Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the ways in which cash transfers are central to the political economies of indigenous Guarani settlements in Argentina. It analyses how cash transfers challenge and reinforce notions of labour and households, which have broader implications for local kinship and politics.

Paper long abstract:

Enthusiastically embraced by national governments and multilateral development institutions alike, cash transfer programs are becoming an increasingly valuable - and transformational - resource for marginal households throughout the world. Drawing on ethnographic data collected over the course of long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this paper explores the ambiguous impact of cash transfer programmes on indigenous Guarani households in Argentina. It shows that cash transfer programmes that target mothers are treated as 'special money' due to the confluence of administrative and local notions regarding motherhood and women's labour. In a context where male unemployment is rampant, the feminisation of cash transfers payments has strengthened pre-existing gender roles but also transformed them and led to incipient changes in family structures. These changes include young men's unwillingness to recognise the paternity of children and an increase in multi-generational, all-female households. While these impacts seem circumscribed to the level of local household practices, it is suggested that cash transfers are increasingly central to local politics and have also affected people's experiences of citizenship and belonging. Drawing on feminist insights, this paper argues that cash transfers simultaneously challenge and reinforce notions of labour and households. As a result, if we are to understand their generativity and their potential to create dependency, cash transfers must also be understood within the context of local political economies.