ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines regulation theory and explaining the perceived nature of the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism. It seeks to penetrate the facade of a "cosmopolitan" Europe and will concentrate on issues of joblessness, poverty, and homelessness in societies where a growing number of people are experiencing social and economic dislocation and exclusion. The chapter explains the impact of restructuring with the changing relations of the welfare state, and examines the future relationship between member states and Economic Community (EC) institutions. The hegemonic discourse within the EC is centred around "integration", "freedom" and "cohesion". The chapter argues that the economic, social, and political conditions of the present are different in many advanced industrial economies from what they were in the 1950s and 1960s, and that the transition to a post-Fordist society has involved momentous international restructuring, creating massive labour and class dislocation.
