Series editors’ preface

In a world that is rapidly changing, increasingly connected and uncertain, there is a need to develop a shared applied policy analysis of welfare regimes around the globe.Research in Comparative and Global Social Policy is a series of books that addresses broad questions around how nation states and transnational policy actors manage globally shared challenges.In so doing, the book series includes a wide array of contributions, which discuss comparative social policy history, development and reform within a broad international context.The book series invites innovative research by leading experts on all world-regions and global social policy actors and aims to fulfil the following objectives: it encourages cross-disciplinary approaches that develop theoretical frameworks reaching across individual world regions and global actors; it seeks to provide evidence-based good practice examples that cross the bridge between academic research and practice; not least, it aims to provide a platform in which a wide range of innovative methodological approaches, may it be national case studies, larger-N comparative studies, or global social policy studies can be introduced to aid the evaluation, design and implementation of future social policies.This volume by Nguyen and Mao contributes to the series' rationale by providing a timely and incisive examination of the ongoing labour transformations in China and Vietnam, focusing on the diverse impacts of 'hyperflexible accumulation' -a broad term describing a mode of production characterised by highly adaptable, rapidly shifting and often precarious arrangements for generating profit and organising labour.Through its four carefully curated sections, the volume assembles a rich variety of case studies and theoretical perspectives to shed light on the evolving realities of work, mobility and social protection in these rapidly changing marketsocialist societies.More specifically, the chapters collected in this volume explore the rise of platform labour, the integration of gig work into manufacturing and the nuanced dynamics of rural-urban connectivity, among other themes and issues.They offer readers a compelling account of how workers and their households navigate -and challenge -the pressures of an ever-changing economic landscape where enterprises and industries continually reconfigure work processes, employment relations and production networks in response to evolving market demands, technological innovations and regulatory