This collection provides a new assessment of the place of neighborhood within the wider debates of urban social exclusion and integration. It draws on research from twenty-two neighborhoods in eleven European cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Antwerp, London, Birmingham, Berlin, Hamburg, Milan, Naples and Paris and addresses two questions: how do different neighbourhoods impact upon the opportunities and perspectives of poor individuals and households; and are these neighbourhood impacts conditioned by national and welfare state contexts, by the wider metropolitan structures and by specific neighbourhood characteristics?