1st edition: November 2022. This book, dedicated to the esteemed professor Maria Petmezidou, is a collection of texts focused on the investigation and analysis of critical and contemporary issues of Social Theory and Social Policy that occupy the current public and academic discourse.

The sections of the book are linked to different aspects of the honoree's work, while simultaneously composing an autonomous set of contributions that are distinguished into four parts. The first part focuses on the social state and its policies, in the European context and in Greece. It addresses issues concerning the foundation and evolution of social policies in the modern world.

The second part includes works that refer to forms of inequalities, their empirical investigation, and the mechanisms of their reproduction. From these analyses, conclusions emerge about the prerequisites for curbing these phenomena as well as the obstacles they face.

The third part discusses practices for addressing social issues relevant to Greece and, more broadly, the European space, which require specific answers, even though the prevailing policies do not seem to provide them to date.

The fourth part centers on Social Work and issues addressed by this discipline. These are, in total, significant fields to which the honoree has made a decisive contribution throughout her long academic and research career, providing a rich, interdisciplinary, and multifaceted body of work with immense international recognition.

Colleagues, academics, and researchers from Greece and abroad, with their tribute works, wish to honor her by recognizing her significant contribution to academic discourse at both national and international levels as well as in the development of social sciences.