Money at the Margins: Global Perspectives on Technology, Financial Inclusion, and Design

Published by Berghahn Books 2018

Money at the Margins

Global Perspectives on Technology, Financial Inclusion, and Design

Edited by: Bill Maurer , Smoki Musaraj and Ivan V. Small

Volume 6 in the series The Human Economy

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781785336546

Overview
Contents

About this book

Mobile money, e-commerce, cash cards, retail credit cards, and more—as new monetary technologies become increasingly available, the global South has cautiously embraced these mediums as a potential solution to the issue of financial inclusion. How, if at all, do new forms of dematerialized money impact people’s everyday financial lives? In what way do technologies interact with financial repertoires and other socio-cultural institutions? How do these technologies of financial inclusion shape the global politics and geographies of difference and inequality? These questions are at the heart of Money at the Margins, a groundbreaking exploration of the uses and socio-cultural impact of new forms of money and financial services.

Author / Editor information

Bill Maurer is Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology and Law, University of California, Irvine. He is the Director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI), and author of How Would You Like to Pay? How Technology is Changing the Future of Money (2015) among many other publications.

Smoki Musaraj is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of Study of the Anthropology Honors Tutorial Program at Ohio University. She has published in various scholarly journals, including Cultural Anthropology, Ethnologie Française, Përpjekja, Anthropology of East Europe Review, and Current Anthropology.

Ivan V. Small is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and International Studies at Central Connecticut State University. He is author of Currencies of Imagination: Channeling Money and Chasing Mobility in Vietnam (Cornell University Press, 2018). He has consulted for various think tanks, foundations and nonprofit organizations including the Smithsonian, India China Institute, Ford Foundation, and World Policy Institute.

Bill Maurer is Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology and Law, University of California, Irvine. He is the Director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI), and author of How Would You Like to Pay? How Technology is Changing the Future of Money (2015) among many other publications.

Reviews

“This is an insightful collection that evokes the traditional ethnographic project of studying ‘out of the way’ places…One of the volume’s real strengths is its geographical breadth, in terms both of the cases analysed and of the authors’ background. The studies are drawn from research conducted in twelve different countries on four continents: Africa, Asia, South America, and North America.” • JRAI

“[This volume]… is a welcome addition that describes, often in vibrant detail, how people are already engaging in financial activities and how their acts of saving, loaning, hedging, and investing are intimately linked to performances of personhood, understandings of morality, and even expressions of desire… The collection offers insights for scholars and policy makers alike who are concerned with the consequences and futures of payment systems for the unbanked. The volume will also work in the classroom, as the chapters offer compelling case studies that do justice to the tremendous variation and the social complexity of people’s monetary repertoires and payment systems, underscoring how the margins are not examples of failed development but rather sites that generate insight and innovation.” • Current Anthropology

“Indispensable reading material for scholars as well as industry specialists interested in payment infrastructures and the questions of money and value, this book entails fruitful applications for classroom use. One can hope that this innovative volume will inspire a similarly creative following that continues to combine empirical and industry-based insights with those of anthropological theory, along with an inclusive platform of diverse collaborators.” • American Ethnologist

“This very important collection adds unique ethnographic case studies from a wide variety of geographic contexts to the growing literature on financial inclusion.” • Anke Schwittay, University of Sussex

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Money and Finance at the Margins Smoki Musaraj and Ivan V. Small Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. In/Exclusion The Question of Inclusion
Introduction Ananya Roy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
Chapter 1. A Living Fence: Financial Inclusion and Exclusion on the Haiti–Dominican Republic Border Erin B. Taylor, Heather A. Horst and Ananya Roy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
Chapter 2. Capital Mobilization among the Somali Refugee Business Community in Nairobi, Kenya Kenneth Omeje, John Mwangi Githigaro and Ananya Roy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
Chapter 3. The Use of Mobile-Money Technology among Vulnerable Populations in Kenya: Opportunities and Challenges for Poverty Reduction Ndunge Kiiti, Jane Wanza Mutinda and Ananya Roy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
Part II Value and Wealth What do Value and Wealth Do? “Life” Goes On, Whatever “Life” Is
Introduction Jane I. Guyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Chapter 4. Dhukuti Economies: The Moral and Social Ecologies of Rotating Finance in the Kathmandu Valley Sepideh Azarshahri Bajracharya and Jane I. Guyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Chapter 5. Chiastic Currency Spheres: Postsocialist “Conversions” in Cuba’s Dual Economy Mrinalini Tankha and Jane I. Guyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
Chapter 6. Carola and Saraswathi: Juggling Wealth in India and in Mexico Magadalena Villarreal, Isabelle Guérin, K. S. Santosh Kumar and Jane I. Guyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
Part III. Technology and Social Relations Infrastructures of Digital Money
Introduction Jenna Burrell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Chapter 7. “Financial Inclusion Means Your Money Isn’t with You”: Conflicts over Social Grants and Financial Services in South Africa Kevin P. Donovan and Jenna Burrell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Chapter 8. Social Networks of Mobile Money in Kenya Sibel Kusimba, Gabriel Kunyu, Elizabeth Gross and Jenna Burrell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Chapter 9. Accounting in the Margin: Financial Ecologies in between Big and Small Data José Ossandón, Tomás Ariztía, Macarena Barros, Camila Peralta and Jenna Burrell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Part IV Design and Practice
Introduction Joshua E. Blumenstock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Chapter 10. Understanding Social Relations and Payments among Rural Ethiopians Woldmariam F. Mesfin and Joshua E. Blumenstock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Chapter 11. Delivering Cash Grants to Indigenous Peoples through Cash Cards versus Over-the-Counter Modalities: The Case of the 4Ps Conditional Cash Transfer Program in Palawan, Philippines Anatoly “Jing” Gusto, Emily Roque and Joshua E. Blumenstock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Chapter 12. Effects of Mobile Banking on the Savings Practices of Low-Income Users: The Indian Experience Mani A. Nandhi and Joshua E. Blumenstock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	266
Chapter 13. Betting on Chance in Colombia: Using Empirical Evidence on Game Networks to Develop Practical Design Guidelines Ana María Echeverry, Coppelia Herrán Cuartas and Joshua E. Blumenstock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Afterword Monetary Ingenuity: Drink It In Bill Maurer and Joshua E. Blumenstock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	310

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 334
Keywords: money and financial services exploration; uses and sociocultural impact; global south; new monetary technologies; issue of financial inclusion; new forms of dematerialized money; e commerce; cash cards; retail credit cards; mobile money; groundbreaking exploration

eBook

Published: March 28, 2018
ISBN: 9781785336546