Jacqueline O’Reilly is Senior Research Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and also teaches at the Royal Holloway School of Management, London University. She is currently co-ordinating a comparative research programme on employment in Europe funded by the Targeted Socio[1]Economic Research Programme from DGXII of the European Commission. Colette Fagan is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool and an Honorary Research Fellow at the European Work and Employment Centre, at UMIST. Her research focuses on gender relations in labour markets, working time and the organisation of domestic life, with a particular interest in international comparisons.

• 1 Conceptualising part-time work: the value of an integrated comparative perspective PART I Who wants part-time work and on what conditions? 2 Where and why is part-time work growing in Europe? 3 When do men work part-time? 4 Why don’t minority ethnic women in Britain work part-time? 5 Are part-time jobs better than no jobs? 6 Are benefits a disincentive to work part-time? 7 Part-time work: a threat to labour standards? 8 How does part-time work lead to low pension income? PART II International perspectives 9 Culture or structure as explanations for differences in part-time work in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands? 10 Why is part-time work so low in Portugal and Spain? 11 How does the ‘societal effect’ shape the use of part-time work in France, the UK and Sweden? 12 What is the nature of part-time work in the United States and Japan? 13 Why is the part-time rate higher in Japan than in South Korea? 14 Will the employment conditions of part-timers in Australia and New Zealand worsen?

Jacqueline O’Reilly is Senior Research Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and also teaches at the Royal Holloway School of Management, London University. She is currently co-ordinating a comparative research programme on employment in Europe funded by the Targeted Socio[1]Economic Research Programme from DGXII of the European Commission. Colette Fagan is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool and an Honorary Research Fellow at the European Work and Employment Centre, at UMIST. Her research focuses on gender relations in labour markets, working time and the organisation of domestic life, with a particular interest in international comparisons.

• 1 Conceptualising part-time work: the value of an integrated comparative perspective PART I Who wants part-time work and on what conditions? 2 Where and why is part-time work growing in Europe? 3 When do men work part-time? 4 Why don’t minority ethnic women in Britain work part-time? 5 Are part-time jobs better than no jobs? 6 Are benefits a disincentive to work part-time? 7 Part-time work: a threat to labour standards? 8 How does part-time work lead to low pension income? PART II International perspectives 9 Culture or structure as explanations for differences in part-time work in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands? 10 Why is part-time work so low in Portugal and Spain? 11 How does the ‘societal effect’ shape the use of part-time work in France, the UK and Sweden? 12 What is the nature of part-time work in the United States and Japan? 13 Why is the part-time rate higher in Japan than in South Korea? 14 Will the employment conditions of part-timers in Australia and New Zealand worsen?