"This is a balanced book, revealing a sensitivity to complex issues. The concluding emphasis on the need to view social policy innovations such as activation from the perspectives and experiences of clients is salutary and needs to be more widely adopted in comparative social policy research." Social Development Issues

Rik van Berkel is Researcher and Lecturer in Welfare State Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His main research areas are social and labour market policies and unemployment, on which he has published several books and articles.

Iver Hornemann Møller is Professor in Comparative Welfare Research, Centre for Social Integration and Differentiation in Copenhagen. He has published numerous books and articles on labour market and social policy issues.

Introduction ~ Rik van Berkel and Iver Hornemann Møller; The concept of inclusion/exclusion and the concept of work ~ Rik van Berkel, Iver Hornemann Møller and Colin C. Williams; The concept of activation ~ Rik van Berkel and Iver Hornemann Møller; The inclusive power of standard and non-standard work ~ Marisol García and Jan de Schampheleire; Inclusion through participation? Active social policies in the EU and empirical observations from case studies into types of work ~ Henning Hansen, Pedro Hespanha, Carlos Machado and Rik van Berkel; Patterns of exclusion/inclusion and people's strategies ~ Iver Hornemann Møller and Pedro Hespanha; Entrepreneurial activation: the Spanish Capitalisation of Unemployment Benefits programme ~ Aitor Gómez González; Orthodoxy and reflexivity in international comparative analysis ~ Ben Valkenburg and Jens Lind; Activation policies as reflexive social policies ~ Rik van Berkel and Maurice Roche.