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Recent years have witnessed major changes to the workplace across Europe. The speed of these changes requires constant monitoring and reappraisal. In this book, recent trends are analyzed and their consequences discussed, within a socio-historical context which also reveals underlying patterns of continuity. The trends analyzed include: ? the presence of high rates of endemic unemployment and underemployment, particularly amongst the young ? the growth of insecure and precarious employment ? sweeping changes to the regulation of and organization of work ? the diminution in the availability of manual work and the growth of white-collar service-sector jobs ? the growing participation of women in paid employment ? the introduction of new organizational forms and new forms of management ? the accelerating use of IT ? the growth in demand for educational and vocational qualifications by employers ? the increasing influence of European legislation on work, retirement, health, safety, etc ? the growing importance of voluntary-sector work The contributors to the volume present both primary research and a wide-ranging survey and analysis of recent major contributions in the field. Detailed empirical material is included from Belgium, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the EU more generally. Thus, the book aims to provide a current overview of the nature of work from a pan-European perspective, illuminated by up-to-the-minute field research.