Book Review: Labour and Social Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Europeanization and beyond. By Violaine Delteil and Vassil Nikolaev Kirov (eds), New York, Routledge, 252 p.

Abstract

How has labour been transformed in the former “Workers’ States” in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) over the past quarter of a century? This volume edited by Violaine Delteil and Vasil Kirov provides dense empirical evidence and proposes multiple theoretical frameworks to explain a complex phenomenon. One of the main achievements of the contribution is that the authors capture both the plurality and the specificity of labour and capitalist transformations in the region. This raises more philosophical questions about the limits and frontiers (Schengen) of the long-expected “return to Europe” of a region which, for centuries, has been entwined in various economic and political, external and domestic dependencies.