This is the background paper by Stephen Ziguras, Mark Considine, Linda Hancock and Brian Howe for this week's conference, From Risk to Opportunity: Labour Markets in Transition, which is part of a project exploring new institutional arrangements in the area of social policy to cope with structural change in both labour markets and household formation. The project uses the idea of key labour market transitions both explore to the dynamics of labour markets over the life course for individuals or groups and to envisage new types of institutional arrangements that serve to manage risk and enhance people's capacity for social participation.