https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu What is the central theme or message of the book? Are there any key arguments or claims presented in the reading? Which ones? How convincing or well-supported are they? What evidence/source material does the author provide to support their arguments? Are there any counterarguments or alternative perspectives worth considering? How does the reading relate to other texts or theories we have discussed in the seminars/lectures thus far? Are there any conflicting or complementary ideas? en-us 2023-06-21 07:06:08 UTC 2023-06-21 08:48:39 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629004763 Message: different news on debt, social status, critique against simplify the role of debt]]> 2023-06-21 08:43:14 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629004763 https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629004886 Key arguments: Social norms, middle class in South Africa increased]]> 2023-06-21 08:43:26 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629004886 https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629005178 Source: Much sources, both individual and academical, broad view (Y), hard to create a realistic view since most of the interviews etc are from small groups, selection? ]]> 2023-06-21 08:43:49 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629005178 gustavbroman https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629007016 James wanted to expose the real reasons behind South Africa's ongoing financial crisis. The book provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary investigation of South Africa's credit and debt systems utilizing a range of sources.

The author uses a variety of sources, such as participant observation and interviews, as well as books, radio programs, her own study, and economists' analysis. As a result, the credit and debt relationships between the country's lenders and borrowers—whose activities fluidly transition from the "formal" to the "informal" sector—are richly described.]]> 2023-06-21 08:46:16 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629007016 https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629007622 Theme and arguments: 
- Political underpinning causing the situation --> unsustainable consumer credit. The South African post-transitional framework = is both liberalized and state-regulated = conflicting demands. 

What evidence/source material does the author provide to support their arguments?
- Interviews, talking to "ordinary people", including real stories, not only relates to academic theories, etc. 

Strengths: 
- Understanding and insight into South Africans' lives from their perspective rather than a white academic's. A nice way to do research. 

Weakness: 
- Jump from subject to subject in different chapters. Not very theoretical. Would be interesting to include a chapter where she engages with economic/political/post-colonial discourses.
There is always a risk that the author interprets the answers from her own experience and perspective.

]]> 2023-06-21 08:47:06 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629007622 https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629007817 1. The role of credit in the transition from apartheid. Also transition to a consumer society. Complexity between dual systems. The immediate international setting? South Africa a rich country. Negotiating inequality. History not binary, there were systems before liberalization.

2. Middle path, surveys, data and also anthropology. Methods to find the hidden economies.

3. Before: coping with financial disenfranchisement. After: sustaining community and enabling social mobility. 

4. Informal "loansharks"

5. Threat of financialization? Is there a will to "step out" from stokvelds into the formal financial markets?

]]> 2023-06-21 08:47:20 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629007817 https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629007837 One argument is that "credit apartheid" still exists in SA

Follows the credit and debit booms in SA- brings light the issues of said events and emphasise the multifaceted role of the state and market as well as the influences how geopolitical landscape affects the wealth, prosperity, and equality in SA.


]]> 2023-06-21 08:47:22 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629007837 gustavbroman https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629008577 Mashonisa relates to mercernaries in graebers book.

Stokvel relates to the peer-to-peer lending system in graebers book with the mutual aid and trust systems.]]> 2023-06-21 08:48:29 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629008577 https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629008701 How different groups in SA find different ways to access credit and cope with debt, ie through savings groups
the post-apartheid revolution, as far as it can be called a revolution of civic and political rights, never became a revolution in the social and economic realm.
The nature and view of the societies shape the way debt markets develop. Post-apartheid South African aspiration and intention of social climbing define why and how people engage with credit - cf. with consumist USA and the reasons they engage with credit i.e. Credit Card debt
She uses qualitative case methods with a range of different kinds of sources: interviews, surveys, observations. etc. Weakness: it might not generalizable in the same way as a qunatitative study]]> 2023-06-21 08:48:39 UTC https://padlet.com/elisedermineur/dvd0mtsv77uipazu/wish/2629008701