Caring Cash: Free Money and the Ethics of Solidarity in Kenya

In the 21st century, unconditional cash transfers to the poor have become a popular form of global redistribution, offering a new type of care that is less paternalistic than other forms of assistance. Caring Cash explores the caring practices that these grant experiments produced in the Nairobi ghetto of Korogocho, arguing that caring for relationships is as important as the care that takes place within relationships.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 20 February 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press

In the 21st century, the notion of providing cash, unconditionally, to the impoverished has gained widespread popularity. While not a revolutionary form of global redistribution, these cash grants, often referred to as unconditional cash transfers, purport to offer a novel form of care that is less paternalistic than other forms of assistance.

Caring Cash delves into the caring practices that these grant experiments generated in the Nairobi ghetto of Korogocho. After receiving the grants, individuals there not only cared for themselves and their families, friends, lovers, clients, and patrons, but also nurtured the bonds that bound them together.

By placing his interlocutors' lives in conversation with ideas around care, ethics, and economies, Tom Neumark argues that for those in the ghetto, caring for relationships is as essential as the care that takes place within relationships. Seeing care in this light reveals the significance of managing one's proximity, distance, and detachment to others, raising questions about the disquieting decisions that allow people to live together amidst violence and poverty.

Weight: 242g
Dimension: 140 x 217 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780745340142