Big Man” politics in the social economy

A case study of microfinance in Kingston, Jamaica

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9255754
AutoresCaroline Shenaz Hossein (0000-0002-6696-2064, York University, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume74
Fascículo2
Páginas148-171
Data de publicação2016-04-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoReview of Social Economy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0034-6764 • E-ISSN: 1470-1162
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00346764.2015.1067754
OpenAlexW2333753914
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas20

Microfinance and its “reinvention as bankers-for-the-poor” to create financial inclusion has not been effective everywhere. The literature seems to suggest that the social economy and microfinance help marginalized business people; yet no one considers that political bias interferes with the social economy, making it hard for it to be just. The promise of micro-credit was to achieve a double bottom line: first, the financial sustainability of the lending institution itself, and second, the social benefit of providing loans to low-income business people. Yet, alternative pitches of a social economy to “help people” fail to analyze the embedded power dynamics within the social economy. In this case study in downtown Kingston, Jamaica, 233 small-business people who depend on development finance because of social exclusion now find that these targeted programs are intertwined in partisan, sometimes dangerous, politics. As a result, oppressed people opt out of micro-banking programs to resist “Big Man” politics – the politicians or gangsters attempting to control them. In this study of 307 interviews, I analyze the informal politics of Dons and politicians who misuse micro-credit for their own ends. I find that the coupling of class biases and clientelist practices in the social economy discourages eligible business people from taking micro-loans, and argue that the microfinance industry needs to pay close attention to this issue if it is to continue to help marginalized business people

Economic growth · Economics · Microfinance · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Urban and Rural Development Challenges