James, Deborah

Number of items: 87.
2025
  • James, Deborah (17 October 2025) Work, welfare and debt in precarious times. British Politics and Policy at LSE. picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah (2025). James Ferguson (1959–2025). Anthropology Southern Africa, 48(1), 46 - 48. https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2025.2547870
  • James, Deborah (2025). What relevance has division of labour in a world of precarious work? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 380(1922). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0279 picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah (2025). Things change Black material culture and the development of a consumer society in South Africa, 1800-2020. Robert Ross. Leiden: Brill, 2023, 187 pp. $67.00, paper. ISBN 9789004543744. Journal of Anthropological Research, 81(1), 101 - 102. https://doi.org/10.1086/733629
    • 2024
  • James, Deborah (2024). Beyond social policy? ‘patchwork’ livelihoods. Global Social Policy, 24(2), 322 - 326. https://doi.org/10.1177/14680181241261439 picture_as_pdf
  • Hann, Chris, James, Deborah (2024). Introduction: Argonauts revisited. In Hann, C. & James, D. (Eds.), One Hundred Years of Argonauts: Malinowski, Ethnography, and Economic Anthropology (pp. 1 - 22). Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781805395232-002
  • Hann, Chris, James, Deborah (2024). One hundred years of Argonauts: Malinowski, ethnography, and economic anthropology. Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781805395218
    • 2023
  • Zaloom, Caitlin, James, Deborah (2023). Financialization and the household. Annual Review of Anthropology, 52, 399 - 415. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-052721-100947 picture_as_pdf
    • 2022
  • James, Deborah (2022). Principles or pragmatics? Debt advice as a comparative encounter. In Pelkmans, M. & Walker, H. (Eds.), How People Compare (pp. 107 - 127). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003283669-8 picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah (18 August 2022) Tackling consumer indebtedness and unscrupulous lending in South Africa. LSE Business Review. picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah, Neves, David, Torkelson, Erin (2022). Saving, investment, thrift? Welfare beneficiary households and borrowing in South Africa. In Alexander, C. & Sosna, D. (Eds.), Thrift And Its Paradoxes: From Domestic to Political Economy (pp. 49 -73). Berghahn Books. picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah (2022). Owing everyone: debt advice in the UK’s time of austerity. Ethnos, 87(1), 59 - 77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1687544 picture_as_pdf
  • Koch, Insa, James, Deborah (2022). The state of the welfare state: advice, governance and care in settings of austerity. Ethnos, 87(1), 1 - 21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1688371 picture_as_pdf
    • 2021
  • Simpson, Nikita, Angland, Michael, Bhogal, Jaskiran K., Bowers, Rebecca, Cannell, Fenella, Gardner, Katy, Lohiya, Anishka, James, Deborah, Jivraj, Naseem & Koch, Insa et al (2021). Good and ‘bad’ deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a rapid qualitative study. BMJ Global Health, 6(6). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005509 picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah, Davey, Ryan, Eule, Tobias, Forbess, Alice, Gutierrez Garza, Ana, Koch, Insa, Tuckett, Anna, Wilde, Matt (2021). An ethnography of advice: between market, society and the declining welfare state 2015-2018. [Dataset]. UK Data Service. https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-853821
  • Breckenridge, Keith, James, Deborah (2021). Recentring the margins: theorizing African capitalism after 50 years. Economy and Society, 50(1), 1 - 8. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2021.1854540 picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah (2021). Life and debt: a view from the south. Economy and Society, 50(1), 36 - 56. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2021.1841930 picture_as_pdf
    • 2020
  • London School of Economics Department of Anthropology’s Covid and Care Research Group (2020). Changing care networks in the United Kingdom. In Eckert, A. & Hentschke, F. (Eds.), Corona and Work around the Globe (pp. 103 - 110). Walter de Gruyter & Co.. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110718249-014 picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah (2020). Redistribution and indebtedness: a tale of two settings. In Hann, C. & Kalb, D. (Eds.), Financialization: Relational Approaches (pp. 196 - 219). Berghahn Books. picture_as_pdf
  • Bear, Laura, Simpson, Nikita, Angland, Michael, Bhogal, Jaskiran K., Bowers, Rebecca, Cannell, Fenella, Gardner, Katy, Lohiya, Anishka, James, Deborah & Jivraj, Naseem et al (2020). 'A good death' during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK: a report on key findings and recommendations. London School of Economics and Political Science. picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah, Koch, Insa (2020). Economies of advice. In Aldenderfer, M. (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology . Oxford University Press. picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah (2020). Householding and social reproduction: comment on Newberry and Rosen. Focaal, 2020(86), 125 - 128. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2020.860111 picture_as_pdf
  • Bear, Laura, James, Deborah, Simpson, Nikita, Alexander, Eileen, Bazambanza, Caroline, Bhogal, Jaskiran K., Bowers, Rebecca, Cannell, Fenella, Lohiya, Anishka & Koch, Insa et al (2020). A right to care: the social foundations of recovery from Covid-19. London School of Economics and Political Science. picture_as_pdf
    • 2019
  • James, Deborah, Kirwan, Samuel (2019). Sorting out income: transnational householding and austerity Britain. Social Anthropology, 28(3), 671-685. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12619 picture_as_pdf
  • James, Deborah (2019). Indebtedness and aspiration in South Africa. In Soudien, C., Woolard, I. & Reddy, V. (Eds.), Poverty and Inequality: Diagnosis, prognosis and responses (pp. 214-231). Human Sciences Research Council.
  • James, Deborah (2019). New subjectivities: aspiration, prosperity and the new middle class. African Studies, 78(1), 33-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2018.1540516 picture_as_pdf
    • 2018
  • James, Deborah (2018). Mediating Indebtedness in South Africa. Ethnos, 83(5), 814-831. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2017.1362450
    • 2017
  • James, Deborah (2017). Deductions and counter-deductions in South Africa. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 7(3), 281-304. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau7.3.016
  • James, Deborah (2017). Undoing apartheid? From land reform to credit reform in South Africa. In Christophers, B., Mann, G. & Leyshon, A. (Eds.), Money and Finance After the Crisis: Critical Thinking for Uncertain Times . Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Forbess, Alice, James, Deborah (2017). The end of austerity? Not for the most needy.
  • James, Deborah (2017). Not marrying in South Africa: consumption, aspiration and the new middle class. Anthropology Southern Africa, 40(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2016.1237295
    • 2015
  • James, Deborah (2015). 'Women use their strength in the house': savings clubs in an Mpumalanga village. Journal of Southern African Studies, 41(5), 1035-1052. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2015.1062263
  • James, Deborah (2015). Money from nothing: indebtedness and aspiration in South Africa. Stanford University Press.
    • 2014
  • Forbess, Alice, James, Deborah (2014). Acts of assistance: navigating the interstices of the British state with the help of non-profit legal advisers. Social Analysis, 58(3), 73-89. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2014.580306
  • James, Deborah, Rajak, Dinah (2014). Credit apartheid, migrants, mines and money. African Studies, 73(3), 455-476. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2014.962872
  • Phillips, Laura, James, Deborah (2014). Labour, lodging and linkages: migrant women's experience in South Africa. African Studies, 73(3), 410-431. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2014.962875
  • James, Deborah (2014). 'Deeper into a hole?': borrowing and lending in South Africa. Current Anthropology, 55(S9), 17-29. https://doi.org/10.1086/676123
  • James, Deborah, Rajak, Dinah (2014). Debt or savings? Of migrants, mines and money. In Rankin-Smith, F., Phillips, L. & Delius, P. (Eds.), A long way home: migrant worker worlds 1800-2014 . Wits University Press.
    • 2013
  • James, Deborah (2013). Citizenship and land in South Africa: from rights to responsibilities. Critique of Anthropology, 33(1), 26-46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X12466682
  • James, Deborah (2013). Regulating credit: tackling the redistributiveness of neoliberalism. Anthropology of This Century, 6,
    • 2012
  • James, Deborah (2012). LSE Research: The explosion of debt in South Africa.
  • Hull, Elizabeth, James, Deborah (2012). Introduction: popular economies in South Africa. Africa: the Journal of the International African Institute, 82(01), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972011000696
  • James, Deborah (2012). Money-go-round: personal economies of wealth, aspiration and indebtedness. Africa, 82(01), 20-40. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972011000714
  • James, Deborah, Killick, Evan (2012). Empathy and expertise: case workers and immigration/asylum applicants in London. Law and Social Inquiry, 37(2), 430-455. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4469.2012.01312.x
    • 2011
  • James, Deborah, Forbess, Alice (2011). Rights, welfare and law. Legal aid advocacy in austerity Britain. London School of Economics and Political Science.
  • James, Deborah (2011). The return of the broker: consensus, hierarchy and choice in South African land reform. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 17(2), 318-338. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2011.01682.x
  • James, Deborah, McNeill, Fraser G. (2011). Singing songs of AIDS in Venda, South Africa: performance, pollution and ethnomusicology in a ‘neo-liberal’ setting. In Barz, G. (Ed.), The Culture of AIDS: Hope and Healing Through the Arts in Africa (pp. 193-212). Oxford University Press.
  • James, Deborah (2011). Tenure reformed: planning for redress or progress in South Africa. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 61(Winter), 19-32. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2011.610102
    • 2010
  • James, Deborah (2010). 'Doing business with a development ethic’: new look land redistribution in South Africa. In Freund, B. & Witt, H. (Eds.), Development Dilemmas in Post-Apartheid South Africa . University of KwaZulu-Natal.
  • James, Deborah, Toren, Christina (2010). Introduction: culture, context and anthropologists’ accounts. Berghahn Books.
  • James, Deborah, Killick, Evan (2010). Ethical dilemmas? UK immigration, Legal Aid funding reform and caseworkers. Anthropology Today, 26(1), 13-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8322.2010.00710.x
  • Fay, Derrick, James, Deborah (2010). Giving land back or righting wrongs? Comparative issues in the study of land restitution. In Walker, C., Bohlin, A., Hall, R. & Kepe, T. (Eds.), Land, Memory, Reconstruction, and Justice: Perspectives on Land Claims in South Africa (pp. 41-61). Ohio University Press.
    • 2009
  • James, Deborah (2009). David Webster: an activist anthropologist twenty years on. African Studies, 68(2), 287-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020180903109672
  • James, Deborah (2009). Burial sites, informal rights and lost kingdoms: the contesting of land claims in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Africa, 79(2), 228-251. https://doi.org/10.3366/E0001972009000709
  • James, Deborah (2009). David Webster: a postscript English translation of “Posfácio: David Webster”. In Webster, D. J. (Ed.), A Sociedade Chope: Indívíduo e Aliança No Sul De Moçambique (1969-1976) . Imprensa de Ciências Sociais.
    • 2008
  • McNeill, Fraser G., James, Deborah (2008). Singing songs of AIDS in Venda, South Africa: performance, pollution and ethnomusicology in a ‘neo-liberal’ setting. South African Music Studies, 28, 1-30.
  • Fay, Derrick, James, Deborah (2008). The anthropology of land restitution: an introduction. In Fay, D. & James, D. (Eds.), The Rights and Wrongs of Land Restitution: ‘Restoring What Was Ours’ (pp. 1-24). Routledge.
  • Fay, Derrick, James, Deborah (Eds.) (2008). The rights and wrongs of land restitution: ‘restoring what was ours’. Routledge.
    • 2007
  • Comaroff, John L, Comaroff, Jean, James, Deborah (Eds.) (2007). Picturing a colonial past: the African photographs of Isaac Schapera. University of Chicago Press.
  • James, Deborah (2007). Property and citizenship in South African land reform. In Dorman, S., Hammett, D. & Nugent, P. (Eds.), Making Nations, Creating Strangers (pp. 123-144). Brill Academic Publishers.
    • 2006
  • James, Deborah (2006). Gaining ground: ’rights’ and ’property’ in South African land reform. Routledge-Cavendish.
  • James, Deborah (2006). The tragedy of the private: owners, communities and the state in South Africa's land reform programme. In Benda-Beckmann, F. v., Benda-Beckmann, K. v. & Wiber, M. G. (Eds.), Changing Properties of Property (pp. 243-268). Berghahn Books.
  • James, Deborah (2006). Black background: life history and migrant women’s music in South Africa. In Reily, S. (Ed.), The Musical Human: Rethinking John Blacking's Ethnomusicology in the 21st Century (pp. 71-86). Ashgate Dartmouth.
    • 2005
  • James, Deborah (2005). Civil society in South Africa. In Glasius, M., Lewis, D. & Seckinelgin, H. (Eds.), Exploring Civil Society: Political and Cultural Contexts (pp. 149-153). Routledge.
  • James, Deborah (2005). Pedi women and Kiba performance. In Lucia, C. (Ed.), The World of South African Music: a Reader (pp. 272-278). Cambridge Scholars Publishers.
  • James, Deborah, Ngonini, Alex Xola, Nkadimeng, Geoffrey Mphahle (2005). (Re)constituting class?: owners, tenants and the politics of land reform in Mpumalanga. Journal of South African Studies, 31(4), 825-844. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070500370613
    • 2003
  • James, Deborah, Schrauwers, Albert (2003). An apartheid of souls: Dutch and Afrikaner colonialism and its aftermath in Indonesia and South Africa – an introduction. Itinerario, 27(3/4), 49-80. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115300020775
  • James, Deborah, Mphahle Nkadimeng, Geoffrey (2003). The land and the word: missions, African Christians, and the claiming of land in South Africa. In Draper, J. (Ed.), Orality, Literacy and Colonialism in Southern Africa (pp. 111-134). Society of Biblical Literature.
  • James, Deborah, Nkadimeng, Geoffrey (2003). 'A sentimental attachment to the neighbourhood': African Christians and land claims in South Africa. Itinerario, 27(3/4), 243-262. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115300020854
    • 2002
  • James, Deborah (2002). “To take the information down to the people” : life skills and HIV/AIDS peer educators in the Durban area. African Studies, 61(1), 169-191. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020180220140127
  • James, Deborah (2002). 'Human rights' or 'property'? State, society, and the landless in South Africa. Human Rights Institute.
    • 2001
  • James, Deborah (2001). Land for the landless : conflicting images of rural and urban in South Africa’s land reform programme. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 19(1), 93 -109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589000125070
  • Kaarsholm, Preben, James, Deborah (2001). Cultura popolare, sviluppo e democrazia: un'introduzione al dibattito. Afriche e Orienti, 2, 4-13.
  • James, Deborah, Kaufman, Carol (2001). The reproductive consequences of shifting ethnic identity in South Africa. In Makhlouf Obermeyer, C. (Ed.), Cultural Perspectives on Reproductive Health (pp. 193-220). Oxford University Press.
    • 2000
  • Kaarsholm, Preben, James, Deborah (2000). Popular culture and democracy in some southern contexts: an introduction. Journal of Southern African Studies, 26(2), 189-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070050010066
  • James, Deborah (2000). Hill of thorns : custom, knowledge and the reclaiming of a lost land in the new South Africa. Development and Change, 31(3), 629-649. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00170
  • James, Deborah (2000). "After years in the wilderness" : the discourse of land claims in the new South Africa. Journal of Peasant Studies, 27(3), 142-161. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150008438743
  • James, Deborah (2000). Sister, spouse, lazy woman: commentaries on domestic predicaments by Kiba performers from the Northern Province. In Brown, D. (Ed.), Oral Literature and Performance in Southern Africa (pp. 176-194). James Currey (Firm).
    • 1999
  • James, Deborah (1999). Bagagešu / those of my home : migrancy, gender and ethnicity in the Northern Province, South Africa. American Ethnologist, 26(1), 69-89. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1999.26.1.69
  • James, Deborah (1999). Songs of the women migrants: performance and identity in South Africa. Edinburgh University Press.
    • 1997
  • James, Deborah (1997). 'Music of origin': class, social category and the performers and audience of "Kiba", a South African migrant genre. Africa: the Journal of the International African Institute, 67(3), 454-475. https://doi.org/10.2307/1161184
    • 1996
  • James, Deborah (1996). 'I dress in this fashion' transformations in sotho dress and women's lives in a Sekhukhuneland village, South Africa. In Hendrickson, H. (Ed.), Clothing and Difference: EMBOdied Identities in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa (pp. 34-65). Duke University Press.
    • 1994
  • James, Deborah (1994). Basadi ba baeng/visiting women: female migrant performance from the Northern Transvaal. In Gunner, E. (Ed.), Politics and Performance: Theatre, Poetry and Song in Southern Africa (pp. 81-110). Wits University Press.
    • 1990
  • James, Deborah (1990). Musical form and social history: research perspectives on black South African music. Radical History Review, (46/47), 309-319. https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-1990-46-47-309
  • James, Deborah (1990). A question of ethnicity: Ndzundza Ndebele in a Lebowa village. Journal of Southern African Studies, 16(1), 33-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057079008708223
    • 1988
  • James, Deborah (1988). Land shortage and inheritance in a Lebowa village. Social Dynamics, 14(2), 36-51.
    • 1987
  • James, Deborah Ann (1987). Kinship and land in an inter-ethnic rural community [Masters thesis]. University of the Witwatersrand.