Eating from one pot : the dynamics of survival in poor South African households / Sarah Mosoetsa.
2011
HQ972.S62 K83 2011eb
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Details
Title
Eating from one pot : the dynamics of survival in poor South African households / Sarah Mosoetsa.
Author
Mosoetsa, Sarah, author.
ISBN
9781868145331
1868145336
9781868146277 (electronic book)
1868145336
9781868146277 (electronic book)
Published
Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2011.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (187 pages) : illustrations, maps
Call Number
HQ972.S62 K83 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
339.470968
Summary
"As poverty and unemployment deepen in contemporary South Africa, the burning question becomes, how do the poor survive? This book provides a compelling answer. Based on intensive fieldwork, it shows how many African households are on the brink of collapse. That they keep going at all can largely be attributed to the struggles of older women against poverty. They are the fulcrum on which household survival turns. This book describes how households in two different areas in KwaZulu-Natal are sites of both stability and conflict. As one of the interviewees put it: "We eat from one pot and should always help each other." Yet the stability of family networks is becoming fragile because of the enormous burden placed on them by unemployment and unequal power relations. Many of the households are extremely poor, relying on a total monthly income of less than R800. People live on little more than maize meal, tea and sugar. However, the book also demonstrates that they are not passive victims of poverty. Women, in particular, show impressive qualities of energy and resourcefulness. They engage in a number of informal sector activities, and many are active in a range of faith, and community and home-based care associations"--Publisher's website.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 152-170) and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
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