A special issue of Africa, co-guest-edited by Professor Deborah James, head of the Department of Anthropology at LSE, will be launched at SOAS on Tuesday 14 February. All the articles, except one, are based on a ESRC-funded project exploring the links between economic change and citizens’ expectations in South Africa.

For two and a half years, Professor James, along with a team of researchers from LSE, University of Leiden and University of the Western Cape, looked at the changes in South African society as financialisation increases and the state and the banks try to incorporate more and more people into mainstream financial structures, informal arrangements nevertheless persist – and expand.

The result is a series of eight articles which range from indebtedness to insurance to music production and performance.

Africa is published by the International African Institute and Cambridge University Press.

Professor James is currently writing a book about issues of indebtedness in Africa.