People, Money and Power in the Economic Crisis

The Cold War was fought between “state socialism” and “the free market.” That fluctuating relationship between public power and private money continues today, unfolding in new and unforeseen ways during the economic crisis. Nine case studies -- from Southern Africa, South Asia, Brazil, and Atlantic Africa – examine economic life from the perspective of ordinary people in places that are normally marginal to global discourse, covering a range of class positions from the bottom to the top of society. The authors of these case studies examine people’s concrete economic activities and aspirations. By looking at how people insert themselves into the actual, unequal economy, they seek to reflect human unity and diversity more fully than the narrow vision of conventional economics.

The Cold War was fought between “state socialism” and “the free market.” That fluctuating relationship between public power and private money continues today, unfolding in new and unforeseen ways during the economic crisis. Nine case studies -- from Southern Africa, South Asia, Brazil, and Atlantic Africa – examine economic life from the perspective of ordinary people in places that are normally marginal to global discourse, covering a range of class positions from the bottom to the top of society. The authors of these case studies examine people’s concrete economic activities and aspirations. By looking at how people insert themselves into the actual, unequal economy, they seek to reflect human unity and diversity more fully than the narrow vision of conventional economics.

Preface: The Human Economy Project
Keith Hart and John Sharp

Introduction
Keith Hart and John Sharp 

Chapter 1. After the Big Clean-up: Street Vendors, the Informal Economy and Employment Policy in Zimbabwe
Busani Mpofu

Chapter 2. Immoral Accumulation and the Human Economy of  Death in Venda
Fraser McNeill

Chapter 3. ‘Letting Money Work for Us’: Self-organization and Financialization from Below in an All-male Savings Club in Soweto
Detlev Krige

Chapter 4. Market, Race and Nation: History of the White Working Class in Pretoria
John Sharp

Chapter 5. Negotiating Inequality: the Contemporary Black Middle Classes in Salvador, Brazil
Doreen Gordon

Chapter 6. Live Music in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Cape Verde
Juliana Braz Dias

Chapter 7. Congo-Gauteng: Congolese Migrants in South Africa
Saint-José Inaka and Joseph Trapido

Chapter 8. Neither Nationals nor Cosmopolitans: the Political Economy of Belonging for Mozambican Indians
Jason Sumich

Chapter 9. Marwari Traders between Hindu Neoliberalism and Democratic Socialism in Nepal
Mallika Shakya

References
Notes on Contributors
Index