This volume brings together theoretical, empirical and comparative accounts of the European Social Model and transitional labour market policy. It is divided into four sections. Section one, ‘Transitional Labour Markets and the European Social Model’, contains theoretical accounts of the ESM and a discussion of policy implications for European social and employment policies that derive from research on transitional labour markets. Section two ‘The European Employment Strategy and Transitional Labour Markets’, is devoted to an economic as well as legal assessment of the European Employment Strategy and contains evaluations ofA new forms of governance both in European and member state policies, including discussions of the potential andA limits of soft law instruments. In section three, ‘National Transitional Labour Market Policies in Europe’, country studies of labour market reforms in Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and France assess their contribution to an emerging ESM. Finally, section four, ‘Transitional Labour Market Policies in Comparative and International Perspectives’, contains comparative accounts of the ESM, including assessments of mobility and security patterns in Europe and beyond, and evaluations of recent flexicurity policies from a global perspective.