Buch, Englisch, 456 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1000 g
A Comparative History of Growth, Consumption, and Quality of Life in East Central Europe Since 1945
Buch, Englisch, 456 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1000 g
ISBN: 978-963-386-351-0
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press
This monograph provides an analysis of the economic performance and living standard in Czechoslovakia and its successor states, Hungary, and Poland since 1945. The novelty of the book lies in its broad comparative perspective: it places East Central Europe in a wider European framework that underlines the themes of regional disparities and European commonalities. Going beyond the traditional growth paradigm, the author systematically studies the historical patterns of consumption, leisure, and quality of life - aspects that Tomka argues can best be considered in relation to one other. By adopting this "triple approach", he undertakes a truly interdisciplinary research drawing from history, economics, sociology, and demography.
As a result of Tomka’s three-pillar comparative analysis, the book makes a major contribution to the debates on the dynamics of economic growth in communist and postcommunist East Central Europe, on the socialist consumer culture along with its transformation after 1990, and on how the accounts on East Central Europe can be integrated into the emerging field of historical quality of life research.
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Weitere Infos & Material
Foreword1 Introduction: Comparisons and the Triple Approach to Well-Being 1.1 Economic Growth, Consumption, and Quality of Life in Comparative Research 1.2 The Aims and Scope of Research 1.3 Methods and Sources 1.4 The Structure of the Volume2 Economic Growth: Catching Up and Falling Behind 2.1 Measuring Economic Output 2.2 Trends and Stages of Growth in Western Europe 2.3 Trajectories of Growth in East Central Europe3 Consumption: Structures, Practices, and Policies 3.1 Changing Consumption Patterns in Western Europe 3.2 Consumption in Communist East Central Europe4 Quality of Life: Towards a More Comprehensive Understanding of Well-Being 4.1 Conceptual and Methodological Issues 4.2 Trajectories of Well-Being in Western Europe 4.3 The Quality of Life in East Central Europe5 Determinants of Change: Accounting for Growth and Beyond 5.1 Factors of Economic Growth 5.2 Determinants of the Quality of Life 5.3 Causes of Convergence and Divergence6 Passages to the New Millennium: The Evolving Order of Divisions 6.1 Economic Growth in Western Europe at the Turn of the Millennium: Changes in the Quality of Life 6.2 East Central Europe after the Regime Change: Economic Transformation, Consumer Aspirations, and the Pursuit of Well-Being7 Conclusions: Lessons of the Triple ApproachAppendix, Bibliography, List of tables and figures, Index.
