This volume assembles the main results of the EU research project "Social Convoy and Sustainable Employability: Innovative Strategies for Outplacement/Replacement Counselling" (SOCOSE) supported by GD Research of the European Commission (FP 5) in the programme "Improving the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base". The project was co-ordinated by Thomas Kieselbach from the University of Bremen.
The project is based on interdisciplinary research from five countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, and The Netherlands), in which psychologists and social scientists analysed approaches of occupational transition counselling in the sense of a "social convoy" in the course of dismissal until successful reintegration into the labour market. The empirical research is based primarily on interviews with 250 employees who were affected by changing work environments ("insecure jobs") or who had previously lost their jobs and had found new employment through the help of outplacement/ replacement counselling ("successfully reemployed"). They were questioned with regard to their experiences, expectations and evaluation of the transition period also under the perspective of experienced injustices.
For each country innovative cases of good practice are analyzed where social actors joined in order to cope with redundancy, where specific strategies were developed, e. g. targeting vulnerable groups, or where employers expressed their social responsibility towards dismissed employees in a way that could set an example for the European debate.

This volume assembles the background and results of the major part of the empirical research performed in the frame of the SOCOSE project interviews with employees who are affected by changing work environments (insecure jobs) or who had previously lost their jobs and have found new employment through the help of outplacement/replacement counselling (successfully reemployed). 250 employees in five European countries were questioned with regard to their experiences and their future job prospects.
For each country, we will present cases where social actors joined in an innovative way in order to cope with redundancy, where specific strategies were developed, e. g. targeting vulnerable groups, or where employers expressed their social responsibility towards dismissed employees in a way that could set an example.

Vorwort
An empirical study with employees facing job loss in five European countries

Autorentext
Prof. Dr. Thomas Kieselbach is professor of Work and Health Psychology, head of the Institute for Psychology of Work, Unemployment and Health (IPG) at the University of Bremen (Germany) and member of the board of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH).
Prof. Dr. Sebastiano Bagnara is professor of Psychology at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Sassari at Alghero (Italy) and past general secretary of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA).
Prof. Dr. Hans De Witte is professor of Work Psychology at the Department of Psychology (Research Group Work, Organisational & Personnel Psychology, WOPP) at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).
Prof. Dr. Louis Lemkow is professor of Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) and director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology also at the UAB.
Prof. Dr. Wilmar Schaufeli is professor of Work and Organizational Psychology and director of the Research Institute Psychology and Health at the Universiteit Utrecht (The Netherlands).

Zusammenfassung
1 This volume is one of four book publications of the project Social Convoy and S- tainable Employability: Innovative Strategies for Outplacement/Replacement Couns- ling (SOCOSE). It is supported by the European Commission, DG Research, under the fifth Framework Programme, Key Action Improving the Socio-Economic Knowledge 2 3 Base and coordinated by Thomas Kieselbach at the University of Bremen . Starting point of our research is the increase in occupational transitions (Rodgers & Rodgers, 1989). This is caused by the ongoing globalisation of markets and eco- mies as a whole, but might also be considered the central aspect of globalisation: changes and flexibility which on the part of the individual employee means tran- tions in his or her occupational biography. These phases might include episodes of - employment as well as training or re-orientation. While transitions increase, employees experience insecurity with regard to their individual employment situation to a much larger degree than in the past. The formal 1 Kieselbach, T. (Ed.) (2004). Social Convoy in Occupational Transitions: Recommendations for a European Framework in the Context of Enterprise Restructuring. Bremen: University of Bremen, Ins- tute for Psychology of Work, Unemployment and Health (IPG). Kieselbach, T., Beelmann, G., Mader, S. & Wagner, O. (2005). Sozialer Konvoi in beruflichen Tran- tionen: Individuelle und organisationale Bewältigung der Prekarisierung von Beschäftigung in Deutschland [Social convoy in occupational transitions: Individual and organisational coping with precarisation of jobs]. München: Rainer Hampp.

Inhalt
Comparative Report WP 2.- Job insecurity and successful re-employment: Experiences in five European countries.- National Reports.- Job insecurity and successful re-employment: Examples from Belgium.- Job insecurity and successful re-employment: Examples from Germany.- Job insecurity and successful re-employment: Examples from The Netherlands.- Job insecurity and successful re-employment: Examples from Italy.- Job insecurity and successful re-employment: Examples from Spain.