Francesco Garibaldo is an industrial sociologist and former director of the Institute for Labour in Bologna (Italy). He worked for several years for trade unions and is vice-president of the Research Committee on Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management RC10 of the International Sociological Association.Volker Telljohann is senior researcher at the Institute for Economic and Social Research of Emilia-Romagna (IRES ER). He is an industrial sociologist and secretary general of the international network Regional and Local Development of Work and Labour (RLDWL).

• Contents: Francesco Garibaldo: Introduction – Erik Poutsma/Ulke Veersma: Direct and indirect participation: reconcilable voices? Report from Stream I – Szilvia Borbély: The role of the institutional context for participation and interest representation in Hungary and beyond – Maria Matey-Tyrowicz: Informing and consulting employees in Poland - Problems of implementation of Directive 2002/14/EC – Ekaterina Ribarova: The institutional context of workers participation in Bulgaria - which way after joining the EU – Nick Kratzer/Wolfgang Dunkel/Wolfgang Menz: Employee participation in new forms of organization and control opportunity for company health policies or potential for new burdens? – Sonia McKay: The role of trade union representatives in the conduct of workplace relations – Volker Telljohann: Work organisation, workers’ participation and the role of EU legislation in Italy – Jochen Tholen: Managers and management: The impact of Western Foreign Direct Investment in the new EU Member States – María C. Gonzalez: The role of Industrial Relations and HRM in direct participation practice in Spain – Mirella Baglioni: New forms of interest organisation: the state of the art – Guglielmo Meardi: Lights and shadows of employee participation in the new EU member states – Anna Pollert: The non-unionised worker and workplace problems: Forms of individual and collective voice at work – Salvo Leonardi: Union organisation of employees in atypical and precarious work in Italy – Alan Tuckman/Michael Whittall: Giving employees a voice? Lessons from the new employee forums in the UK – Paul Oehlke: Strategies of improving organizational performance through workplace participation - Report from Stream II – Elise Ramstad: Role of workplace practices and supporting development process and institutional condition in the promotion of performance and quality of working life – Jan Kees Looise/Nicole Torka/Jan Ekke Wigboldus: Participation and organizational performance – Norbert Kluge/Sigurt Vitols/Peter Wilke: Good corporate governance and the function of obligatory employees’ involvement: the concept of a sustainable company – Patricia Nieto Rojas: Employee financial participation in Spain – Wilfried Kruse: Workplace quality as a «contested ground»: comments on the ambivalence of workplace participation today – Davide Antonioli/Massimiliano Mazzanti/Paolo Pini: Innovation, industrial relations and working conditions - evidence from two Italian local production systems – Loris Lugli/Stefano Tugnoli/Ires Emilia-Romagna: Innovation and work quality. A field research – Karina Becker/Ulrich Brinkmann/Thomas Engel: «Hybrid Participation» - the missing link? The role of expert employees and support groups for the works councils in Germany – Ralf Niemann: Direct participation as a way to safeguard a plant? The example of a German steel company – Tuomo Alasoini: Workplace innovation and development in Finland: Examining the workplace development programme TYKES – Paul Berckmans: «Quality of Working Life» on the agenda of Flemish regional policy – Romain Chevallet: Employee participation in ninety-five investment projects - Experience and action priorities for public policies based on observations of SME practices – Friedhelm Keuken: Improvement of the performance of SMEs and their employees by participation of employees in the Region North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany - Basic ideas, project examples, support structures and results – Ulrich Klotz: Making better use of potential to innovate! - some food for thought in the «Year of Innovation» – Valeria Pulignano: Employee participation in Europe: Propositions for designing a new