In recent years we have seen the predictions of our forebears that leisure time would increase as the years pass utterly confounded. It is a fact of life that in major cities across the world, transport systems are full to bursting with people on their way to and from work. As people have come to accept longer working hours as a way of life, a number of new issues have come into play.These include labour market regulation, contract work and outsourcing, wages and increased attempts at better organisation. The impressive array of expert contributors, including Mark Harvey, Jane Humphries and Frank Wilkinson, have compiled a comprehensive and interesting book.

1. Productive systems: Introduction and overview, Brenden Burchell, Simon Deakin, Jonathan Michie and Jill Rubery 2. productive systems and the structuring role of economic and social theories, Frank Wilkinson 3. Productive systems, markets and competition as 'Instituted Economic Process', Mark Harvey 4. Inter-organisational trust, boundary spanners and communities of practice, Edward Lorenz 5. Social rights and the market: An evolutionary perspective, Simon Deakin 6. Working like a dog, sick as a dog: Job intensification in the late 20th century, David Lapido, Roy Mankelow and Brenden Burchell 7. The decline of union bargaining power in the US: An 'ability to pay, ability to make pay' analysis, Charles Crapo 8. Creative work systems in destructive markets, Suzanne J. Konzelmann and Robert Forrant 9. German industrial relations in a period of transition, Ulrich Muckenberger 10. Labour 'flexibility' - securing management's right to manage badly?, Jonathan Michie and Maura Sheehan-Quinn 11. The political economy of the minimum wage, Peter Brosnan 12. Economic functioning, self sufficiency and full employment, Roger Tarling and Frank Wilkinson 13. Equal opportunities as a productive factor, Jill Rubery, Jane Humphries, Colette Fagan, Damian Grimshaw and Mark Smith 14. Decent work as a development objective, Gerry Rogers