Household Strategies for Survival 1600–2000: Fission, Faction and Cooperation

by Edited by Laurence Fontaine , Jürgen Schlumbohm

• ISBN13: 9780521001427
• ISBN10: 0521001420
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-23
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In pre-industrial Europe, as in developing countries today, much of the population had to struggle to survive. The livelihood of all those who lived by the work of their hands was highly insecure. This book considers the 'labouring poor' not simply as victims, but as actively pursuing a whole range of strategies for survival. These strategies included many economic activities. Building and maintaining networks of kinship and neighbourhood was equally important, as was negotiating support from institutions. Sometimes, strategies were successfully integrated within a household, while in other instances the domestic group was split and members preferred to pursue individual strategies. This illuminating book examines the European past using case studies from present-day situations in Asia and Africa.

Table of Contents

Household Strategies for Survival: An Introduction	1	(18)
Laurence Fontaine
Jurgen Schlumbohm
Negotiating a Living: Essex Pauper Letters from London, 1800-1834	19	(28)
Thomas Sokoll
``It Is Extreme Necessity That Makes Me Do This'': Some ``Survival Strategies'' of Pauper Households in London's West End During the Early Eighteenth Century	47	(24)
Jeremy Boulton
Using Microcredit and Restructuring Households: Two Complementary Survival Strategies in Late Eighteenth-Century Barcelona	71	(22)
Monsterrat Carbonell-Esteller
Poor Jewish Families in Early Modern Rural Swabia	93	(22)
Sabine Ullmann
Industrious Households: Survival Strategies of Artisans in a Southwest German Town during the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries	115	(22)
Dennis A. Frey
Individualization Strategies Among City Dwellers in Contemporary Africa: Balancing the Shortcomings of Community Solidarity and the Individualism of the Struggle for Survival	137	(22)
Alain Marie
Finding the Right Balance: Financial Self-Help Organizations as Sources of Security and Insecurity in Urban Indonesia	159	(20)
Hotze Lont
Stepping on Two Boats: Urban Strategies of Chinese Peasants and Their Children	179
Danyu Wang