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Paper short abstract:

Life history interviews show local understandings of wellbeing are fundamentally relational, with both relationality and wellbeing framed in moral terms. Relationships between birth and foster parents critically mitigate risks of fostering and are profoundly mediated by social and economic status.

Paper long abstract:

In west and southern Africa, the search for a better life frequently involves children moving between households. This paper investigates what this practice reveals of relationality and wellbeing. It is based on the reflections of three sets of adults who also overlap: those who lived in others' houses as a child; parents who have given children to be looked after by others; people who have taken on the care of others' children, especially after the death of their parents. The interviews show local understandings of wellbeing are fundamentally relational, and that both relationality and wellbeing are framed in moral terms. While fostering reflects wellbeing aspirations, its transactional elements also engender risks to wellbeing, with a high degree of ambivalence in relationships, combining hope and fear, trust and distrust, love and instrumentality, help and abuse. Relationships between birth and foster parents are critical to mitigating these risks, and are profoundly mediated by social and economic status. Broader implications for scholarship on relationality and wellbeing are discussed.