ABSTRACT
This chapter ethnographically explores what Europe meant for steel workers' expectations of future wellbeing and how accession to European Economic Community first, and later the advent of global firm, affected their practical capabilities of organization. Focusing on the relationship between the global market, the nation state and the steel industry, it unpacks the centrality of particular models of economic development and political belonging in the production of workers’ understandings of their individual and collective agency. The chapter seeks to unravel the spatial dimensions of labour organization and the drive to anchor responsibility in place. After the Second World War the aim of a peaceful future between the nations of Europe became synonymous with economic integration, centred on creation of open market for coal and steel. The constitution of an economic community tied to the production and distribution of coal and steel was thus political economic project where market integration around key sectors was meant to prevent war and promote peace.
