Graunt Kruger | Wits Business School (original) (raw)
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University of the Basque Country, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
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Microfinance and credit services for small business are enjoying world-wide support through the f... more Microfinance and credit services for small business are enjoying world-wide support through the financial inclusion movement, including in the US. Though lending has become the default funding approach in developmental projects, various studies have argued that microfinance does not live up to its promises.1 Why not focus on the asset side of the balance sheet, to give the business a healthier, less encumbered start?
This is a short overview of PhD research highlighting financial inclusion as a strategic issue in... more This is a short overview of PhD research highlighting financial inclusion as a strategic issue in the financial services sector of South Africa, the research methodology, findings, theoretical contributions and recommendations.
Financial inclusion is promoted as an important economic development program to solve the lack of... more Financial inclusion is promoted as an important economic development program to solve the lack of access to formal financial services for billions of people around the world. The concept “financial inclusion” has entered mainstream business and development discourses as an all-encompassing term for innovation in financial services for the poor. South African policymakers and financial service providers have embraced this approach to address some of the country’s political, social and economic imbalances.
Following Foucault, this paper is an attempt to understand how the concept of financial inclusion has functioned in our society to create human beings as subjects. Four texts from institutional, academic and local sources are analysed using a specially developed Foucauldian discourse analysis method. The comparison of the unique combination of subject positions, problematizations, strategic actions and forms of control between the texts is of interest. These four aspects of the production of subjects illuminate points of continuity and discontinuity between the texts. Discontinuities are important ways of locating potential points of failure within financial inclusion constructs. Points of continuity between the texts, on the other hand, trace the kinds of subjects that the texts, as instances of discourse, produce. The first subject is concerned with earning an income from their body as a labouring economic site. The second earns an income from a tangible property such as a shop. The third kind of financial subject owns intangible property such as a savings account. With this boundary of financial inclusion established as concerned with income and expense management, a further proposition is outlined. Asset building is proposed as a field of activity not currently considered part of mainstream financial inclusion. This proposition puts into question the terms on which individuals are to be included by the development project of financial inclusion.
Financial inclusion is promoted as a development program to solve the lack of access to formal fi... more Financial inclusion is promoted as a development program to solve the lack of access to formal financial services for billions of people around the world. South African policymakers, financial service providers and academics have embraced this concept to describe their focus on some of the country’s political, social and economic imbalances. These mainstream discourses create specific notions of entrepreneurship. Through discourse analysis of ethnographic interviews this study contends that small business owners articulate entrepreneurial subjectivities not aligned to those financial inclusion discourses. We conclude that small business owners produce discourses of self-determination – a fourth mode of objectification that augments the original three proposed by Foucault. The limitations of current financial inclusion discourses are thus examined along with opportunities for innovation in commercial, policy and research endeavours.
Microfinance and credit services for small business are enjoying world-wide support through the f... more Microfinance and credit services for small business are enjoying world-wide support through the financial inclusion movement, including in the US. Though lending has become the default funding approach in developmental projects, various studies have argued that microfinance does not live up to its promises.1 Why not focus on the asset side of the balance sheet, to give the business a healthier, less encumbered start?
This is a short overview of PhD research highlighting financial inclusion as a strategic issue in... more This is a short overview of PhD research highlighting financial inclusion as a strategic issue in the financial services sector of South Africa, the research methodology, findings, theoretical contributions and recommendations.
Financial inclusion is promoted as an important economic development program to solve the lack of... more Financial inclusion is promoted as an important economic development program to solve the lack of access to formal financial services for billions of people around the world. The concept “financial inclusion” has entered mainstream business and development discourses as an all-encompassing term for innovation in financial services for the poor. South African policymakers and financial service providers have embraced this approach to address some of the country’s political, social and economic imbalances.
Following Foucault, this paper is an attempt to understand how the concept of financial inclusion has functioned in our society to create human beings as subjects. Four texts from institutional, academic and local sources are analysed using a specially developed Foucauldian discourse analysis method. The comparison of the unique combination of subject positions, problematizations, strategic actions and forms of control between the texts is of interest. These four aspects of the production of subjects illuminate points of continuity and discontinuity between the texts. Discontinuities are important ways of locating potential points of failure within financial inclusion constructs. Points of continuity between the texts, on the other hand, trace the kinds of subjects that the texts, as instances of discourse, produce. The first subject is concerned with earning an income from their body as a labouring economic site. The second earns an income from a tangible property such as a shop. The third kind of financial subject owns intangible property such as a savings account. With this boundary of financial inclusion established as concerned with income and expense management, a further proposition is outlined. Asset building is proposed as a field of activity not currently considered part of mainstream financial inclusion. This proposition puts into question the terms on which individuals are to be included by the development project of financial inclusion.
Financial inclusion is promoted as a development program to solve the lack of access to formal fi... more Financial inclusion is promoted as a development program to solve the lack of access to formal financial services for billions of people around the world. South African policymakers, financial service providers and academics have embraced this concept to describe their focus on some of the country’s political, social and economic imbalances. These mainstream discourses create specific notions of entrepreneurship. Through discourse analysis of ethnographic interviews this study contends that small business owners articulate entrepreneurial subjectivities not aligned to those financial inclusion discourses. We conclude that small business owners produce discourses of self-determination – a fourth mode of objectification that augments the original three proposed by Foucault. The limitations of current financial inclusion discourses are thus examined along with opportunities for innovation in commercial, policy and research endeavours.