The ethnographic case studies conducted in rural and ur- ban India and Burkina Faso show that large parts of the poor population are aging in insecurity. Not only is public support insufficient, but family support is limited. The issue of gender is a special focus of interest in this volume. The book contributes to the expanding field of social security studies in the social sciences that try to answer crucial issues in today's societies.

Willemijn de Jong is associate professor at the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Claudia Roth is a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Fatoumata Badini-Kinda is a lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Seema Bhagyanath teaches at the Department of Sociology, University of Pune, India.