The dynamics of household formation and composition in the rural Eastern Cape

Abstract

This paper examines rural household formation and composition in the rural Eastern Cape. It aims to capture the dynamics that drive processes of householding, and shape domestic decision concerning residency. Household formation and patterns of domesticity are of significance because they constitute an important backdrop against which marginality and vulnerability can be understood. As rural households are constituted in webs of social reciprocity, domestic relations and the forms they take can simultaneously be a source of insecurity and marginality, or serve to ameliorate vulnerability and enable survival. The paper considers these issues in some detail in order to providing the conceptual underpinnings for a sequence of three interlinked outputs.

Citation

Working Paper 08/228 Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town. 49 pp.

The dynamics of household formation and composition in the rural Eastern Cape

Published 1 January 2008