Consequences of Social Protection on Intergenerational Relationships in South Africa: Introduction

Categorically-targeted social assistance programmes have considerable potential to reduce poverty and buttress the dignity of disadvantaged groups of people, but they can also generate tensions over financial support and care within households and families. This is especially likely in contexts in the global South where landlessness and unemployment combine with historically-rooted norms and practices to underpin complex patterns of interdependency. The articles in this issue examine the case of South Africa, where an unusually broad and generous system of social assistance reduces poverty and enhances dignity, but also reshapes social dynamics of support, care and dependency within households and families, generating new tensions.