| ID | 130729 |
| Title Proper | Microcredit and building social capital in rural Bangladesh - drawing the uneasy link |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Uddin, Mohammad Jasim |
| Publication | 2014. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In the 1990s, social capital and the group-based microcredit programme emerged as major planks of developmental interventions, and both approaches have underscored the necessity to mobilize social factors in the alleviation of poverty and social solidarity. The group-based microcredit model is considered an effective policy instrument for increasing women's access to financial capital and for strengthening their social capital at the local level. This study contributes to the continuing debate over how or if group-based microcredit facilitates to the formation of social capital at the local level in Bangladesh. Case studies and ethnographic (in-depth) interviews of 151 women microcredit borrowers of the Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee of Bangladesh were used in this study. The study suggests that the relationship between participation in the group-based microcredit programme and the facilitation of social capital at the local level is at best ambiguous. The assumed association between microcredit membership and building social capital (social networks, norms of reciprocity and collective identity and action) is much less prominent than commonly suggested by many previous scholars and development practitioners. |
| `In' analytical Note | Contemporary South Asia Vol. 22, No.2; Jun 2014: p.143-156 |
| Journal Source | Contemporary South Asia Vol. 22, No.2; Jun 2014: p.143-156 |
| Key Words | Microcredit ; Networks ; Reciprocity ; Solidarity ; Social Capital ; Bangladesh |