Social standards and daily practice of microcredit programs
Date
2009-08-13T17:41:36Z
Authors
Yu, Leqian
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Abstract
This thesis investigates the way in which microcredit programs that form parts of mainstream international development strategies contribute to the transformation of female subjects in rural China. By undertaking a case study in Inner Mongolia, China, this thesis elucidates the nature of the social standards that govern everyday practice of local microcredit programs that targeted primarily at poor rural women. Qualitative research methods, including participant observation, in-depth interviews and textual analysis, were employed in order to uncover the specific social standards that are embedded in the programs and the way they function in the particular local settings. The results of this research indicate that microcredit borrowers are not selected according to neutral, inclusive economic criteria, but according to “capacity to repay”. The measurement of the capacity to repay relies heavily on social criteria that are intimately connected with the borrowers’ personal attributes and the way these are perceived by the lending institution and the borrower peers. Both the local microfinance institution and the women borrowers actively participate in the creation and enforcement of these social standards. The social standards function as social norms that shape and control the lives of rural women and by doing so transform the poor rural women into self-disciplined rural subjects and proper and reliable microcredit clients.
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rural development, China, microfinance, subjectivity formation