Based on 250 life-story interviews in seven European Union countries, Biography and social exclusion in Europe:

analyses personal struggles against social exclusion to illuminate local milieus and changing welfare regimes and contexts;

points to challenging new agendas for European politics and welfare, beyond the rhetoric of communitarianism and the New Deal;

vividly illustrates the lived experience and environmental complexity working for and against structural processes of social exclusion;

refashions the interpretive tradition as a teaching and research tool linking macro and micro realities.

Students, academic teachers and professional trainers, practitioners, politicians, policy makers and researchers in applied and comparative welfare fields will all benefit from reading this book.