Recent enlargement to the east made the European Union a more diverse social space and brought it into more direct contact with the social and cultural aftermath of communism.

The purpose of this book is to help social scientists, policy makers and other observers cope with the unfamiliarity of this new world by bringing together a collection of informative analyses of key domains of social life in the new member states and candidate countries, viewed in comparison both to each other and to the 'old' EU-15.

The focus is on social conditions, such as social exclusion, poverty and living conditions, work and labour markets, family and housing. But is also offers accounts of the institutional contexts within which these conditions arise. The analyses makes use of a range of data, including a new data source, the European Quality of Life Survey 2003.

Jens Alber is Professor of Sociology at the Free University Berlin and Director of the Unit "Inequality and social integration" at the Social Science Center, Berlin, which chaired the international consortium that analyzed the European Quality of Life Survey. He is the author of numerous books and articles in the field of comparative political sociology.

Tony Fahey is Professor in the Social Policy Research Division in the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin. He has published extensively on the family, religion, demography, the elderly, housing and various aspects of social policy.

Chiara Saraceno is Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Turin, Italy and Chair of the PhD programme in Comparative Social Research. She has written extensively on family changes and family policies, on poverty and social policies, on gender and women's issues.

Part 1: Fertility, families and households Part 2: Employment and working conditions Part 3: Material living conditions Part 4: Social capital and social cohesion Part 5: Processes of Europeanization