In the growth of regional identities worldwide, the Mediterranean Basin is emerging as an entity in its own right. This book, a unique collaboration among social scientists around the entire Mediterranean littoral, covers Southern Europe, Turkey, the Balkans, North Africa, and the Near East. Leading economists, sociologists and social policy experts document with new and up-to-date empirical material the changing profiles of poverty and social deprivation. The result is a thought-provoking comparison of the extent, severity and structural causes of poverty and social inequality, and the huge diversity of public responses to the challenges they pose.

List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements List of Contributors 1. Introduction: Comparing Poverty Phenomena in the Mediterranean Area - Maria Petmesidou and Christos Papatheodorou Part I: The Southern EU Member states, the Balkan transition countries and Turkey 2. Poverty Profiles and trends. How do Southern European Countries Compare with Each Other? - Christos Papatheodorou and Maria Petmesidou 3. Poverty and Poverty Discourses in Italy in Comparative Perspective - Chiara Saraceno 4. Poverty and Anti-Poverty Policies in Portugal: The Experience of the Guaranteed Minimum Income - Jose Pereirinha 5. Absolute Poverty of Illegal Immigrants in Spain: A Growing Problem - Ubaldo Martinez Veiga 6. Poverty Reduction Strategies and Well-being in Albania and Former Yugoslavia - Gerry Redmond 7. The Poor, Excluded and Transition Losers in the South-eastern European Transition Economies - Ivo Bicanic and Vojmir Franicevic 8. Dynamics of Poverty in Turkey: Gender, Rural/Urban Poverty, Social Networks and Reciprocal Survival Strategies - Sibel Kalaycioglu Part II: The Middle East and North Africa 9. Poverty in Israel: Taking a Multidimensional Approach - Jacques Silber And Michael Sorin 10. The Making of Poverty in Palestine - Jamil Hilal 11. Social Stratification Obstacles to Reducing Inequality and Alleviating Poverty: the Case of Lebanon - Sylvia Haladjian-Henriksen 12. Understanding Recent Trends in Poverty and Inequality in the Maghreb (with Emphasis on Morocco) - Mina Baliamoune-Lutz 13. Poverty Evaluation in Algeria: A Logit-Probit Model Applied to a Multidimensional Field Survey in the Region of Tlemcen - Abderrezak Benhabib, Tahar Ziani and Samir Baha-Eddine Maliki 14. Concluding Commentary: Poverty in the Mediterranean Region: Applying a Human Rights Strategy - Peter Townsend