Ironies of Solidarity

This work is a rich tapestry of ethnography and theory, simultaneously a narrative of various dynamics in contemporary South Africa as well as an excavation of many concepts central to economic and social inquiry. * The Economic Record *This important book explores how the growing market in insurance services for the poor in South Africa mitigates risks for some while precipitating family conflicts. Bähre’s thoughtful and compassionate study confronts simplistic assertions about neoliberalisation by showing how financial mechanisms can enable practices of solidarity which have both positive and negative dimensions. * Maia Green, The University of Manchester *Bähre warns us against nostalgic notions of social relationships as inherently good and caring, and the market and money as polluting this imagined paradise. This book should be required reading for every student of society in the 21st century. * Mamphela Ramphele *In this book’s surprising and sharp argument, Bähre questions the association between neoliberalism and financialization in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. Offering a mode of analysis attendant to the ironies of political economy, prying open the iron cages of our own limited analytical imagination, Bähre revises old concepts and introduces refreshingly new ones. * Bill Maurer, University of California *

Erik Bähre is Associate Professor at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, Netherlands. He is the Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Project Moralising Misfortune: A Comparative Anthropology of Commercial Insurance and author of Money and Violence: Financial Self-Help Groups in a South African Township.