DAN COFFEY is Senior Lecturer in Economics at Leeds University Business School, where he was until recently Director for all economics-related MA Programmes. RICHARD COONEY works in the Department of Management at Monash University in Australia.RIK HUYS is senior researcher at the Higher Institute for Labour Studies (HIVA) at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven (Belgium). ELAINE MARLOVA V. FRANCISCO is Associate Professor and Researcher of the Labour Studies Program at the University of Rio de Janeiro State (UERJ), Brazil. JOSÉ RICARDO RAMALHO is Professor of Sociology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. GRAHAM SEWELL is professor of organization studies and human resource management in the Department of Management& Marketing, University of Melbourne, Australia. CAROLE THORNLEY is Senior Lecturer in the School of Economic and Management Studies at the University of Keele, where she is also Director of Postgraduate Research for the Institute for Public Policy and Management. GEERT VAN HOOTEGEM is Professor at the K.U.Leuven, Centre for Sociological Research (CeSO) (Belgium).

• Bureaucracy Transcended? New Patterns of Employment Regulation and Labour Control in the International Automotive Industry; V. Pulignano and P. Stewart Lean Production and Quality of Working Life on the Shop floor: the Experiences of British and Italian Car Workers: A. Danford, M. Richardson, P. Stewart and V. Pulignano Lean Production: the Original Myth Reconsidered; D. Coffey and C. Thornley Scope for Policymaking in a Globalized Economy: The Case of Car Assembly in Belgium; G. Van Hootegem and R. Huys From Lean Production to Mass Customization. Recent Developments in the Australian Automotive Industry; R. Cooney and G. Sewell Labour Relations in the Modular System: Ten Years of the VW Experience at Resende, Brazil; J. R. Ramalho and E. M. V. Francsco The Quest for Flexibility in the Mexican Auto Parts Industry: Three Tales from a Multinational Company; C. Lévesque