Book excerpt: The volume grew out of research undertaken as a part of the UN University's European Perspectives Project. It addresses the consequences of the failure of large-scale industrial enterprise, and the inability of central government policies to cope with the results of economic restructuring, in a series of comparative case studies showing how local communities throughout Europe (East and West, rural and industrial) have responded to economic dislocation and decline, and how these local initiatives have become the basis for economic regeneration. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR