Getting by or getting ahead: State social spending and financialization in Peru

Vincent S. · Focaal (2020) · DOI: 10.3167/fcl.2020.012805

Resumen

Peru’s economy is booming because of natural resource extraction, without providing formal employment. Instead, increased state revenues fund social spending. This case study shows how cash transfers are integrated into intergener-ational reciprocities that are essential to social reproduction in ways that promote financialization: their inadequacy may necessitate loans which the regular dis-bursements can repay. Recipients hoping to get by tend to have few kin obligations and use state aid to sustain themselves, while those hoping to get ahead use them to leverage investment in productive enterprises for themselves or their families. For people from Allpachico, for whom male migrant work in the regional mining sector was the economic mainstay three decades ago, this constitutes a new rela-tionship to the state, mining, and the economy. © The Author.