  More than one third of all nearby galaxies show indications of low-luminosity
nuclear activity. These low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) are traditionally
classified into a variety of categories depending on their forbidden-line
ratios and on the presence or absence of broad-line emission. By analogy with
Seyfert unification models, it is natural to ask whether the various LLAGN
types are different manifestations of the same underlying phenomenon, with
observed differences being solely due to orientation and obscuration, or
whether there are fundamentally distinct physical processes at work in
different categories of LLAGNs. This contribution reviews some recent
observations of LLAGNs in the context of AGN unification scenarios.

Astrophysics