Katja Seidel – författare

Reinventing Europe provides a thorough exploration of the history of the European Union, tracing its development from inception to recent times. It is the first book of its kind to contextualize the history of the EU within the wider frames of European and global history. The volume also breaks new ground by successfully highlighting the roles individuals, member states, transnational actors and European institutions played in both advancing and slowing down European integration in the EU.With chapters from leading academics in the UK, the US and across Europe who draw on sources in a variety of languages, the book presents a balanced and comprehensive account of this sometimes controversial Union. It is made up of three main parts which in turn cover:· A narrative survey of the EU· A historical analysis of the key institutions and policies· Critical themes and vital geographical spacesThere is also a historiographical essay which handily charts the literature in the field, as well as 50 illuminating images, a range of maps, text boxes and primary source extracts, a bibliography and a useful glossary.

Reinventing Europe provides a thorough exploration of the history of the European Union, tracing its development from inception to recent times. It is the first book of its kind to contextualize the history of the EU within the wider frames of European and global history. The volume also breaks new ground by successfully highlighting the roles individuals, member states, transnational actors and European institutions played in both advancing and slowing down European integration in the EU.With chapters from leading academics in the UK, the US and across Europe who draw on sources in a variety of languages, the book presents a balanced and comprehensive account of this sometimes controversial Union. It is made up of three main parts which in turn cover:· A narrative survey of the EU· A historical analysis of the key institutions and policies· Critical themes and vital geographical spacesThere is also a historiographical essay which handily charts the literature in the field, as well as 50 illuminating images, a range of maps, text boxes and primary source extracts, a bibliography and a useful glossary.

Older adults want to exercise a sense of control over their relationships, structures and surroundings as they navigate the later life course. Through detailed ethnographic case studies, this book examines the dynamic lifeworlds of a hundred and seven community-dwelling older adults in Europe before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the importance of agency, the frictions between self-perceptions of age and outside impositions and the need to deconstruct old age as a homogenising category. These insights challenge simple narratives of older persons as social burdens by highlighting the complex roles they fill in family, neighbourhood and communities.

With the launch of the European integration process after World War II, a new type of administration emerged which was neither an international organisation nor a national administration. Drawing on extensive archival records and oral history interviews, this book is the first comprehensive study of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the Commission of the European Economic Community (EEC), and their personnel, the European civil servants. This administrative elite was to have a vital influence on the European integration process, devising and administering key European policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy. Katja Seidel combines administrative and biographical history and provides significant insights into the origins of Europe's supranational institutions and the administrative cultures that developed in them. She effectively shows how European administrative elites and supranational administrations are vital to understanding the process of politics in Europe. This book will be invaluable for scholars of politics, history and the development of European integration.