Book excerpt: Why are globalizing processes unevenly distributed between poor and wealthy countries? What effect do these disparities have on the lives of ordinary people? The contributors to this volume find answers to these questions in the Mediterranean, a region divided between the wealthier nations of the north shore and their poorer neighbours to the south. The divergent histories, economies, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, education systems, and political structures of these two regions lead to explanations not only for uneven globalization but also for the wave of demonstrations that have sparked unrest in North Africa and the Near East.