What impact do economic, demographic, and social change have on the everyday health and well being of families and households in contemporary South Africa? The authors explore this question in twenty-nine case studies of people with diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, class, sex and gender, age, and location, considering the influence of these factors across the life course.

Nolwazi Mkhwanazi is a senior researcher at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand. Lenore Manderson is professor of public health and medical anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand and visiting professor of anthropology at Brown University.