This timely volume examines how the advent of the European Community as a geopolitical entity has affected the geography and development of its member states, showing how the Community has influenced wide-ranging social and economic changes. The 1986 Single European Act has fundamentally changed the way in which resources are viewed, utilized, and managed in Europe. The globalization of economic processes is increasingly being matched by a Europeanization of political decision-making. All this has to be set against a growing concern about the need to manage available resources effectively, both for production and consumption. These concerns are expertly addressed in this book, which also offers an excellent introduction to the political evolution of the EC and the infrastructure for regional development. The book concludes with provocative and illuminating speculations about the future of the Community and Europe as a whole. The result of a collaboration in an EC ERASMUS teaching exchange program, the book features contributors whose national perspectives collectively provide a uniquely varied view of the late 20th-century geography of the EC countries.