Relative Distance (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781009335089)

The socio-economic and political uncertainties of Kenya in the 1990s jeopardised what many saw as the promises of modernity. An increasing number of Kenyans migrated, many to Britain, a country that felt familiar from Kenyan history. Based on extensive fieldwork in Kenya and the United Kingdom, Leslie Fesenmyer's work provides a rich, historically nuanced study of the kinship dilemmas that underlie transnational migration and explores the dynamic relationship between those who migrate and those who stay behind. Challenging a focus on changing modes of economic production, 'push-pull' factors, and globalisation as drivers of familial change, she analyses everyday trans-national family life. Relative Distance shows how quotidian interactions, exchanges, and practices transform kinship on a local and global scale. Through the prism of intergenerational care, Fesenmyer reveals that the question of who is responsible for whom is not only a familial matter but is at the heart of relations between individuals, societies, and states.

Author: Leslie Fesenmyer
ISBN-10: 1009335081
ISBN-13: 9781009335089
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/29/2025
Pages: 242
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.51d