Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution. James Ferguson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.

Jeske, Christine

doi:10.1111/awr.12103

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“…Richard Ballard (2015: 129) argues that the power of Give a Man a Fish (henceforth GMF) ‘is that it dispenses with conventional justifications of welfare which cite a virtuous relationship between production and social reproduction’. Some have hailed the book as ‘a bold reframing of the anthropology of work’ (Jeske, 2016: 116) and others again credit it with ‘making visible and rendering questionable the unreflective mental habits shaping modernist thought about development, economic growth, employment and progress’ (du Toit, 2017: 1469). Reading the book, Jason Hickel (2016: 211) says, leaves the reader ‘with the distinct impression that Ferguson is feeling his way into a social theory of the future’.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Give James Ferguson a Fish

Nilsen¹

2020

Development and Change

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When James Ferguson's Give a Man a Fish was published in 2015, it seemed to many that the anthropologist was continuing his trailblazing work in critical development research and pioneering a new imaginary for a progressive left politics of welfare. This article argues that such enthusiasm is misplaced and that we need to devote ourselves to a more rigorous and ambitious project if we are to forge a social theory for the future that holds any kind of genuinely emancipatory potential. First, the article shows how Ferguson's diagnosis of global development is analytically flawed in that it is articulated at a strictly empirical and descriptive level. As a result, Ferguson fails to probe into the underlying power relations that have generated the developmental scenario that is the context of his reflections. It then moves on to show how this absence of any sustained conceptual and analytical engagement with questions of power in the political economy of capitalism leads Ferguson to a deeply flawed argument about welfare. The article concludes with a brief reflection on what an alternative and genuinely socialist form of welfare might look like in the context of a conjuncture of sustained neoliberal crisis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Give James Ferguson a Fish

Nilsen¹

2020

Development and Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution. James Ferguson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.

Cited by 1 publication

References 2 publications

Give James Ferguson a Fish

Give James Ferguson a Fish

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