One important factor determining the general socio-cultural conditions for Re-Integration initiatives is the prospect of the economy. Whilst many analyses, including most OECD and EU reports (OECD, 1999, European Commission, 1994), consider the economy as the one decisive factor it will be pointed out here that this is misleading. General assumptions about what makes life valuable and sensible – individually as well as socially – play an equally important part, particularly for the Re-Integration problem. For our field of interest the economy is important because its structure determines

1. the overall rate of unemployment,
2. the spread of incomes for different jobs,
3. the quality of the jobs available.

If however the hypothesis of a continuous crisis of the labour/work society holds some truth then important consequences for countering social exclusion through VET and CVT would arise. People disadvantaged in the labour market may run the risk of entering or continuing a precarious occupational biography at the best, facing long term unemployment in the worst case. Given that possibility, Re-Integration initiatives will have to provide space and time for learning and living processes which are not solely oriented towards re-integration into VET and / or the labour market. Apparently, this is part of what is aimed at by employing the idea of “learning communities centred on practice”.