This dissertation research project will conduct an ethnographic study of households' budgeting decisions and the importance of trust, in relation to market factors, in informal lending practices in urban Zambia. The questions asked are how personal trust is used in informal and semi-formal credit relationships, and how trust is maintained across changing and difficult economic situations. Methods include participant observation, semi-structured interviews, survey sampling of a number of households, and an extensive period of budget recording and analysis of a smaller sample of households. This research is important because informal economic relations are becoming more and more significant in both developed and developing countries as economies worsen. Increased understanding of the strategies and issues that poor urban households follow in obtaining necessary cash for subsistence will help decision makers deal with potential causes of urban discontent.
