Disability and distribution : becoming a valuable person in Kinshasa / Clara Devlieger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Devlieger, Clara, Author.

Series:

The International African library ; 78.

The International African library ; 78

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

People with disabilities--Democratic Republic of the Congo--Kinshasa.

People with disabilities.

People with disabilities--Democratic Republic of the Congo--Kinshasa--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 250 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

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.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 29 May 2026).

ISBN:

1-009-61846-6

9781009618458

9781009618472

OCLC:

1579846105