1 This volume is one of four book publications of the project "Social Convoy and S- tainable Employability: Innovative Strategies for Outplacement/Replacement Couns- ling" (SOCOSE). It is supported by the European Commission, DG Research, under the fifth Framework Programme, Key Action "Improving the Socio-Economic Knowledge 2 3 Base" and coordinated by Thomas Kieselbach at the University of Bremen . Starting point of our research is the increase in occupational transitions (Rodgers & Rodgers, 1989). This is caused by the ongoing globalisation of markets and eco- mies as a whole, but might also be considered the central aspect of globalisation: changes and flexibility which - on the part of the individual employee - means tran- tions in his or her occupational biography. These phases might include episodes of - employment as well as training or re-orientation. While transitions increase, employees experience insecurity with regard to their individual employment situation to a much larger degree than in the past. The formal 1 Kieselbach, T. (Ed.) (2004). Social Convoy in Occupational Transitions: Recommendations for a European Framework in the Context of Enterprise Restructuring. Bremen: University of Bremen, Ins- tute for Psychology of Work, Unemployment and Health (IPG). Kieselbach, T., Beelmann, G., Mader, S. & Wagner, O. (2005). Sozialer Konvoi in beruflichen Tran- tionen: Individuelle und organisationale Bewaltigung der Prekarisierung von Beschaftigung in Deutschland Social convoy in occupational transitions: Individual and organisational coping with precarisation of jobs]. Munchen: Rainer Hampp."

In this volume, the European research project YUSEDER ("Youth Unemployment and Social Exclusion: Dimensions, Subjective Experiences and Institutional Responses in Six Countries of the EU"), supported by the EU Commission (Directorate General Research) as a part of the programme Targeted Socio-Economic Research (TSER), addresses the question of what effects long-term unemployment has on young people in regard of their feeling of belonging to society. Does long-term unemployment imply the risk of social exclusion for young people? How does social exclusion develop, and which factors counteract the processes of exclusion? Thus far, research into unemployment has seldom performed comparative studies. This interdisciplinary project in six European countries has conducted for the first time a qualitative study with 300 long-term unemployment young people from age 20 to 25. The inquiry was carried out in the three northern European countries Sweden, Belgium and Germany and in the three southern European countries Greece, Italy and Spain. Researches from psychology, sociology, public health and psychiatry participated in this research project coordinated by Thomas Kieselbach (University of Bremen, Germany). The volumes in the series published up to now within the YUSEDER project represent a state of the art overview of the topic of youth unemployment and health (volume 1) and youth unemployment and social exclusion (volume 2) in the six participating countries. This third volume focuses on the personal experiences and assessments of young people affected by unemployment. Besides presenting the country-specific manifestations of social exclusion, this new study identifies those important key mechanisms which increase (vulnerability factors) or reduce (protective factors) the risk of social exclusion. The results of this interdisciplinary comparative study represent an important basis for conceptualising future intervention measures in the European Union which could redu

Although the first Agro-Food products based on modem biotechnology (e. g. recombinant chymosin for cheese production; tomato puree based on genetically engineered tomatoes; herbicide-resistant, genetically modified soybean; insect resistant maize) have been introduced in the EU markets in recent years, the application of this technology is still being intensively discussed in the European Union. Recent opinion polls indicate as well that consumers' acceptance of genetically engineered food and agro-products still is relatively low (e. g. European Commission 1997, Hampel et al. 1997), at least in some member states of the EU. In contrast, representatives from politics and industry underline the necessity to apply modem biotechnology in the Agro-Food sector as well, mainly to ensure the competitiveness of EU agriculture and food industry and for employment reasons. Against this background there seems to be a need for a scientific analysis of the future impacts of modem biotechnology in the Agro-Food sector of the EU. Recent studies trying to analyse this issue (e. g. OECD 1992, Teuber 1992) usually comprise extrapolations of status-quo analyses. What has not been exploited so far in this context are systematic technology forecasting approaches which do not include only one single country, but get information on an international level. Therefore, the impacts of modem biotechnology on the Agro-Food sector in five member countries of the EU (Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain) have been analysed with the help of the Delphi methodology which represents one of the most reliable tools for technology forecasting."