Borrowing Together: Microfinance and Cultivating Social Ties
Becky Yang Hsu
Nov 2017 · Cambridge University Press
Ebook
189
Pages
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About this ebook
In Borrowing Together, Becky Hsu examines the social aspects of the most intriguing element of group-lending microfinance: social collateral. She investigates the details of the social relationships among fellow borrowers and between borrowers and lenders, finding that these relationships are the key that explains the outcomes in rural China. People access money through their social networks, but they also do the opposite: cultivate their social relationships by moving money. Hsu not only looks closely at what transpired in the course of a microfinance intervention, but also reverses the gaze to examine the expectations that brought the program to the site in the first place. Hsu explains why microfinance's 'articles of faith' failed to comprehend the influence of longstanding relationships and the component of morality, and how they raise doubts - not only about microfinance - but also about the larger goals of development research.
About the author
Becky Yang Hsu (Ph.D., Princeton University) is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, Washington DC. Her research interests include religion, organizations, Chinese society, and global development. Her research has received numerous awards from the Eastern Sociological Society and the American Sociological Association. She is currently doing new research on how people define happiness in China, which has been featured in The Washington Post.
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