Will Europe Work? Integration, Employment and the Social Order. . - Reviews - book review

Will Europe Work? Integration, Employment and the Social Order. Martin Kohli and Mojca Novak, editors. Routledge. [pounds sterling]60.00. 201 pages. ISBN 0-415-26022-1. This is the fifth title in Routledge's 'Studies in European Societies' published in conjunction with the European Sociological Association.

The book draws on scholars from the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, Greece, Italy, France and The Netherlands. The eleven essays, all but one of which originated as papers given at the Fourth European Sociological Association Conference in 1999, are concerned with two themes. The first is the future of European unification and the second is employment within E.U. countries. The editors argue that the two themes are intertwined because concerns over employment and social welfare have been part of Europe's political classes' desire for unification. The first section has four essays dealing with the future of 'social Europe', the role of welfare states and employment, sexual equalit y, and labour policies in southern Europe. The second section, 'constructing identities' is concerned with constructing a 'European identity', the place of 'Europe' in the world outside its borders and the role of the 'gender gap' in creating 'European citizenship'. The final part has four essays dealing with Europe's missing 'public sphere', the problem of language, Europe's post-industrial future and the role of sociology in Europe today.

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