Long awaited and exceedingly welcomed, this hardcover collection of nine scholarly essays (eight by sociologists) is the first effort by the Research Committee on Labour Movements of the International Sociological Association. To cut to the quick, most contributors doubt the staying power of movement attributes, though none question the long-term viability of unions per se.

Often dense and demanding, the essays generally posit bleak prospects for unionism in Western nations.

Typical is the contention of Editor Marino Regini that if labour cannot soon create a unifying ideology of solidarity, it may revert back to something like 19th century craft unionism, a scenario that will tempt scholars to "abandon the notion of labour movements altogether . . ." (p. 13).

Jelle Visser, after first characterizing unions as "oppositions that never become governments," goes on to forecast "further social and organizational fragmentation of union movements, a decline of trade unions as movements" (p. 28).

Over and again the book's contributors highlight advantages European capitalists stand to gain from the EC integrated market, advantages linked to labour's anticipated loss of elan, militancy, and solidarity.

Richard Hyman, however, takes a less dour tack and concludes that the development of modern forms of solidarity, while a monumentous task, is not an impossible one. Accordingly, "it may be premature to bid farewell to the working class -- or to the labour movement" (p. 166).

Similarly, Horst Kern and Charles F. Sabel, in a fresh and discerning discussion of the dual German system of industrial relations, contend that "the same logic of industrial reorganization which is undermining the trade unions' current organization also creates the possibility for a fundamental reformulation of their strategies" (p. 220).

Wolfgang Streeck, in turn, details a major new role unions can play on the supply side, a role based on "a policy of negotiated general upskilling, conducted and enforced in cooperative conflict with employers and in creative partnership with governments . . ." (p. 267).

Sociologists eager to try their hand at this kind of cross-cultural research will find much advice of value. Michael Shalev, for example, explains how more can be made of official work stoppage statistics, the better to protect the scholarly community from being caught "with its collective pants down the next time that there is a widespread eruption in labour markets" (p. 127).

Gosta Esping-Anderson, after first noting wryly that "there seems to be as many future scenarios as there are academics," goes on to share three exceedingly useful models others can draw on (a jobless growth model, a new service economy model, and a firm-based micro-regulation model) (p. 143).

The volume's many strengths notwithstanding, two limitations are regrettable and revealing: paragraphs often go on interminably, as is characteristic of turgid academese. As well, major omissions are vexing, as is characteristic of much arm-chair theorizing.

Little or no discussion, for example, explores the many ongoing labour education projects, internal political upheavals, or organizational change campaigns seeking to assure that "movement" remains in the labour movement.

Little or no use is made of polling data, field observation, or field interviews, reliance being placed instead seemingly only on secondary sources and the arcane musings of fellow academicians.

Despite its excessively bland and rarefied air, the volume rewards careful reading. Students of mass movements, bureaucracies, economic sociology, and labour studies, while appropriately outraged by the volume's price, will want a nearby library to secure a copy.

PBetter still, one such reader might undertake a "translation" for use by union staffers and leaders, a gesture that could go far in assuring an informed future for labour.

The Future of Labour Movements. Edited by Marino Regini, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992. Pp. xii+269. $55