Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780822358954)

In Give a Man a Fish James Ferguson examines the rise of social welfare programs in southern Africa, in which states make cash payments to their low income citizens. More than thirty percent of South Africa's population receive such payments, even as pundits elsewhere proclaim the neoliberal death of the welfare state. These programs' successes at reducing poverty under conditions of mass unemployment, Ferguson argues, provide an opportunity for rethinking contemporary capitalism and for developing new forms of political mobilization. Interested in an emerging "politics of distribution," Ferguson shows how new demands for direct income payments (including so-called "basic income") require us to reexamine the relation between production and distribution, and to ask new questions about markets, livelihoods, labor, and the future of progressive politics.

Author: James Ferguson
ISBN-10: 0822358956
ISBN-13: 9780822358954
Publisher: Duke University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/20/2015
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 10/01/2015