Living on the Edge

Thomas Kieselbach This volume is the third publication of the project "Youth Unemployment and Social Exclusion: Objective Dimensions, Subjective Experiences and Innovative Institutional Responses in Six European Countries" (YUSEDER) supported by the Directorate Gen­ eral Research of the European Commission (DG Research) within the Targeted Socio­ Economic Research Programme (TSER) of the 4th Framework Programme. The YU­ SEDER research project tries to answer some crucial questions with regard to the risk of social exclusion associated with long-term youth unemployment. The first volume de­ scribed the available empirical evidence on youth unemployment and health in the par­ ticipating six countries of the EU\ the second volume drew attention to the concept of social exclusion in the context of youth unemployment as well as to vulnerable groups 2 of young unemployed people ¿ The 3'" YUSEDER volume includes the qualitative analyses of 300 young long­ term unemployed people (20-25 years old) regarding their experiences with their own unemployment and related processes of social exclusion in six European countries. The aim of the study is to analyse the content and extent of social exclusion among young unemployed persons including the specific courses and developments of processes of social exclusion, key mechanisms leading from unemployment to social exclusion (pro­ tective factors and vulnerability factors) and individual coping mechanisms with regard to unemployment and the risk of social exclusion.