Obligation of eldercare in the context of pentecostal charismatic churches

A variety of researchers have linked engagement in Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (PCCs) to affordances for neoliberal individualism in West African (and other Global South) settings. Neoliberal individualist understandings of relationality have an association with a sense of voluntary connection and freedom from obligation. This chapter investigates the extent to which engagement with Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (PCCs) is associated with individualistic understandings of care and obligation to an elderly parent. Participants (N = 30) in public spaces at a variety of Ghanaian locations responded to semi-structured interview questions about understandings of care and obligation to an elderly parent. Analyses of responses indicated that evidence of individualistic understandings of obligation was greater among participants who attended PCCs than among participants who attended Traditional Western Orthodox Churches (TWOC). Results are consistent with the idea of PCCs as a cultural force for neoliberal individualism. The discussion of the work in this chapter locates it within a broader project of "Theory from the South" that considers experience of relationality and love in African settings as an epistemic foundation for reconsideration of standard knowledge forms in hegemonic psychological science.