Book review: Cash Transfers in Context: An Anthropological Perspective
| DOI | 10.1177/1388262719890707 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Mel Cousins |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Accordingly, the reference to the ‘procedural democracy’ perspective, largely inspired
by Ju
¨rgen Habermas’ theory, seems a little vague. Conversely, it is remarkable that the author
focuses on the delicate issue of the actionability of rights, considering that the discourse
of the effectiveness of labour rights is now pivotal for soft law as well as hard law sources.
References
Biasi, M. (2014), ‘On uses and misuses of worker participation. Different forms for different goals
of employee involvement’, International Journal of Comparative Labour Law & Industrial
Relations, 30(4), 459–481.
Biasi, M. (2015), ‘Statutory employee representation at the workplace in Italy and in the US: a
comparative analysis of the Fiat/Chrysler case’, Labor Law Journal, 4, 233–255.
Kahn-Freund, O. (1974), ‘On the Uses and Misuses of Comparative Law’, Modern Law Review,
37(1), 1–27.
Kahn-Freud, O. (1977), ‘Industrial Democracy’, Industrial Law Journal, 6(1), 65–84.
Prassl, J. (2013), ‘Employee Shareholder ‘Status’: Dismantling the Contract of Employment’,
Industrial Law Journal, 42(4), 307–337.
Webb, S. & B. (1902), Industrial Democracy, Longman: London.
Author biography
Marco Biasi isan assistant professor of Labour Law at the University of Milan, Italy.His main fields
of research includeon-demand work, dismissal protection policies,punitive damages in employment
law, employee involvement in the management of companies, statutory minimum wage policies,
and employment lawin the sports industry. He can be reached at marco.biasi@unimi.it
J.P. Olivier de Sardan and E. Piccoli (eds.), Cash Transfers in Context: An Anthropological Perspective,
New York: Berghahn, 2018, 334 pages, ISBN 978-1-78533-957-8.
Reviewed by: Mel Cousins, Trinity College, Ireland
DOI: 10.1177/1388262719890707
This is a very interesting study of targeted cash transfers mainly from an anthropological perspec-
tive. While, as the authors point out, there is an abundant literature on such transfers (particularly in
terms of ‘grey’ literature) most of this is heavily econometric and top-down rather than providing a
more bottom-up perspective.
The editors (professors of anthropology and development studies respectively) open with an
introductory chapter setting the context and explaining the development of ‘cash transfers’ in
Mexico and Brazil and their diffusion to a wide range of developing countries. A chapter (by
Olivier de Sardan) then looks in more detail at theoretical issues concerning the policy transfer of
such payments and shows how the original models, developed in Latin America, have been
simplified in their application to rather different contexts including African countries with less
Book reviews 389
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