Why are globalizing processes unevenly distributed between poor andwealthy countries? What effect do these disparities have on the livesof ordinary people? The contributors to this volume find answers tothese questions in the Mediterranean, a region divided between thewealthier nations of the north shore and their poorer neighbours to thesouth. The divergent histories, economies, cultural and linguisticbackgrounds, education systems, and political structures of these tworegions lead to explanations not only for uneven globalization but alsofor the wave of demonstrations that have sparked unrest in North Africaand the Near East.