saving and being safe away from home: savings and insurance associations in ethiopia and its diaspora

Savings and insurance associations are widespread not only in Ethiopia but also in its diaspora, even in countries with diversified and comprehensive formal financial institutions. The contributors to this volume give an extensive overview of these associations in Ethiopia and its diaspora and, at the same time, ask what the activities within these associations tell us about their members’ future aspirations and ideas of a good life .

Kim Glück, born in 1986, is a social anthropologist specializing in Ethiopian studies. After studying social anthropology and history in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and in Montpellier, France, she completed her doctorate in Mainz, Germany. She conducts research in Ethiopia as well as in the Ethiopian diaspora in the USA and Israel. Her research interests include migration and diaspora studies, performance studies and anthropology of the future.
Sophia Thubauville, born in 1979, is a social anthropologist at the Frobenius-Institut für kulturanthropologische Forschung in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Thubauville is an active member of the European Librarians in African Studies (ELIAS) and of the Commission for Migration of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Science (IUAES). She is also spokesperson for the DGSKA working group »Family in the Field«. Her research focuses on migration, anthropology of the future, higher education, gender, and Ethiopia-India relations.