... This chapter describes the rise of new programs of cash transfers within southern Africa and across the global South and introduces the major themes of the book. It explains how common scholarly and popular narratives about “neoliberalism” have resulted in inadequate attention being paid...

... error found on the political Left (confusing money and markets with capitalism) and explores an alternative framework for understanding “cash payment” and the socialities with which it is associated. New thinking emerging in the domain of social policy provides both an object of analysis...

...When Courts of Love Have Cash Registers ...

... cashlessness cash payments industry unbanked underbanked ...

... distribution cash transfers basic income politics nation-state ...

... cash transfers basic income politics of distribution South Africa southern Africa ...

... In this chapter, we meet two semifictional characters: one conducts her life almost exclusively in noncash means of payment—credit and debit cards, direct deposit, and online payment services. The other lives an almost wholly cash-based life, along with other material stores of wealth and means...

... The concluding chapter of the book offers a survey of the possibilities the current conjuncture raises for progressive politics. It suggests that emergent new forms of distributive politics, involving both cash transfers in specific and the broader ground of “service delivery” in general...