Jane E. Ferrie, Michael G. Marmot, John Griffiths and Erio Ziglio (eds.), Labour Market Changes and Job Insecurity: A Challenge For Social Welfare and Health Promotion, Copenhagen, Denmark: WHO Regional Publications, European Series, No. 81, 1999, paper, Sw.fr. 52, xiii+252 pp.

Jens Lind and Iver Hornemann Møller (eds.), Inclusion and Exclusion: Unemployment and Non-Standard Employment in Europe, Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999, £37.50, x+230 pp.

John Vail, Jane Wheelock and Michael Hill (eds.), Insecure Times: Living and Insecurity in Contemporary Society, London: Routledge, 1999, £16.99, xii+234 pp.

Brendan Burchell, Diana Day, Maria Hudson, David Lapido, Roy Mankelow, Jane P. Nolan, Hannah Reed, Ines C. Wichert and Frank Wilkinson, Job Insecurity and Work Intensification: Flexibility and the Changing Boundaries of Work, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1999, paper, £13.95, v+74 pp.

Fernando G. Benavides and Joan Benach, Precarious Employment and Health-Related Outcomes in the European Union, Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 1999, EUR 16, xii+61 pp.

Labour market change – specifically increases in labour market flexibility, insecurity and precariousness – and its wider socio-economic impact is the common theme of all the texts considered here. Vail et al., Insecure Times explore the concept of insecurity within a broader theoretical frame, examining theories of capitalism, the state and various dimensions of social policy as well as labour market developments and employment policy. Lind and Møller's Inclusion and Exclusion focuses on the relationship between labour markets, their structuring and employment and welfare policies in four European countries. The focus here is on social inclusion and exclusion, and on the different policy responses which have been adopted or advocated in different societal and political contexts. Insecure Times and Inclusion and Exclusion will both give much food for thought to the general interest reader and to students of sociology and social policy, and their needs are discussed in the second part of this review below.