The Working Lives Research Institute (WLRI) was opened in 2002 and is a centre for research and teaching, based at the London Metropolitan University. The Institute undertakes socially committed academic and applied research into all aspects of working lives, emphasising equality and social justice, and working for and in partnership with trade unions. The WLRI emphasises the way changes in work are experienced and shaped by workers and workers’ organisations, recognising the centrality of race, gender, sexuality and disability to their experiences. In acknowledging that work is contested and the subject of political choices, the Institute aims both to further academic understanding and to inform and support the policies of trade unions, social movements and public and private sector organisations. http://www.workinglives.org/