INTRODUCTION to talk about things that are dear to me: the time and space we live in and work on – do – social organisation in this part of the world, in Europe. Fifty years of“Doing social science and social policy, doing social work and social politics”. At the out­set, it is important to emphasis that I am a Northerner – a North European Viking sociologist once specializing in social policy and comparative welfare state devel­opment – looking forward, towards the future, at the East-West divide of the sec­ond half of the 20 th century and its implications today, at a Southern European lo­cation. Are there common paths, or is the“legacy of the past” – different origins – a power still to be reckoned with? Maybe both deliciously blurred? Living in Sweden and Scandinavia also means that you belong to the periphery of Europe(Boje& Olsson Hort 1993). Euro-scepticism has been the dominant mood of thinking since my country of origin joined the Union in 1995. In terms of social policy, however, the welfare states of Scandinavia are in no sense peripheral al­though they are welfare states of the Periphery. These few words may serve as an initial introductory note. Europe 1957-2007 Geography matters, so let me start from the end of the title, with Europe, or Eura­sia. So does Time – and timing. Matters(Flora 1999; Therborn 1996 as well as – in Swedish – chapter 1 in SOU 1997:153). Fifty years ago saw the start of the Euro­pean Economic Community, and this year the EU celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in a united but indebted Berlin where signs of the old Wall are almost extinct. To­day, in governing and intellectual circles in the Centre of Europe, the mood can be characterized as upbeat, or a certain type of hubris(Anderson 2007). Also on the periphery there are those who describe the present as a turning point. From new­comers close to my part of the world I have seen reports such as“2006 and 2007 have been turning points in Estonia history. Economically booming, forward look­ing Estonia represents a success story among the former Soviet countries. At the same time, Estonia has been struggling with its Soviet past…” Such hubris was much earlier or twenty-thirty years ago, ascribed to Scandinavia(“Swedocen­trism”, for instance) at a time when its welfare state had reached its zenith(Olsson 1990; also Hajighasemi 2004 and Kangas& Palme 2005). Hence, for many of us from this part of the world, I think it is easier to dwell on this phenomenon at a cer­tain temporal as well as spatial distance. 2007 has been a great year in Europe and to Europe, no doubt, but a bubble is in the air(or, on the stock exchange), and in the midst of complacency and self-praise, there is also a great deal of self­deception. Fifty years ago, the peoples of Europe had just started to rebuild their continent after the devastation of World War II, the Coal and Steel Union of the early 1950s became the EEC, and in the East bilateral Comecon or CMEA was its equivalent in name although Soviet planning – or agriculture – never was subordinated to some 15