With the crisis of the welfare state and the neoliberal shift legitimized since the mid-1970s, fundamental changes in the social, economic, political, and cultural conditions for social policy and social work can be observed. As a result, social policy and social work are not only subordinated to the primacy of the economy, but also increasingly accept growing social divisions and widening social inequalities, social risks, poverty, and unemployment. Against this backdrop, the book captures the profound structural changes through the concept of social exclusion, contextualizes them, and examines their theoretical and practical implications for social policy and social work.