ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the poverty of local livelihoods is only one part of the economy of Chiawa, Zambia. Substantively, it shows that Chiawa villagers do consider economic development to be a vital component of 'the good life', but that this needs to put relationships between people and the environment, not simply growth and profits, at the centre. Focused on well-being, the chapter considers both how people were doing in material terms (livelihoods and hunger, education and health) and how they were thinking and feeling about their lives. It provides an introduction to the cultural construction of well-being in Chiawa, in which the material and relational are inextricably linked together. The chapter describes local understandings of well-being and their strong ethic of care and reciprocity which stretches across time and space, as people affirm and confirm their identities and their personal and social relationships through the giving and receiving of material goods.
