This volume summarizes some results of the trans-national European research project „Self-employment activities concerning women and minorities: their success or failure in relation to social citizenship policies" that was supported by the Directorate General Research of the European Commission within the Targeted Socio-Economic Research Program (TSER). The research was carried out over three years. We aimed at contributing to the knowledge of social exclusion and social integration through our analysis of non-privileged self-employment of na- ve women and migrant men and women in European countries. The research consists of comparative case studies in six European countries, in Northern and in Southern Europe. We concentrated on the study of four metropolitan regions, i.e., the Rhine/Main Region in Germany, Athens in Greece, Stockholm in Sweden, and London in the UK. In Denmark, the semi-metropolitan region of Aalborg and Aarhus were research sites. In Italy, we examined se- employment activities in the semi-rural region of Calabria. Research teams from the universities of Frankfurt/Main, Greenwich, Aalborg, Umeaå, Calabria, worked on the national cases of Germany, UK, Denmark, Sweden and Italy respectively, whereas the national case of Greece was conducted by the teams of the universities of Crete and Dundee and the Women's Research Centre in Athens.