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The history of capitalism from the Industrial Revolution onwards is one of increasing differences in productivity and living conditions across different parts of the globe. According to one source, 250 years ago the difference in income or productivity per head betwen the richest and poorest country in the world was approximately 5:1, while today this difference has increased to 400:1 (Landes 1998). However in spite of this long-run trend towards divergence in productivity and income, there are many examples of (initially) backward countries that–at different times–have manged to narrow the gap in productivity and income between themselves and the frontier countries, in other words, to "catch up". How did they do it? What was the role of innovation and diffusion in the process? These are among the questions we are going to discuss in this chapter.

The Nordic countries are among the richest in Europe and globally. They are known for having a more equal distribution of income than elsewhere, for highly organized, regulated and inclusive labor markets, for universal welfare states and for well-developed and free education systems.

The term 'national innovation systems' surfaced for the first time during the late 1980s and, in the years that followed, several important contributions on this topic appeared. This paper investigates the role that this new literature plays within innovation studies and the world of science more generally and discusses the sources for its emergence.

The European economy is currently in a slump, the worst since the 1930s, with high unemployment and deteriorating welfare conditions for exposed segments of the population in several European countries, espcially in the Southern parts of the continent. Although this is often seen as a consequence of the financial crisis that hit the capitalist world in 2007-8 this is only part of the story.

Europe is confronted by an intimidating triple challenge—economic stagnation, climate change and a governance crisis. What is required is a fundamental transformation of the economy to a new "green" trajectory based on rapidly diminishing emission of greenhouse gases, the authors contend. Much greater emphasis on innovation in all its forms (not just technological) is an answer. Following this path would mean turning Europe into a veritable laboratory for sustainable growth, environmentally as well as socially.

China’s traditional industrial relations system went through crisis in the 1990s and early 2000s, with the dismantling of the lifelong employment regime of the state-owned enterprises. Informality and inequality increased. The Chinese state responded to the crisis by expanding formal institutions of industrial relations and adopting macro policies designed to arrest informalization and widening income gaps. There are signs that the new industrial relations institutions are delivering marginal gains for workers. There are also signs of ‘hybrid’ representation of workers at workplaces in Southern China. However, it has been difficult to connect institutions and voice. The national system of industrial relations continues to be premised on a representational monopoly of one union. This has limited the potentially positive effect of new labour market and industrial relations institutions on labour market outcomes.