ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to explore the differential transformation of the Mediterranean world and the different degrees of success and failure of strategies of national and regional modernisation. Given the broad scope of this objective, the analysis deals with general processes and comparisons rather than detailed case studies. To set the scene, the chapter starts with a brief but essential background economic history of the Mediterranean and then focuses on the measurement and scale of differences in human development. To explain these development differentials, attention is paid first and foremost to the less developed non-European parts of the Mediterranean where there are a number of key interconnected processes of economic transformation associated with: (a) agrarian change, water supply, food production and food dependency; (b) the impact of oil and gas exploitation and industrialisation; (c) the debt crisis; and (d) structural adjustment, unemployment and the informal economy. In the final section the factors that distinguish the modernisation of the north Mediterranean market economies are discussed.
