James Wickham leads the Working Conditions in Ireland project at the Dublin think tank Tasc. He was also Jean Monnet Professor of European Labour Market Studies and Professor in Sociology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

• Introduction 1. Where is Europe anyway? 2. From industrial society to the knowledge-based economy 3. The political economy of contemporary European capitalism 4. Money, markets and post-modernity 5. Employment, occupations and social classes 6. Spatial Inequality: Europe of the regions 7. From labour immigration to European mobility 8. Ethnic diversity and the national welfare state 9. Gender equality and social inequality 10. Conclusion: The end of the European Social Model before it began?

'In November 1993, 28 countries, now containing over five hundred million people, joined to form the European Union (EU). People, goods, and money then moved freely within the EU. In 2002, a common currency, the euro, was introduced. Wickham, of the Dublin think tank Tasc, focuses on two issues: inequality within and between the 28 member nations, and the degree to which individuals in each nation feel that they are part of the larger EU. Summing Up: Recommended.' -D. Harper, University of Rochester, in CHOICE