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.

Introduction: Rearticulations of rural lives through conditional cash transfersMartin Fotta and Maria Elisa Balen PART I: GLOBAL CCT REPERTOIRES AND THEIR LOCAL TRANSLATIONS1. Gendering and engendering capital: Conditional cash transfers in indigenous and rural households, Yucatan, MexicoAndrés Dapuez2. Filling the belly and feeding the mind? Bolsa Família and the building of children’s human capital in rural Amazonia Barbara A. Piperata 3. Peruvian mothers contending with conditional aid and its selective inattention to the conditions of rural lifeTara Patricia CooksonPART II: CCTs ORGANIZING COMMUNITY RELATIONS4. Fragmented rural communities: The faenas of Prospera at the interface of community cooperation and state dependencyClément Crucifix and Solène Morvant-Roux5. Empowering women? Conditional cash transfers in MexicoBirgit Schmook, Nora Haenn, Claudia Radel and Santana Navarro-Olmedo6. Money from above: Cash transfers, moral desert and enfranchisement among Guaraní households of the Argentine ChacoAgustin Diz7. Dangerous desires: The affects (and affections) of cash transfer programs among the Kalapalo from the Aiha village (Upper Xingu, Mato Grosso, Brazil)Marina Pereira Novo PART III: ENVISIONING FUTURES THROUGH CCTs8. From surprise to anticipation: Money, state and the future of social protection among displaced peasants in El Carmen de Bolívar, ColombiaMaria Elisa Balen9. Beyond cash, beyond conditional: Ingreso Ético Familiar and the senses of poverty in a group of Mapuche women Marjorie Murray and Gabriela Cabaña10. Saying no: Bolsa Família, self-employment, and the rejection of jobs in northeastern BrazilGregory Duff Morton Afterword: From affirmative to transformative distributive politicsJonathan DeVore

"This urgently-needed volume reveals the power of a technically savvy, yet conceptually sophisticated, anthropology to confront the social policy question of our time: Do the conditional cash transfers (CCTs) represent the ideal paradigm for fighting social injustice in the twenty-first century? Both critical and even-handed, these chapters reveal the faulty premises and unintended consequences of such policies and open new vistas for progressive state action." -- Aaron Ansell, Assistant professor of Anthropology, Virginia Tech, USA, author of Zero Hunger: Political Culture and Anti-poverty Policy in Northeast Brazil, University of North Carolina Press"Cash transfers are widely accepted as effective palliatives in efforts to alleviate extreme poverty. But we know little about their impact on the individuals, households and communities that they serve. Fotta and Balen have assembled a rich collection of ethnographic case studies which analyse the micro-social dynamics of these programmes, revealing their effects on class, gender and ethnic relations. The editors provide fresh critical perspectives on the cash transfer phenomenon, challenging scholars and policymakers to think carefully when weighing up the positives and negatives of these programmes. This is not only a most welcome contribution to the debate on social protection but shows how essential social analysis is for the domain of public policy." -- Maxine Molyneux, Professor of Sociology, University College London, UK, editor of The Social and Political Potential of Cash Transfers, Routledge"Written by a select team of specialists from several disciplines, and [deploying] a comparative perspective, the book highlights the diverse meanings that money from conditional cash transfer policies assumes in rural communities across Latin America, and is thus fundamental reading for academics, students, and policy makers." -- André Pires, Professor of Anthropology, Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, Brazil, author of Ruralidades em Transformação: Agricultores, Caseiros e Moradores de Condomínio, Annablume