Explaining microfinance's resilience: the case of microfinance in Australia (original) (raw)
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The Sustainability of What? The challenge for microfinance in Australia
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Microfinance in a developed welfare state: A hybrid technology for the governance of the outcast
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Although microfinance is often thought of as a tool to address poverty in developing countries, it is also being introduced in a number of countries in the developed world. The paper presents a qualitative study of the first year of the introduction of microfinance to address vulnerable groups in Sweden. Savings banks and nonprofit organisations collaborated in the introduction of microfinance as microcredit for micro-enterprise. The paper argues that the rationalities behind actors’ participation in microfinance differed, with banks adopting a market rationality and nonprofits mainly a rationality of community empowerment. In line with a governmentality approach, the paper argues that the neoliberal market rationality dominating microcredit for micro-enterprise colonises the space of the communitarian aspect by turning the social into the personal. The paper’s qualitative approach complements a governmentality analysis by highlighting the everyday resistance to the neoliberal financialisation of inclusion efforts.
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Microfinance is an area of research whose popularity is reflected by the unique potential for wide ranging socioeconomic outcomes which support political goals unmatched by alternative avenues for financial support. However, despite the large amounts of financial resources funding microfinance across the world, and glorious potential economic benefits, there is no consensus regarding the success or failure of microfinance in achieving socioeconomic political goals. This paper examines the empirical literature on microfinance to establish where microfinance has developed from, the organisation of MFI’s, the success or failure of microfinance, and future research methodological possibilities. It has been found that the success or failure of microfinance depends on the benchmarks to which it is measured. From a social empowerment perspective, microfinance success has been observed. However, from an economic development perspective the results are equivocal. The success of microfinance ...