The Cold War was fought between state socialism and the free market. That fluctuating relationship between public power and private money continues today, unfolding in new and unforeseen ways during the economic crisis. Nine case studies -- from Southern Africa, South Asia, Brazil, and Atlantic Africa examine economic life from the perspective of ordinary people in places that are normally marginal to global discourse, covering a range of class positions from the bottom to the top of society. The authors of these case studies examine peoples concrete economic activities and aspirations. By looking at how people insert themselves into the actual, unequal economy, they seek to reflect human unity and diversity more fully than the narrow vision of conventional economics.

Keith Hart is a co-director of the Human Economy Program at the University of Pretoria and Centennial Professor of Economic Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His recent books includeThe Human Economy: A Citizens Guide (with Jean-Louis Laville and Antonio David Cattani, 2010) andEconomic Anthropology: History, Ethnography, Critique (with Chris Hann, 2011).

Preface: The Human Economy ProjectKeith Hart and John Sharp

IntroductionKeith Hart and John Sharp 

Chapter 1.After the Big Clean-up: Street Vendors, the Informal Economy and Employment Policy in ZimbabweBusani Mpofu

Chapter 2.Immoral Accumulation and the Human Economy of  Death in VendaFraser McNeill

Chapter 3.Letting Money Work for Us: Self-organization and Financialization from Below in an All-male Savings Club in SowetoDetlev Krige

Chapter 4. Market, Race and Nation: History of the White Working Class in PretoriaJohn Sharp

Chapter 5.Negotiating Inequality: the Contemporary Black Middle Classes in Salvador, BrazilDoreen Gordon

Chapter 6.Live Music in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Cape VerdeJuliana Braz Dias

Chapter 7.Congo-Gauteng: Congolese Migrants in South AfricaSaint-José Inaka and Joseph Trapido

Chapter 8.Neither Nationals nor Cosmopolitans: the Political Economy of Belonging for Mozambican IndiansJason Sumich

Chapter 9.Marwari Traders between Hindu Neoliberalism and Democratic Socialism in NepalMallika Shakya

References Notes on Contributors Index