Philipp M. Lersch shows that residential relocations may change individuals’ lives for the better but also for the worse depending on their resources, restrictions and contextual conditions. A comparative analysis of English and German panel data reveals that relocations improve the quality of dwellings on average in both countries but improvements strongly depend on life course stages and economic resources of individuals. Only few individuals improve their neighbourhoods when relocating. Conditions in the housing market are important determinants of these changes. Gender inequality persists in the occupational outcomes of relocations in England and West Germany. Due to institutional conditions, residential trajectories in England exhibit more variation and a higher risk of changes for the worse than in Germany. These innovative findings will inspire further research on the consequences of residential relocations.

This volume marks the end of an eight-year program of research on population issues, launched in 1990 by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research: The NWO Priority Program on Population Issues. Initiatives for this program of research were taken over ten years ago by Hans Van Ginkel-who became the first program chair - and Dirk Van De Kaa. The Dutch community of population scientists is deeply indebted to them for their early efforts. At the time, the program carried the name "Between Individual Development and Social Solidarity: Pop ulation and Society in a Period of Transition. " The goals of the Priority Program were threefold: To reduce the fragmentation of research on population issues; to increase collabora tion among population researchers with different disciplinary back grounds; and to strengthen the position of population studies in Dutch academe and in international forums. Looking back over eight years of programed research, we can safely say that the Priority Program has given an enormous impetus to population research in the Netherlands - as this volume attests. This program of research could not have been carried out success fully without the valuable contributions and constructive input of a large group of scientists. The scope and the focus of the Priority Program were defined by a preparatory committee chaired by Gerard Frinking.