This book, edited by Ive Marx and Kenneth Nelson, combines in eleven chapters, written by nineteen authors, different perspectives on the current state and development of the minimum income protection systems in Europe and other countries. Unlike many other books, this one comes without a subtitle. The title Minimum Income Protection in Flux describes it well enough, but if a reader was forced to provide a subtitle there would be different options. A first and most simple choice would be: ‘Research from the EQUALSOC network (and subsequent initiatives)’ which would put a part of the acknowledgements on the cover.

A second, probably better choice for a subtitle would be: ‘Empirical evidence from forty-five countries (1960–2009)’. This subtitle certainly promises a bit too much as not all of the book's chapters provide such a wide empirical perspective. But, taking all chapters together, this is what the book covers, which makes it an excellent read for everybody who's interested in detailed results and discussions of minimum income protection schemes in a large set of countries over a long period of time. This subtitle would also stress what is not the main focus of the book. It is strong in depicting minimum income protection systems from a wider social policy perspective but is not primarily interested in offering explanations for the differences between systems and changes over time. All chapters are inherently comparative, and, although they do not share a common sample of countries, the chapters fit quite well into an overall picture. Some chapters focus on EU countries only, others also include the US. In particular, the chapter by Jonathan Bradshaw, Emese Mayhew and Gordon Alexander on minimum social protection in CEE/CIS countries provides information on countries which are not often seen in European social policy publications (e.g., Albania or Tajikistan). The rich empirical base provide three new databases – Indicators of Minimum Income Security Schemes (EUMin), the CSB-Minimum Income Protection Indicators dataset (CSB-MIPI) and the Social Policy Indicators Database (SPIN) – but also data from other sources.

A third subtitle could read: ‘Schemes for workers, unemployed, immigrants, retired, families, children, disabled’. This subtitle would describe in particular the first part of the book which combines several chapters organised by target group. This includes a chapter on minimum income protection schemes for the able-bodied (Natascha Van Mechelen and Sarah Marchal), minimum wage workers (Ive Marx, Sarah Marchal and Brian Nolan), children and families (Natascha Van Mechelen and Jonathan Bradshaw) and the elderly (Tim Goedemé). But even the chapters in the second part of the book, which cover minimum income protection schemes from a wider perspective, usually have a focus on specific target groups such as families, children, migrants, the disabled or the unemployed. It is certainly a strength of the book that it provides general perspectives while also stressing the fragmentation of Minimum Protection Schemes along distinct categories. The aspect of categorical differentiation is addressed most strongly in the chapter by Vanessa Hubl and Michaela Pfeifer on income protection for immigrants and for the disabled, but it is also considered in many other chapters.

A forth choice of a subtitle would be ‘Activation, fiscalisation, de-/centralisation and other trends’. The first two developments are the focus of two chapters. J. Timo Weishaupt gives a detailed overview of the changes that have taken place in minimum income protection schemes that must be interpreted as moves towards the activation paradigm. Using SPIN data, Tommy Ferrarini, Kenneth Nelson and Helena Höög analyse shifts in the provision of child and family benefits depicting a trend from universalism towards fiscalisation of social transfers. Taking a wider perspective, the book refers to general changes in – primarily European – welfare states. Common reference points in many chapters are the European Commission's positions on minimum income protection or the targets of the Europe 2020 strategy, most prominently addressed in the last chapter of the book by Frank Vandenbroucke, Bea Cantillon, Mascha van Mechelen, Tim Goedemé and Anne van Lancker where minimum income protection is discussed from a perspective of a ‘caring Europe’. In this chapter, the authors discuss questions of diversity and solidarity within Europe and its consequences for minimum income protection. It would have been interesting to see how this discussion could be linked to the concept of ‘re-scaling’ which is proposed by Yuri Kazepov and Eduardo Barberis in their chapter on the territorial dimension of social policy. But this chapter adds another aspect to the book as it addresses processes of centralisation and decentralisation of Minimum Income Schemes within European nation states.

In their introductory chapter, Marx and Nelson state that the book deviates from the ‘country-strategy’, that is providing a collection of single country chapters sharing a joint approach. The alternative of combining inherently comparative chapters has in this case proven a very good choice. Although there is no strict overall framework, all chapters contribute to a broader story and are, at the same time, full of details on specific topics. It is written from a European perspective but also includes non-European countries. The book depicts relevant trends and provides a data rich state-of-the-art description of a wide array of schemes which make it an excellent contribution to the discussion on minimum income protection systems.