Suchergebnisse

"When Grameen Bank was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, microfinance was lauded as an important contributor to the economic development of the Global South. However, political scandals, mission-drift, and excessive commercialization have tarnished this example of responsible development. Politicized Microfinance insightfully discusses these negative developments while providing a path towards redemption. In this work, Caroline Shenaz Hossein explores the politics, histories and social prejudices that have shaped the legacy of microfinance in Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad. Writing from a feminist perspective and via individual interviews, focus groups, historical analysis, ethnographic methods and participant observation, Hossein offers multiple solutions that prioritize the needs of marginalized and historically oppressed people of African descent. A must read for scholars of political economy, diasporas studies, women's studies, as well as development practitioners, Hossein deftly argues for microfinance to return to its origins as a political tool, fighting for those living in the margins."--

A Black epistemology in economics is needed to bring ethics back into business. Contributions of racialized people in the economy are ignored. Black and racialized scholars also find that their work is not cited, even by the most liberal-minded social economists. In the Americas, Black and racialized citizens innovate in the social and solidarity economy; yet their work goes unnoticed in the academic literature, or scholars approach them as the "Other" without invoking theory that reflects the very people they are writing about. Although the ills of neoliberal variants of capitalism are known, the diverse economies in which Black folk engage are less understood. Forcing White and European ideas on a non-White experience is limited in what it can do effect social change. Nor can we sever the Western ideologies in the field because it is this very bias why the Black radical tradition and other Black theories come into being. There is no shortage of Black writings on solidarity economics and they can now be housed in Black social economy. A Black social economy epistemology is politicized for goodness, and it is grounded theory, inclusive of the Black radical tradition, and lived experience because of the explanatory powers of these theoretical approaches to disrupt mainstream business and society.

Purpose
Academics examining the global South who engage in informal politics to understand social and political issues should be prepared to diversify their methods toolkit. Informal ties and politics are where one learns about social and economic exclusion. The paper aims to discuss these issues.


Design/methodology/approach
Mixed qualitative methods – such as individual interviews, surveys, and focus groups – provide an understanding of the people's perspective, enabling the researcher to truly know what is going on.


Findings
Fieldwork in the downtown communities of Kingston, Jamaica, has an element of danger because violence and politics are very much a part of the daily reality of the people being interviewed. In this paper, the author argues that studying how financial resources are allocated to low-income people and understanding why some groups purposefully self-exclude themselves from economic development programs require unorthodox field methods. The author thus uses political ethnography to understand the experience of marginalized Jamaican people.


Originality/value
Mixed qualitative methods and political ethnography assisted the author to understand the actual experience of marginalized people and politicized financial programs.

At the 1997 Microcredit Summit in Washington DC, the primary goal of microfinance agreed to was that it was a tool to upset conventional banking and to make financial services inclusive; yet this is not the case for microfinance in Guyana. Educated Indo-Guyanese lenders admitted to their own personal biases against Afro-Guyanese as clients without remorse in this case study of 93 people. I argue in this paper that micro-banking managers and staff hold onto historically-rooted prejudices which interfere with the allocation of loans. Race is seemingly the issue that divides the populace; however, I found issues of racial, class and gender bias intertwined in the lending process that deny poor Afro-Guyanese women loans. Personal bias can affect the management of economic development pro-grammes for the poor and it should not be assumed that microfinance helps everyone.Resumen: La exclusión de los 'hucksters' afroguyaneses en la microbancaEn la Cumbre de Microcrédito celebrada en Washington DC en 1997, se acordó que el objetivo principal de las microfinanzas era servir como herramienta para desbaratar la banca convencional y hacer inclusivos los servicios financieros; sin embargo, éste no es el caso de las microfinanzas en Guyana. Prestamistas indoguyaneses con una buena formación se deja-ron llevar sin reparos por sus propios prejuicios personales contra los afroguyaneses como clientes en este estudio de caso de 93 personas. En este documento sostengo que los directores y el personal de la microbanca se aferran a prejuicios enraizados históricamente que interfieren en la concesión de préstamos. Aparentemente la raza es la cuestión que divide al pueblo; sin embargo, identifiqué prejuicios raciales, de clase y de género entrelazados en el proceso crediticio por los que se deniegan préstamos a mujeres afroguyanesas pobres. Los prejuicios personales pueden afectar a la gestión de los programas de desarrollo económico para los pobres y no se debe asumir que las microfinanzas ayudan a todo el mundo.

At the 1997 Microcredit Summit in Washington DC, the primary goal of microfinance agreed to was that it was a tool to upset conventional banking and to make financial services inclusive; yet this is not the case for microfinance in Guyana. Educated Indo-Guyanese lenders admitted to their own personal biases against Afro-Guyanese as clients without remorse in this case study of 93 people. I argue in this paper that micro-banking managers and staff hold onto historically-rooted prejudices which interfere with the allocation of loans. Race is seemingly the issue that divides the populace; however, I found issues of racial, class and gender bias intertwined in the lending process that deny poor Afro-Guyanese women loans. Personal bias can affect the management of economic development pro-grammes for the poor and it should not be assumed that microfinance helps everyone.Resumen: La exclusión de los 'hucksters' afroguyaneses en la microbancaEn la Cumbre de Microcrédito celebrada en Washington DC en 1997, se acordó que el objetivo principal de las microfinanzas era servir como herramienta para desbaratar la banca convencional y hacer inclusivos los servicios financieros; sin embargo, éste no es el caso de las microfinanzas en Guyana. Prestamistas indoguyaneses con una buena formación se deja-ron llevar sin reparos por sus propios prejuicios personales contra los afroguyaneses como clientes en este estudio de caso de 93 personas. En este documento sostengo que los directores y el personal de la microbanca se aferran a prejuicios enraizados históricamente que interfieren en la concesión de préstamos. Aparentemente la raza es la cuestión que divide al pueblo; sin embargo, identifiqué prejuicios raciales, de clase y de género entrelazados en el proceso crediticio por los que se deniegan préstamos a mujeres afroguyanesas pobres. Los prejuicios personales pueden afectar a la gestión de los programas de desarrollo económico para los pobres y no se debe asumir que las microfinanzas ayudan a todo el mundo.

Informal banks are as relevant as they were in slave times because they are creating financial alternatives for marginalized people. I explore this issue with an empirical study of 398 business people in the slums of Jamaica and Guyana. I use intersectionality theorizing to explain that poor women organize local banks as a form of contestation against the threat of violence, partisan and informal politics. Women from poor communities mobilize economic resources through mutual aid to resist dependence on corrupt political systems and exclusionary financial institutions. I argue that the banker ladies reorganize money markets for themselves and others. By organizing inclusive financial programs the banker ladies also build social capital through managing locally-based economic resources.