Over the last twenty years, most countries have experienced periods of high unemployment. While in all countries, this had led to increased poverty and personal distress, the severity of the effects of unemployment have been very different from one society to another. This book provides for the first time clear evidence about the way in which the nature of the welfare arrangements in a country, together with its family and friendship patterns, can affect the risk that unemployment leads to social exclusion.

The is the first major study to examine the implications of different welfare regimes for the experience of unemployment in Europe. It addresses three central questions. How far do such regimes protect unemployed people from poverty and financial hardship? Do they reduce or accentuate the tendencies for progressive marginalization from employment that may arise from motivational change, skill loss or the growth of discriminatory barriers? Finally, to what extent do they affect the social integration of unemployed people, in particular with respect to their social networks and psychological well-being? The book is based on a major cross-cultural research programme funded by the European Union. In addition to systematic comparison of national data, it uses a new important data source - the European Community Household Panel - which provides directly comparable information for most of the EU countries. The study shows that institutional and cultural differences have vital implications for the experience of unemployment. While welfare policies affect in an important way the pervasiveness of poverty, it is above all the patterns of family structure and the culture of sociability in a society that affect vulnerability to social isolation. The book concludes by developing a new perspective for understanding the risk of social exclusion.