The Politics of Microfinance: A Comparative Study of Jamaica, Guyana and Haiti

摘要: The microfinance revolution of the 1980s acclaimed micro-credit as a tool that would improve lives economically active people trapped in poverty. 2006 Nobel prize awarded to Mohammed Yunus and Grameen Bank confirmed for industry’s advocates was panacea, billions dollars have been channeled financial services poor. However, series high-profile scandals 2010 shook development agencies’ faith micro lending, support has waned light evidence alone cannot change structural inequalities end I show politics operate throughout industry, reproducing within process lending. In my political ethnographic study 460 three countries, find race class is entrenched all yet there are different outcomes related attitudes managers. Jamaica Guyana, lenders demonstrate historically rooted racial biases go beyond gender determine allocation loan resources. Ingrained interfere with loans urban poor because discriminatory practices reinforce pre-existing social divisions. Haiti case