A selection of papers from a multidisciplinary seminar held in June 1998. It covers problems of poverty, uneven distribution of income and unfair distribution of social services in an internationally comparative context. One chapter addresses the concept of poverty itself, developing the notion of inability of self-reliance as an alternative to income insufficiency. Others look at the situation of children, lone parents and the elderly or at the allocation of social services rather than the distribution of income, notably in the area of health care.