The rollback of the welfare state in advanced industrial democracies is often justified as the inevitable consequence of economic globalization. This reader provides a collection of inter-disciplinary essays by sixteen leading scholars in the field that rebuke the 'inevitability thesis' on welfare state restructuration.

GOSTA ESPING-ANDERSEN Professor, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain TERESA BRENNAN Formerly Schmidt Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Florida Atlantic University, USA RICHARD A. CLOWARD Formerly Professor in the School of Social Work, Columbia University, USA MITCHELL DEAN Dean, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy and Professor, Department of Sociology, Macquaire University, Sydney, Australia GEOFFREY GARRETT President of the Pacific Council on International Policy and Professor of International Relations, University of Southern California, USA COLIN HAY Professor of Political Analysis and Head of Department, Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, UK BOB JESSOP Professor and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Lancaster University, UK STEPHAN LEIBFRIED Professor, Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany CLAUS OFFE Formerly Professor of Political Sociology, Humboldt University, Germany JAMIE PECK Professor of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA PAUL PIERSON Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, USA FRANCES FOX PIVEN Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, City University of New York, USA ELMAR RIEGER Associate Professor, Centre for Social Policy, University of Bremen, Germany NIKOLAS ROSE Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK SANFORD F. SCHRAM Lecturer, Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College, USA LYNNE SEGAL Anniversary Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK BRYAN S. TURNER Professor of Sociology, Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of London, UK and Honorary Professor of Deakin University, Australia NICOLA YEATES Senior Lecturer, Social Policy, Open University, UK