on Italy and Poland, with East and West referring to concepts and perceptions rather than as a geographical concern. It discovers whether the differences in trade union consciousness are due to the meaning members give a situation or the specificity of the local work settings.