What has been the impact of the rise of new social risks and of the recent economic crisis on social cohesion of contemporary cities in Europe? Based on original research carried out in twenty cities in ten different countries, this book provides a new, extensive, empirically-based analysis of social and economic transformations driving the emergence of new social risks in European cities in the last two decades. What are the main factors and mechanisms contributing to the rise of social vulnerability in urban contexts? What are the material conditions and coping strategies adopted by vulnerable groups to deal with these risks? And, finally, what is the role played by local welfare systems in times of welfare retrenchment at the national level? The focus of the book is on urban contexts: it is in cities that most of the new social risks are concentrated and welfare policies face the most dramatic tensions in times of austerity.