Describing social assistance 'careers' in different national and urban contexts, this innovative book documents the strong interplay between personal biographies and policy patterns - a particularly useful perspective which complements the more structural, top-down approach of much international work in social policy.

Chiara Saraceno is Professor of Sociology at the University of Torino, Italy. She has extensive research experience in family, gender and poverty issues and in social policy. A member of the former EU Observatory on Policies to Combat Social Exclusion, she is the chair of the Social Exclusion Commission in Italy.