Book excerpt: Improving the structural integrity together with the performance (weight, time to failure,...) of structures requires a persisting effort in the field of mechanics of materials and structures. This can be achieved by a better understanding of the relationships between microscopic mechanisms and the macroscopic material behavior and structural response with respect to damage and fracture. This improvement strategy of materials, structures and assement methods can be described as local approach to fracture. The local approach to fracture is an active research field. Initially developped in the context of steel structures (pressure vessels), its application domain has become wider and now deals with various kinds of materials (metallic alloys, metal matrix composites, polymers, elastomers, concrete) as well as various physical deformation and damage mechanisms (plasticity, creep, fatigue, ductile fracture, brittle fracture, ...). This volume contains the proceedings on an international conference dedicated to these issues.