Austerities and Aspirations
eBook - PDF

Austerities and Aspirations

A Comparative History of Growth, Consumption, and Quality of Life in East Central Europe since 1945

  1. 456 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Austerities and Aspirations

A Comparative History of Growth, Consumption, and Quality of Life in East Central Europe since 1945

About this book

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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Yes, you can access Austerities and Aspirations by Béla Tomka in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Political Economy. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Front matter
  3. Contents
  4. Foreword
  5. 1 Introduction: Comparisons and the Triple Approach to Well-Being
  6. 2 Economic Growth: Catching Up and Falling Behind
  7. 3 Consumption: Structures, Practices, and Policies
  8. 4 Quality of Life: Towards a More Comprehensive Understanding of Well-Being
  9. 5 Determinants of Change: Accounting for Growth and Beyond
  10. 6 Passages to the New Millennium: The Evolving Order of Divisions
  11. 7 Conclusions: Lessons of the Triple Approach
  12. Appendix
  13. Notes
  14. Bibliography
  15. Index
  16. Back cover