This report contains the second generation of National Action Plans against poverty and social exclusion which have been prepared by the Member States and constitute a strong political acknowledgement, three years after the Lisbon Summit, of the continuing challenge to ensure social inclusion across the European Union.

The Treaty of Amsterdam committed EU member states to tackle social exclusion. This book aims to explore, from an inter-disciplinary perspective, the possibilities and limitations of the attempts by the EU to co-ordinate and 'Europeanize' member states' strategies and policies.

The idea of social exclusion is part of the new political language. When Labour came into government in 1997, it launched the Social Exclusion Unit to pursue this central theme. But what exactly does social inclusion mean? This revised and updated edition of The Inclusive Society? identifies three competing meanings of the term in contemporary British Politics, emphasising poverty, employment and morality. Ruth Levitas argues that there has been a shift away from understanding social exclusion as primarily a problem of poverty, towards questions of social integration through paid work and moral regulation.

This book is about the social psychological dynamics and phenomenology of social inclusion and exclusion. The editors take as their starting point the assumption that social life is conducted in a framework of relationships in which individuals seek inclusion and belongingness. Relationships necessarily include others, but equally they have boundaries that exclude. Frequently these boundaries are challenged or crossed. The book will draw together research on individual motivation, small group processes, stigmatization and intergroup relations, to provide a comprehensive social psychological account of social inclusion and exclusion.

Recoge: 1. Social inclusion - 2. Key trends and priorities - 3. Strategic approaches adopted in the naps - 4. Promoting employment - 5. Social protection systems - 6. Access to housing and basic services - 7. Access to health care - 8. Access to education - 9. Access to other services - 10. Preventing the risks of exclusion - 11. Helping the most vulnerable - 12. Mobilising all relevant bodies - 13. Gender mainstreaming - 14. Role of structural funds - 15. Identification of examples of good practice.

Social cohesion is one of the declared objectives of the European Union. This book analyses the EU Social Inclusion Process, the means by which it hopes to meet this objective, and explores the challenges at local, regional, national and EU levels.