Editorial

摘要

This issue of the Journal addresses an important range of topics. Although all engage with the increasing difficulties confronting efforts to sustain the social regulation of work and employment in hard times, some of the authors draw more optimistic conclusions than others. The 'turn to organizing' by European trade unions has long been debated. Almost universally, membership decline has weakened unions, and US-inspired methods of active organizing have been increasingly embraced as a solution. The most cited instances to date have been by Western European Union (EU), but Adam Mrozowicki shows that in the last two decades the approach has also been adopted in Central and Eastern Europe. In a study which examines four countries and two contrasting sectors, he finds considerable diversity in the degree to which organizing has been embraced and the approaches adopted. Differences in institutional contexts and available resources form part of the explanation, but the strategic choices of key actors are also of key significance: a factor particularly important because in most cases the policies adopted are very decentralized.