'... we gain highly useful information about the precarious lives of the poor in a labour market characterised by deep informality, the existence of a large ’reserve army’ of workers, the absence of social security, weak and declining trade unionisation, lack of enforcement of even the most basic formal arrangements such as health and safety at work, and the weak bargaining position of workers, especially during times of deep economic crisis... .the extensive bibliography given at the end of the book will no doubt be of great help to researchers of poverty... this study is definitely one of the best attempts to understand poverty in Turkey, treating it from the broader deprivation perspective and taking into consideration both the objective and subjective dimensions... With the extensive and critical survey of the main issues surrounding the poverty debate that it provides right at the outset, the composite index of poverty it develops, and the in-depth interviews it conducts within three different household categories, as well as its methodological approach combining statistical analysis with qualitative assessments, this book makes an invaluable contribution to the poverty literature in Turkey and elsewhere.' Urban Studies