FOrEwOrd in the early 1980s, during an adult education course in industrial Sociology at the uk darlington Cooperative Society, students thought of the study of social inequalities as something more than an account of the losses people suffered. The dividing lines and limits imposed on people’s life chances by the Thatcher government were crucial for the understanding of social inequalities, but as it was argued it only was half the story. having to complete an essay assignment on the local textile mill, students discovered that the other half lay in the ways people translated economic realities into social values, family and community bonds and made plans for the future. understanding social inequalities as something more than an act of stealing which is so pervasive in Capitalism, allows one to go deeper than what after all appears quite obvious. by contrast, the study of social inequality as a dynamic process which generates and transgresses dividing lines, freedoms and opportunity limits and which also penetrates people’s moral spheres, everyday rituals and social expectations, is crucial. with this in mind, the present issue on “Contemporary Social inequalities” is about current forms of social deprivation and the meanings they have for new underprivileged groups of people. Ιt is a comparative study of social segregation and discrimination which extends beyond aspects of income variations. it aims at exposing inequalities which penetrate people’s life styles, uses of material and symbolic goods, and which shape their social and moral interaction with communities, employers and social institutions in general. These inequalities are expressed at various levels and contribute to the social positioning and mobility prospects of people.

Two parallel lines of enquiry are covered by the analysis. The first asks questions about the conceptual level of social inequalities and how far welfare and economic realities pose a challenge to the existing theoretical and measuring premises on which sociologists and social policy experts in general base these analyses. The second line focuses on the bottom-rungs of the social and labour market strata of society. The issue here is to go further than the apparent constraints people experience and