Preface

Part A: Introduction

Introduction / Otto Hospes and Hotze Lont

Part B: Challenging the Records and Discourse

Microcredit and Poverty Reduction: Trade-Off between Building Institutions and Reaching the Poor / Aminur Rahman

Surviving in the World of Microdebt: A Case from Rural Bangladesh / Hamidul Huq

Part C: Livelihood Strategies and the Meaning of Microfinance

Microfinance from Below: Exploring Rural Livelihoods in Tanzania / Jochem Zoetelief

Utilizing, Accumulating and Protecting Livelihood Assets: The Role of Urban Informal Financial Services in Kampala, Uganda / Julie L. Gifford

The Culture of Giving and its Relationship to Saving / Vupenyu Dzingirai

Part D: Critical Processes Shaping Livelihood, Savings and Debt Strategies

Struggling to Save Up Cash: Seasonal Migration and Vulnerability in West Bengal, India / Ben Rogaly and Abdur Rafique

The Political Ecology of Debt and Class Formation among Mexican Colonias on the Southwestern United States / Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez

Savings Arrangements in Eastern Burkina Faso: An Evolutionary Perspective on Institutional Innovation/ Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer

Part E: Myths and Secrets of Financial Self-help Organizations

Public versus Private Domains: A Case Study of a Sri Lankan ROSCA / Sarah Southwold Llewellyn

The Goose with the Golden Eggs: An Unsuccessful Linkage Group in Urban Indonesia / Hotze Lont

When Coercion Takes Over: The Limits of Social Capital in Microfinance Schemes / Peer Smets and Erik Bähre

Secrets of Institutional Transformation: The Low Politics of Financial Self-help Organizations in Post-Colonial Africa / Otto Hospes and Mark Prosé

Part F: Using Alternative Principles for Design

Microfinance Market: Huge, Diverse- and Waiting for You / Stuart Rutherford

About the Authors