Dependents and dependence: A case study of housing and heuristics in an informal settlement in the Western Cape

The paper is a close ethnographic case study of householding arrangements among residents of an impoverished informal settlement in the Western Cape. It explores the intersection of legal definitions of dependence with local conceptions of relationship and community as residents applied for state housing subsidies and moved from shacks into formal houses. It demonstrates the complexity of domestic arrangements and examines the ways in which residents sought to realign their social relationships in the light of the social possibilities that housing offered In so doing, it demonstrates the creativity that is brought to bear, often with complex effects, on solving the problem of the gap between legal requirements and moral worlds.