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Disability and Distribution - Clara Devlieger

Disability and Distribution

Becoming a Valuable Person in Kinshasa

(Autor)

Buch | Hardcover
300 Seiten
2026
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-1-009-61848-9 (ISBN)
CHF 165,85 inkl. MwSt
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Set in the postcolonial city of Kinshasa (DR Congo), this ethnography considers how disabled persons navigate debates about the distribution of resources in a setting with little state organised welfare. Clara Devlieger examines controversial niches deemed as imperfect alternatives, which shape routes towards being considered a 'valuable person'
Set in the postcolonial city of Kinshasa (DR Congo), this ethnography explores how people with disabilities navigate debates about the just distribution of resources where there is little state organised welfare, and public perception of disability swings between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving'. Tracing a historic increase of disability due to polio and its long-term effects, this book examines two controversial livelihood activities that serve as informal alternatives to state support: a specialized form of international border brokerage across the Congo River, and a unique practice of bureaucratized begging that imitates state tax collection and humanitarian fundraising. Clara Devlieger examines how such activities shape ways that disabled people conceive the idea of becoming 'valuable people' in local terms: by supporting loved ones, many achieve high esteem against expectations, while adapting exclusionary models of urban personhood to include disability. Devlieger offers a new understanding of the complex dynamic between the imagined role of the state, international discourses of rights, and local experiences of disability.

Clara Devlieger is an associate professor in anthropology of health and the body at the University of Lausanne. Her work has appeared in journals including Africa: Journal of the International African Institute and American Ethnologist. Devlieger has been the recipient of the emerging scholar award from the Disability Research Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association's Society for Medical Anthropology.

Introduction: between 'Batu Pamba' and 'Batu ya Valeur'; 1. Becoming an 'Handicapé': navigating identity and membership, documents and rivalries; 2. Rome and the Romains: relationships and temporality on the edge; 3. Contractual dependencies: disability and the bureaucracy of begging for the documentaires of Kinshasa; 4. 'People who need rights'? Disability, entitlement, and the rightful giver in Kinshasa; 5. Becoming a responsable: negotiating parenthood and responsibility; Conclusion; Coda; References; Index.

Erscheint lt. Verlag 30.4.2026
Reihe/Serie The International African Library
Zusatzinfo Worked examples or Exercises
Verlagsort Cambridge
Sprache englisch
Themenwelt Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie
Sozialwissenschaften Politik / Verwaltung
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie
ISBN-10 1-009-61848-2 / 1009618482
ISBN-13 978-1-009-61848-9 / 9781009618489
Zustand Neuware
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