In industrialized societies, participation in social life is closely linked to income from work and thus access to the labor market. The course starts with the question which occupational structures characterize the German and European labor market and where dividing lines between "outsiders" and "insiders" on the labor market run. This is particularly relevant for the egalitarian employment regimes of Europe. In the first part of the seminar, the focus will be on approaches to and empirical research on the "inequality of income opportunities". Afterwards, interrelations between selected social groups (long-term unemployed, young people, migrants and women) and relevant institutional conditions (social security systems and activation policies, education systems and protection clauses, family policies, technological developments and social redistribution policies) are discussed.