Money From The Government In Latin America: Conditional Cash Transfer Programs And Rural Lives (routledge Studies In Latin American Development)

It has been almost two decades since conditional cash transfer programs first appeared on the agendas of multilateral agencies and politicians. Latin America has often been used as a testing ground for these programs, which consist of transfers of money to subsections of the population upon meeting certain conditions, such as sending their children to school or having them vaccinated. Money from the Government in Latin America takes a comparative view of the effects of this regular transfer of money, which comes with obligations, on rural communities. Drawing on a variety of data, taken from different disciplinary perspectives, these chapters help to build an understanding of the place of conditional cash transfer programsin rural families and households, in individuals' aspirations and visions, in communities' relationships to urban areas, and in the overall character of these rural societies. With case studies from Chile, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Colombia, this book will interest scholars and researchers of Latin American anthropology, sociology, development, economics and politics. Cover 1 Half Title 4 Series Page 5 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 8 List of illustrations 10 List of contributors 11 Acknowledgements 14 Introduction: Rearticulations of rural lives through conditional cash transfers 16 Introduction 16 Latin America’s CCT moment 17 From supply and demand to a mode of governance 21 The extractive state and the vanishing peasant 27 About the book 30 Notes 35 References 36 PART I: Global CCT repertoires and their local translations 40 1. Gendering and engendering capital: Conditional cash transfers in indigenous and rural households, Yucatan, Mexico 42 Introduction 42 Generating human capital in every human 43 How to get poor people to accumulate capital rather than children 44 CCTs brand new fertile money 46 Life-subtracting moneys 49 A recipe to grow capital at home 51 Conclusion: on our own changing perceptions of money’s generativity 54 Note 56 References 56 2. Filling the belly and feeding the mind? 59 Introduction 59 Programa Bolsa Família 59 Field location and study participants 62 Study design and data collection 63 Ethnographic data 63 Data on children’s diets and nutritional status 64 Understanding and utilization of PBF funds 64 Filling the belly: perceptions of hunger, children’s diets and nutritional status 67 Feeding the mind: children’s access to education 70 Discussion 72 Conclusion 74 References 75 3. Peruvian mothers contending with conditional aid and its selective inattention to the conditions of rural life 78 Introduction 78 An institutional ethnography of Peru’s Programa Juntos 79 Blind spots 83 Micro-level blind spots 86 Conclusion 90 Notes 91 References 92 PART II: CCTs organizing community relations 94 4. Fragmented rural communities: The faenas of Prospera at the interface of community cooperation and state dependency 96 Introduction 96 Faenas, the community and the state 97 A new rurality 98 The Prospera program 99 Theory and methodology 100 Behind the same name, distinct forms of faenas 102 Vocales and local authorities: two actors with unequal material resources 104 In the name of the relationship with the state 105 Is it fair that only the Prospera women have to do this? 107 Conclusion 108 Notes 109 References 110 5. Empowering women? Conditional cash transfers in Mexico 112 Introduction 112 Gendered household financial management before CCTs 115 Changed financial management after CCTs? 117 Smallholder crisis, gender and family finances in Calakmul 118 Prospera as implemented in Calakmul 120 Prospera’s disciplining of women 122 Discussion 125 Note 126 References 126 6. Money from above: Cash transfers, moral desert and enfranchisement among Guaraní households of the Argentine Chaco 129 Introduction 129 Ambiguous enfranchisement 131 The problem of moral desert 135 Gendered money 137 Moral policing 139 Conclusion 141 Notes 142 References 142 7. Dangerous desires: The affects (and affections) of cash transfer programs among the Kalapalo from the Aiha village (Upper Xingu, Mato Grosso, Brazil) 145 Introduction 145 The Kalapalo, money and the cities 146 Desire and industrialized goods 149 Cash transfer policies: the patikula money 152 Conclusion 156 Notes 157 References 158 PART III: Envisioning futures through CCTs 160 8. From surprise to anticipation: Money, state and the future of social protection among displaced peasants in El Carmen de Bolívar, Colombia 162 Introduction 162 Three views of CCTs and changes in social protection 164 A long-term view of CCTs and the changing presence of the state in El Carmen 166 Monetization, anticipation and the state 169 Conclusion 173 Notes 174 References 175 9. Beyond cash, beyond conditional: Ingreso Ético Familiar and the senses of poverty in a group of Mapuche women 177 Introduction 177 The context of CCT in Chile 178 Paulina, the crib and the sewing machine 183 Discussion 187 Notes 189 References 190 10. Saying no: Bolsa Família, self-employment, and the rejection of jobs in northeastern Brazil 193 Introduction 193 Literature and method 194 What if there were no Bolsa Família? Alternative work arrangements imagined by women 196 Bolsa Família and work for oneself 198 Saying no to the boss: the act of turning down work 201 Conclusion 204 Notes 205 References 205 Afterword: From affirmative to transformative distributive politics 208 Conditional cash transfer programs in Latin America 208 Ambivalences of affirmative distributive politics 209 Pushing beyond conditional cash transfers 211 Fishing poles and fishing holes 213 Restoring rural livelihoods in the age of climate change 216 Notes 217 References 218 Index 220 This book looks at how conditional cash transfer programmes have affected the lives of rural communities in Latin America since the schemes appeared on the scene twenty years ago. With case studies ranging from Chile, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Colombia, this book will interest scholars of anthropology, sociology, development, economics and politics.