A Critical History of Poverty Finance: Colonial Roots and Neoliberal Failures (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780745344829)

A comprehensive historical tracing of how the contemporary finance-poverty-development nexus emerged.

'The definitive account of the history of poverty finance' - Susanne Soederberg

Finance, mobile, and digital technologies - 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. But 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.

Author: Bernards Nick Bernards
ISBN-10: 0745344828
ISBN-13: 9780745344829
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
Language: English
Published: 08/20/2022
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.43h x 5.43w x 0.79d