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Life and debt: a view from the south

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  • James, Deborah

Abstract

This paper explores how, in countries in the global south where sharp rises in indebtedness have accompanied the financialization of the economy, debt factors into other relationships and meanings in the life of the family and household. Using ethnographic material from South Africa, it explores local concepts of householding, obligation and saving (asking whether relations of commodified debt nullify those of longstanding social commitment), investigates how people convert between cash-based or short term imperatives and moral or longer-term ones, and shows how barriers are sometimes erected between these separate spheres thus making them incommensurable. The paper challenges some accounts of the “financialization of daily life” which imply a one-way, top-down intrusion by the market—with state backing—into people’s intimate relations, commitments and aspirations, and maintains that we need to explore the complicity of participants’ engagement with these processes rather than seeing them as imposed on unwilling victims.

Suggested Citation

  • James, Deborah, 2021. "Life and debt: a view from the south," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106517, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:106517
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/106517/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Torkelson, Erin, 2020. "Collateral damages: Cash transfer and debt transfer in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Pollio & Liza Rose Cirolia & Jack Ong'iro Odeo, 2023. "ALGORITHMIC SUTURING: Platforms, Motorcycles and the ‘Last Mile’ in Urban Africa," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 957-974, November.
    2. Kar, Sohini, 2023. "Domestic values: gendered labor and the uncanniness of critique in marketing life insurance for women," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120591, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    aspiration; debt; family; financialisation; household; South Africa; UKRI block grant;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

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