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dc.contributor.authorBent Boel,
dc.date.accessioned2010-06-16 00:00:00
dc.date.accessioned2020-04-01T15:29:46Z
dc.date.available2020-04-01T15:29:46Z
dc.date.issued2003
dc.identifier342371
dc.identifierOCN: 808383132en_US
dc.identifier.issn1398-1862
dc.identifier.urihttp://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/34927
dc.description.abstractA study of European co-operation and transatlantic relations in the 1950s as well as on the changes these relations underwent during the early postwar period. The European Productivity Agency (EPA) was created in 1953 as a semi-autonomous organization within the framework of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) and wound up eight years later, in 1961, when the United States and Canada joined the OEEC countries and founded the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It was initially designed as a means to "Americanize" Western Europe through the transfer of American techniques, know-how and ideas to the Old Continent, but, as Boel demonstrates, it increasingly became a framework within which the member countries sought "European" solutions to their problems. The EPA was the product of American ideas, actions and money, and embodied the merger of two of the United States' main foreign policy goals after World War II, namely increasing productivity and furthering integration among the countries of Western Europe. The agency was conceived as a major instrument for the "politics of productivity" which would enable Western European societies to overcome their social and political problems resulting from scarcity, particularly in countries such as France and Italy with strong communist parties. During its short-lived existence the EPA acted as an operational arm of the OEEC, accounting on average for over 40 percent of the overall OEEC expenditures. It implemented a vast array of activities aimed at improving productivity in industry, commerce, agriculture and distribution. Among its endeavours were efforts to develop management education, improve labor-management relations, and assist underdeveloped areas in the member countries. Many of its projects met with contrasted reactions and thus highlighted conflicts between trade unions and employers, differences amongst the OEEC countries as well as transatlantic squabbles. Bent Boel, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Aalborg.
dc.languageEnglish
dc.relation.ispartofseriesStudies in 20th and 21st Century European History
dc.subject.classificationthema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciencesen_US
dc.subject.classificationthema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theoryen_US
dc.subject.classificationthema EDItEUR::L Lawen_US
dc.subject.otheroeec
dc.subject.othereuropa
dc.subject.othernorth america
dc.subject.other20th century
dc.subject.otherorganisationer
dc.subject.othereconomy
dc.subject.othertrade unions
dc.subject.otherhistory
dc.subject.otherøkonomisk politik
dc.subject.otherøkonomi
dc.subject.other20. årh.
dc.subject.otherorganisations
dc.subject.otherpolitics, social science, law
dc.subject.otherenglish
dc.subject.otherfagforeninger
dc.subject.othersamfunds­videnskaberne og politik
dc.subject.otherhistorie
dc.subject.othernordamerika
dc.subject.othereurope
dc.subject.otherengelsk
dc.titleThe European Productivity Agency and Transatlantic Relations 1953-1961 (Vol. 4)
dc.typebook
oapen.identifier.doi10.26530/OAPEN_342371
oapen.relation.isPublishedBybf3aad86-19af-41e9-9504-d166b1caff10
oapen.relation.isbn9788772896731
oapen.pages328
oapen.identifier.ocn808383132


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