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.