New technologies and the growing flow of information create new conditions for individuals who use these technologies in the workplace. The existence and application of modern IT systems can result in new forms of work, tasks that have actually emerged as a result of modern computer and other systems. This first Work Life 2000 Yearbook contains the proceedings of European workshops, organised by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life. These workshops illuminate many different aspects of working life in many nations.

New technologies and the growing flow of information create new conditions for individuals who use these technologies in the work place. The existence and application of modern IT systems can result in new forms of work, tasks that have actually emerged as a result of modern computer and other systems. This third Work Life 2000 Yearbook is pan-European in nature, and provides the researcher with valuable source material relating to the EU's response to the changing working environment.

New technologies and the growing flow of information create new conditions for individuals who use these technologies in the work place. The existence and application of modern IT systems can result in new forms of work, tasks that have actually emerged as a result of modern computer and other systems. This third Work Life 2000 Yearbook is pan-European in nature, and provides the researcher with valuable source material relating to the EU's response to the changing working environment.

No development in European integration has aroused greater interest or greater controversy in recent years than the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC), which has become an increasingly broadly applied instrument of EU governance since its invention as part of the « Lisbon Strategy in 2000. Yet it is widely agreed that the debates surrounding the OMC suffer from a serious empirical deficit. This book, based on an international research network organised by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Observatoire social europeen, and the SALTSA Programme, focuses on two highly developed OMC processes, the European Employment and Social Inclusion Strategies, concentrating on their operation and influence at national and subnational levels. It comprises a combination of national and comparative studies, covering eight countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and four transversal themes (hard and soft law, participation, gender equality, activation). These studies are framed by a historical overview of the OMC's place in the construction of Social Europe, and by a synthetic conclusion, which assesses the available evidence on the OMC in action, and proposes a reflexive reform strategy for realising its theoretical promise as a new mode of EU governance.