ABSTRACT
The key question which lies behind this chapter is simple: how do the wider changes associated with the formation of the European Union affect social exclusion in specific vulnerable neighbourhoods throughout Europe? Although posing the question is simple, answering it is more complex for this apparently simple question raises a host of further questions. To start with, it poses questions about how to understand changing class structures in the context of the emerging European Union. Because the idea of social exclusion has emerged in this context, the simple question also raises further questions about how citizenship is defined, legally and practically, within the European Union. And finally, because each member state has its own welfare system, questions about citizenship lead on to questions about how these welfare systems are changing.
