Introduction

Since the late 1980s the experiences of work and employment in the former communist world have been profoundly transformed. An ideological commitment to full employment and personal and societal liberation through work in the Soviet system has given way to mass unemployment, increasing labour market inequality, profoundly changing work practices and the deepening of forms of work ‘outside’, but articulated within, the formal economy. Work, Employment and Transition brings together a series of essays by leading international scholars working on these issues. The contributions both highlight the varied and complex forms which work and employment restructuring are taking in the post-Soviet world and make important theoretical contributions to our understanding of these transformations. Many of the essays included in Work, Employment and Transition have their origins in a British Economic and Social Research Council-funded research seminar series entitled ‘Restructuring Employment and Work in East-Central Europe’, which ran from early 1999 until late 2000. In putting together this collection of essays we are very grateful to our co-organisers of this series and to all the presenters and participants who contributed to lively and engaged discussion over five separate meetings. ¹ In addition to papers presented at these meetings we have also been fortunate to be able to include additional essays from other key researchers working on employment and work issues in East-Central Europe (ECE) and the former Soviet Union. ²