A Critical History of Poverty Finance: Colonial Roots and Neoliberal Failures

Fintech is being heralded as a silver bullet in the fight against poverty, but a Critical History of Poverty Finance demonstrates that it suffers from the same essential flaws as earlier iterations of neoliberal financial inclusion. It reinforces existing patterns of inequality and uneven development, many of which date back to the colonial era.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 20 August 2022
Publisher: Pluto Press

The definitive account of the history of poverty finance is presented by Susanne Soederberg in her book, "Finance, Mobile, and Digital Technologies (Fintech) - or Fintech - are being heralded in the world of development by the likes of the IMF and World Bank as a silver bullet in the fight against poverty. However, should we believe the hype? A Critical History of Poverty Finance demonstrates how newfangled digital financial inclusion efforts suffer from the same essential flaws as earlier iterations of neoliberal financial inclusion. Relying on artificially created markets that simply aren't there among the world's most disadvantaged economic actors, they also reinforce existing patterns of inequality and uneven development, many of which date back to the colonial era. Bernards offers an astute analysis of the current fintech fad, contextualized through a detailed colonial history of development finance, that ultimately reveals the neoliberal vision of poverty alleviation for the pipe dream it is.

The definitive account of the history of poverty finance is presented by Susanne Soederberg in her book, "Finance, Mobile, and Digital Technologies (Fintech) - or Fintech - are being heralded in the world of development by the likes of the IMF and World Bank as a silver bullet in the fight against poverty. However, should we believe the hype? A Critical History of Poverty Finance demonstrates how newfangled digital financial inclusion efforts suffer from the same essential flaws as earlier iterations of neoliberal financial inclusion. Relying on artificially created markets that simply aren't there among the world's most disadvantaged economic actors, they also reinforce existing patterns of inequality and uneven development, many of which date back to the colonial era. Bernards offers an astute analysis of the current fintech fad, contextualized through a detailed colonial history of development finance, that ultimately reveals the neoliberal vision of poverty alleviation for the pipe dream it is.

Weight: 254g
Dimension: 136 x 214 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780745344829