This book has been written with the aim of being accessible (and useful) to as wide an audience as possible – that is, undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as academics and policy-makers interested in the diverse fields under study.

Thus concepts and issues are not introduced without definition and explanation, and efforts have been made to contextualise and provide a historical background to the debates and issues discussed. This means there will be parts of the text that may be rather familiar to experts in the field, who would be advised to skip these sections. Conversely, some students may prefer to gloss the sections where original empirical analyses are developed.

Each chapter has been designed to stand alone – that is, it may be read without necessarily being familiar with the previous chapter. This has inevitably involved some repetition, which has been kept to a minimum.

The empirical data reported in this book are the outcome of a series of research projects that included two projects funded under the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Work and Family Life Programme (‘Employers, Communities and Family-Friendly Employment Policies’, and ‘Organisations, Careers and Caring’). I worked with Sue Yeandle, Jane Dennett and Andrea Wigfield on the first project, and with Jane Dennett and Andrea Wigfield on the second. My thanks to them all. I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of all of those who agreed to be interviewed on the JRF projects, as well as the cooperation offered by ‘Shopwell’, ‘Cellbank’ and the two Local Authorities.