Selective solidarity : children and middle-class moralities in transnational Senegal / Chelsie Yount.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yount, Chelsie, Author.

Series:

Contemporary ethnography

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Senegalese--France--Social conditions.

Senegalese.

Senegalese--France--Economic conditions.

Middle class families--France.

Middle class families.

Values--France.

Values.

Downward mobility (Social sciences)--France.

Downward mobility (Social sciences).

Kinship--Economic aspects.

Kinship.

Transnationalism--Economic aspects.

Transnationalism.

Physical Description:

viii, 186 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Selective Solidarity examines how global inequalities change the ways transnational families negotiate "economic moralities," that is, expectations of familial material obligation. Analyzing everyday exchanges in middle-class Senegalese households in Paris and Dakar, this book traces links between the language that mediates acts of food sharing and gift giving, and moral discourses that shape redistribution beyond the household. Foregrounding children's role in transnational relations, ethnographer Chelsie Yount urges us to rethink questions of agency in economic practice. How do children grapple with the multiple, and sometimes contradictory, moral expectations they encounter at home and abroad? What can their practical struggles tell us about the ways the decline of the middle class in Europe impacts kinship connections in the African diaspora? The difficulties migrant parents face in transmitting class status to their French-born children lays bare the fact that for visible minorities, "integration" is not a state one can achieve once and for all, but a process that may be undone. Yount argues that the French-born children of Senegalese, acutely aware of the discrimination they face in France, also forge affective and economic connections abroad that are key to creating and reproducing transnational kinship. At its heart, Selective Solidarity is about children's experiences sharing food and giving gifts in Paris and on trips to Dakar. This book considers experiences of family life in global capitalism, focusing on middle-class downward mobility to highlight the ways socioeconomic relations are redefined as resources stretch thin. Highlighting the uneven terrain of transnational kinship, Selective Solidarity offers a new perspective on theories of value, revealing how moral expectations of kinship in Africa are bound up with values of immigrant integration in Europe. Together, these economic moralities shape families' attempts to navigate the vicissitudes of tiered migration trajectories as heightened tensions surrounding migration reconfigure class structures globally"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction. Talk in transnational families : economic moralities of belonging

Integrating into a disintegrating French middle class

Scales of solidarity : navigating economic moralities

"Sometimes too generous" : reciprocity and avoiding the wrong crowd

"What did you bring me?" : narrating and evading material expectations

Transnational cross-cousins : selective kinship on social media

Conclusion. Networks of selective solidarity : talk of morals, money, and migration

Appendix 1. Transcripts

Appendix 2. Kinship diagrams.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-177) and index.

Other Format:

Electronic version: Yount, Chelsie. Selective solidarity.

ISBN:

9781512827576

1512827576

9781512827569

1512827568

OCLC:

1445769673

Publisher Number:

90104359305