Huw Beynon is Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of CRIC at the University of Manchester. He is the author of many books, including the classic Working for Ford, which have used qualitative materials to analyse changes in the organization of work and the operations of local economies. He is arguably the leading sociologist of work of his generation. Damian Grimshaw is Lecturer in Employment Studies at the Manchester School of Management, UMIST, and an associate member of the European Work and Employment Research Centre. His research covers several areas of employment policy and practice, involving case study research at the level of organization and cross-national comparative study of employment and industrial relations systems. Jill Rubery is Professor of Comparative Employment Systems and Director of the European Work and Employment Research Centre at the Manchester School of Management, UMIST. She has coordinated the European Commission's expert group on gender and employment from 1991-6 and again since 1998. Her research has focused on inter-disciplinary comparative research on employment systems, including consideration of wage structures and payment systems, working time arrangements, and welfare systems.

She has been actively involved in policy-related work for the European Commission and has been working on a number of projects with the ILO. Kevin Ward is a Lecturer in Geography at the School of Geography, University of Manchester, as well as an Honorary Fellow at the European Work and Employment Research Centre, UMIST. Author of numerous journal articles, his research interests are in urban and regional governance, urban regeneration, and labour geographies.