Kin Enough

Social Analysis, vol. 65, pp. 90–110

Abstract

The moral imperatives of kinship in Italy today articulate state law and market in measurements of closeness for access to resources and care. The negotiations of insurance payouts for road crash victims offer a privileged vantage point to study this articulation and, specifically, how laws and welfare policies are reproduced through financial products. In these negotiations, insurance companies, state agencies, lawyers, and families employ different measurements of kinship as closeness. The notion of ‘kin enough’ indicates thresholds of belonging reached when degrees of closeness measured through different indicators add up. Two case studies show how concrete negotiations of measurement reinforce inequalities of gender, class, and age, and help to moralize kinship according to ideals of middle-class propriety.

Authors 1

1. Irene Moretti corresponding Aachen PhD Candidate and Junior Lecturer Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   PhD Candidate and Junior Lecturer, Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University, Netherlands i.moretti@fsw.leidenuniv.nl