This book is a contribution to the European Cultural Foundation's (ECF) policy of promoting scientific studies and exchanges in areas of common interest to all European countries. It is because questions related to employment, unemployment, and the role of work in society undoubtedly belong to these areas that the ECF, together with the Queen Juliana Foundation, has w established, in Maastricht, the European Centre for Work and Society, whose programme will focus on such topics and whose development received its initial stimulus from the proceedings of the Hague Conference set forth in this book.