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This chapter examines how the enlarged EU is likely to respond to three major economic challenges: Will the enlarged EU attempt to bridge the internal development gaps by flexible policies stimulating growth or by central redistribution from Brussels? Will the enlarged EU cope with the challenge of global economic competition by opting for more institutional differentiation or central regulation? Will it try to insulate itself from poor and unstable neighbors or try to govern them? In all three cases, the enlarged EU is more likely to embrace the neo-medieval rather than the neo-Westphalian alternative.

Discusses the expansion of the cooperation established between the US and Western Europe in the period 1950–1962, and analyses the Atlantic community, Germany's role in the relationship, and Western European integration. The first section looks at the dominant status that America had achieved in Europe by 1950, and at Europe's centrality to American–European cooperation—the shared assumption that Europe was the area of the world that mattered most, and that the struggle between East and West was primarily a struggle over Europe. The second section discusses the (North) Atlantic community in terms of balance of power (notably the threat of Soviet communism), the domestic threat from communists and other anti‐democratic groups, and from Germany, and the third discusses European integration in relation to this Atlantic framework. The fourth and fifth sections examine the motives for America's support of European integration, and the European economic challenge to the Atlantic framework. The sixth section analyses the development of the ‘special relationships’ formed between the US and various European countries, notably Britain, but also West Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, and Yugoslavia. The last section looks at some of the concessions that the US had to make, and some of its defeats, in its relationship with Western Europe.

This book discusses some of the ways in which studying the economic experiences of societies in the past can contribute to a better understanding of current and future economic issues. It offers a variety of engagements of the ‘historian's craft’, in the service of enlightened discussions of social and economic policy. It draws upon detailed historical works that provide fresh and useful insights into some of the major economic challenges that will continue to concern policy-makers and informed members of the general public in the decades ahead.

The conclusion emphasizes more general patterns that were identified in the comparative analyses. If due account is taken of the specifics of economic changes and national policy legacies, the variation among the responses of individual countries is far from random. In each of the periods covered by the study, there were distinct groups of countries facing similar policy challenges that would have called for similar responses. And even though the increasing internationalization of the economic environment has narrowed the range of economically viable national policy choices, we are able to show that in each of these groups, one or more countries did in fact have the institutional capabilities and the policy discourses that allowed them to move “from vulnerability to competitiveness” without abandoning their normative aspirations or jeopardizing the democratic legitimacy of their governments.

This chapter defends the political approach with its ideal of socially responsible science against five important challenges. The first—the epistemological challenge—suggests that the more a practice is concerned with knowledge, especially technical knowledge, the more it should be free from societal control or oversight. The second—the historical challenge—points to the dire social as well as epistemic effects that have resulted from societal interference with science—for example, those that occurred in Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany or Galileo’s Italy. The third—the sociological challenge—emphasizes the cognitive and social norms institutionalized in science that ensure the advancement of science and the fourth—the economic challenge—emphasizes the socioeconomic progress that results from this advancement in the absence of societal interference. Finally the fifth—the political challenge—insists that scientists have a right to freedom of research and that societal interference with science infringes on that right.

This chapter examines the technical and economic challenges and opportunities which firms acted upon to integrate genetic engineering techniques into functioning production systems. These challenges differ from those involving genetic engineering per se which were encountered in the two preceding chapters. This chapter analyses the firms' knowledge-seeking activities in the context of interactions with external agents and environmental conditions and focuses more specifically on the integration of genetic engineering into production systems in firms. These systems involved many other component technologies, such as fermentation, purification, and analytical methods. In the historical material recounted in this chapter, much of the discussion focuses on firms' knowledge-seeking activities to develop new knowledge and techniques for designing and testing functioning production systems. Designing such systems involved challenges and bottlenecks, requiring that corporate managers decide which specific types of knowledge-seeking activities to focus on at specific times.

Society faces significant grand challenges—demographic, economic, and environmental. This chapter explores the role that services might play in helping address these grand challenges. The chapter begins by reviewing traditional reasons why manufacturing firms are making a shift to services, identifying five options that firms appears to be pursuing. Next the chapter then turns to the future, looking at the illustrative challenges that society faces—most notably demographic, economic, and environmental—and explores the implications of these challenges for the phenomenon of servitization. Finally, the chapter combines the five servitization options with the previously discussed societal challenges, offering some thoughts on what the future might hold.

This chapter presents the possibilities and limitations of current policy approaches to improving the economic conditions that currently exist within deprived neighbourhoods. It focuses on the three key elements apparent in policy, i.e., work, enterprise and improved governance. In seeking to understand and respond to the economic needs of deprived neighbourhoods, place matters. Spatial differences present different economic challenges and require different mixes of interventions tailored and delivered to meet local needs. The New Labour governments have shown a commitment to placing the issue of localised deprivation at the centre of their policy agenda. However, the resulting impact on improving the economic life of deprived communities and the people who live within them has been hampered both by the wider discourses that have informed policy development and the practical problems of developing integrated delivery mechanisms. Any future development of the policy context needs to be informed by the basic issues discussed in this chapter.

This chapter defines the three main economic challenges of the members of the single currency. The first is to deal better with balance-of-payments crises — both finish the job of fixing the financial fragmentation from 2010–11 and safeguard against future ones. This is a financial and monetary task, one of ensuring that capital flows across national borders in an orderly and efficient way. The second challenge is a ‘real economy’ task of ensuring that each economy's resources are fully employed: the classic macroeconomic problem of aggregate demand management. Both of these tasks are largely about undoing self-inflicted errors. Finally, the long-run challenge is to make labour and capital as productive as they can be, which is what sustains long-term improvement in living standards.

This chapter examines the housing markets and housing policy during the twenty-first century. It begins with a section on the questions, challenges, and opportunities faced by housing throughout the life course. This is followed by a discussion on the economic, demographic, and political challenges of housing during modern times. The chapter also examines the theoretical understanding of housing and the dynamics of housing markets, before introducing the Housing 21 Survey.

This chapter traces the history of Ireland's Dublin Society in the early eighteenth century. Founded in 1731, the Dublin Society was one of the most significant institutions through which Ireland adapted itself to the economic challenges that the country faced. The Irish House of Commons supported the institution's goal of improving the Irish economy by providing a wide variety of grants, premiums, and statutory boards. The Dublin Society eventually became the template, which dependency and the idea of British liberty would be reconciled, and a new socially grounded vision of the nation as a civil society was articulated.

This chapter shows that the onset of war presented urban working youths with new economic challenges and opportunities, but also notes that the expansion and continuation of conflict only worsened the long-standing fears of the authorities about the indiscipline and alienation of these youths. It shows that aggressive new measures were enacted to ensure the youth's conformity to national goals.

This chapter brings together the three dimensions examined by the volume’s contributors to address the full range of opportunities and challenges facing the island of Cuba. What is more, the authors address where opportunities and challenges may continue to exist for the United States and Cuba over the coming years. Given the cues provided by the Barack Obama regime in the last few years and the receptiveness of the island nation, the chapter suggests that there are multiple avenues along which both states could benefit. Likewise, the multidimensional nature of the puzzle at hand presents policymakers and scholars with a range of potential complications for both actors. This chapter provides a thorough discussion of these issues.