Caring Cash
Free Money and the Ethics of Solidarity in Kenya
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pluto Press
Published:20th Feb '23
Should be back in stock very soon
This book examines the impact of cash grants on relationships among Kenya's urban poor, showcasing the significance of care in their communities.
This anthropological study delves into the effects of cash grants on the economic dynamics and social relationships among the urban poor in Kenya. The concept of providing cash, without any conditions, to those in need has gained traction in the 21st century. While not a revolutionary approach to global redistribution, these unconditional cash transfers promise a new form of support that is less paternalistic than traditional assistance methods.
Caring Cash investigates the nurturing practices that emerged from grant experiments in the Korogocho slum of Nairobi. Recipients of these grants did not limit their care to themselves and their immediate families; they also extended their support to friends, lovers, clients, and patrons, thereby reinforcing the social bonds that connect them all. This communal aspect of care highlights the intricate web of relationships that exists among the urban poor.
Through engaging with the lives of his subjects, Tom Neumark explores the interplay between care, ethics, and economic realities. He posits that for those living in the ghetto, the act of caring for others is just as critical as the care experienced within personal relationships. By framing care in this broader context, the narrative reveals the complexities of managing proximity and distance in relationships, prompting important questions about the choices people make to coexist amid violence and poverty.
'Across the world, welfare systems are being remade in the image of 'basic income'. Tom Neumark powerfully intervenes in this debate by showing how Nairobi's grant recipients experience care and violence, freedom and bureaucracy. It has implications far beyond Kenya'
-- Kevin P. Donovan, Lecturer of African Studies at University of Edinburgh‘Approaches a key laboratory of 21st century African experimentality, unconditional cash transfers, from the recipients’ end, attending to relations of care and, notably, care for relations, among Nairobi’s urban poor. Instead of simply critiquing the obvious limitations of such programmes, Caring Cash explores their ‘poetics of care’ and fragile ‘ethics of solidarity’, against the backdrop of a violently strained social fabric’
-- Paul Wenzel Geissler, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo, Norway‘Grapples with a contentious intervention in international development – cash grant programmes – in a caring yet critical way, rehabilitating this often-critiqued approach to poverty alleviation while unpacking its relative limited sustainability. A must read’
-- Chambi Chachage, Assistant Professor, Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Canada‘A great introduction to the cash grant literature for students and practitioners, so much of it being programmatic and policy oriented, and removed from describing the work that cash grants actually do’
-- Sibel Kusimba, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of South FloISBN: 9780745340142
Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 16mm
Weight: 1g
224 pages