Paper short abstract:

How is solidarity constructed and contested in conditions of unemployment, insecurity and debt? This paper explores how ordinary South Africans experience the warrants and the limits of their obligations to others in the context of the ties that surround the development of the life course in contemporary Zulu households.

Paper long abstract:

The global economic crisis has sharpened debates about social solidarity in many parts of the world. As we seek to understand and intervene in these discussions, what can we learn from places such as South Africa, where mass unemployment, debt and economic insecurity have been the default conditions of collective life for more than a generation now. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research on relationships in Zulu households, this paper explores how ordinary South Africans experience the warrants and the limits of their obligations to others in the context of the ties that surround the development of the life course. The emphasis is on understanding how transfers of economic value shape the personal life course, and how this produces ethical controversies in a situation where interpersonal ties depend on impersonal forms of socioeconomic interdependence.