Labour, Finance and Social Dynamics

Objectives

In India, as well as in many southern countries, globalisation, liberalisation and decentralisation bring about an increase in inequalities. At the same time, a growing number of initiatives (public schemes, NGOs, grass-roots organizations) developing new kinds of services, attempt to manage, "as well as possible", decentralisation on the one hand, and poverty and inequalities (and sometimes both together) on the other hand. Various kinds of social dynamics result of this: "informalisation" of the economy (with a significant reduction of State intervention, on the level of employment as well as with social protection) goes hand in hand with making "the poor" responsible for themselves through self-employment and risk management (microfinance) and self-organisation (within a pre-determined framework). At the same time, new forms of public/private partnerships and links of a new nature between public authorities and "civil society" do emerge. Such innovations, which we can broadly qualify as "social" (of a technical and organisational nature, as much as institutional), are still uncertain and sometimes conflicting.

This research programme attempts to analyse the formation of these new forms of service, their legitimacy, impact and limits, as well as the discourses and ideologies within which they take place. To do so, we combine a two-pronged approach:

• On a micro-scale, the point of view of the populations concerned (the way in which they perceive, understand the services offered and how they make them their own). This supposes a detailed analysis of their relationship to money, finance, employment, labour and solidarity.
• On a macro-scale, the analysis of the development processes of these policies: which model, which scheme if they are governmental initiatives, which ideology if they are NGO initiatives? Which link with former models (continuity or break?)? How are they received, how do they participate and respond to the processes of globalisation, liberalisation and decentralisation?

Five themes are favoured:

1) “Rural microfinance and employment": analysis of the processes put in place, with, as a main hypothesis, that the impact of microfinance depends both on the environment and the quality of financial services provided. This project is part of a broader, international research project, backed up by the French National Agency for Research (ANR) (programme "Les Suds, Aujourd’hui"). (Contact: Dr. Isabelle Guérin)

2) "The Social Dimension of Money, Finance and Microfinance” with an in-depth analysis of the link between money, finance and social relations (whether they are based on power, hierarchy, domination or on equality and solidarity), and with a focus on over-indebtedness and debt bondage (and the consequences in terms of forced labour and child labour). (Contact: Dr. Isabelle Guérin)

3) "Labour: Popular Worlds and Globalisation" with a historical and updated analysis of employed and unemployed populations; how caste, kinship and solidarity relations shape work relations, work perceptions and work identities. (Contact: David Picherit)

4) "Social Innovations: Discourses and Practices" with an analysis of organizations and institutions (processes, functioning and ideologies). (Contact: Dr. Marc Roesch)

5) "Civil Society, Solidarity and public Spheres" with an analysis of solidarity mechanisms and public spheres (emergence, evolution or disappearance, link with pre-existing institutions). (Contact: Dr. Isabelle Guérin)

Download full project overview(.pdf)

Materials and Methods

Its interdisciplinary nature is specific to this programme, with researchers in economy, anthropology, agronomy, sociology, political science as well as geography. A large part of the work is focused on South India with, nevertheless, a comparative perspective between various countries (especially Mexico and Madagascar), the main objective being, not to compare "objects" or "situations" but rather processes and mechanisms.

Partners

• Madras University, Department of Anthropology
• Centre de recherche sur les innovations dans l’économie sociale, les entreprises et les syndicats, Université UQUAM, Montreal, Canada
• Institute for Human Development (New-Delhi)
• Institut Universitaire d’Etudes du Développement, Geneva, Switzerland
• International Labour Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
• Laboratoire Population Environnement Développement (IRD-Université de Provence), Marseille, France
• Laboratoire interdisciplinaire pour la Sociologie Economique (CNRS - CNAM), Paris, France
• Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris)
• Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
• Research Unit « Marchés organisations institutions et stratégies d’acteurs » (Supagro, INRA, CIHEAM, CIRAD, IRD), Montpellier, France
• Centre National de la Recherche Appliquée au Développement Rural, Madagascar
• Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social en Occidente, Mexico
• Various Indian Microfinance Organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations

Funding

• Centre de Coopération Internationale pour le Développement (CIRAD), France
• French Institute of Pondicherry
• French Ministry for Research and Higher Studies (programme "Societies and cultures for a sustainable development")
• French National Agency for Research (ANR) (programme "Les Suds, Aujourd’hui")
• Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, France
• International Labour Organisation, ‘Social Finance’ Unit (Geneva)
• Francophone network ‘Entrepreneurship’ of Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie
• Institute of Research of the "Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations", France

Team

Project leader

• Dr. Isabelle Guérin, Economics (FIP/ IRD)

Research scholars involved in the projects

• Dr. Marc Roesch, Agro-economics, FIP/Centre de Coopération Internationale pour le Développement (CIRAD)
• Dr. Djallal Heuzé, Anthropology, Research Director CNRS/ EHESS
• Dr. Geert de Neve, Anthropology, University of Sussex, UK
• Prof. Jean Michel Servet, Economics, FIP/Graduate Institute of Development Studies Institut (IUED, Geneva)

• Dr. Mummidi Thanuja, Anthropology, IFP

• Marek Hudon, Economics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

PhD and Post-Doc Scholars

Download research abstracts (.pdf)

• Dr. Sandrine Prévot, Anthropology, Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS) and University of Paris X, Nanterre
  Adaptation / transformation of pastoral societies in the face of modern changes

• Vanessa Caru, History,University of Paris VII-Denis Diderot, France
  The working class’ habitat in Bombay, in colonial times (1850-1947).

• Cyril Fouillet, Economics (FIP, University Lumière Lyon 2), spv J.-M Servet
  Microfinance services and innovation.

• Celina Jauzelon, Anthropology (FIP, EHESS, Paris), spv D. Heuzé
  The social action sector: from the welfare State to the non-governmental state ? Case study of the Tamil Nadu’s Women.

• David Picherit, Anthropology (FIP, University Nanterre, Paris), spv G. Tarabout
  Between Villages and Working Places: Circulation of Manual Labourers in Andhra Pradesh

• Dr. Camilla Roman, Anthropology, Oxford University, Queen Elizabeth House
  Learning and Innovation in Clusters: case studies from the Indian silk industry

• Sylvain Ropital, Social Sciences, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
  Globalisation, post 2004 Tsunami reconstruction, and differenciated dynamics of social change in the coastal villages of the District of Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu

Research Assistant :

• Venkatasubramanian, IFP
• Ponnarasu S., IFP
• Regular hosting of French and Indian students

Main Outputs

Seminars

• National seminar Forms of Resistances to Bondage proposed by the FIP and organized by Réseau Asie - IMASIE (CNRS, Institut des Mondes Asiatiques), September 2007.
• International seminar Debt Bondage : Issues & Perspectives co-organised by FIP, Institute for Human Development (Delhi) and FNV Vakcentrale (Dutch Trade Union), April 2007.
• National seminar "Understanding and Identifying Indebtedness and Over-Indebtedness", co-organised by FIP and CIRAD and funded by CIRAD, October, 2006.
• International seminar "Labour Relationships, Identities and Bondage", co-organised by FIP, Institute for Human Development (Delhi), International Labour Organisation (Geneva / Delhi), IRD/LPED and funded by FIP, IRD, ILO. February, 2006.
• International seminar "Microfinance and Empowerment", co-organised and co-funded by FIP and IRD. January 2004.

Major Publications

Download list of selected publications by team members (.pdf)

Selected books

• India’s Unfree Workforce
  Of Bondage Old and New

Editor(s) : Jan Breman, Isabelle Guérin, Aseem Prakash. ISBN 9780195698466, Hardback, January 2009
Rs. 895

In the course of India’s transformation to market capitalism, the use of unfree labour has increased dramatically. Hidden behind the glamour of accelerated growth in production, and visible signs of wealth, is the poverty and vulnerability of large segments of rural and urban workers.

This volume analyses the historical, social, economic, technical, and political fabric of bondage, while highlighting the continuity between the past and the present. Based on an interdisciplinary perspective, the book is broadly divided into three sections—agrarian bondage in historical perspective; contemporary forms of bondage; and the urgent need for legal and global action. It argues that while the state gives absolute priority to the interests of formal and informal capital accumulation, it has abdicated its responsibility of providing basic security and protection to the people at the bottom of the economic and social hierarchy.

• Banquiers aux pieds nus : la microfinance

Jean-Michel Servet. Paris: Odile Jacob, 2006, 511 p.
Language : French. 30 Euros

Unknown at the beginning at the 1990s except by a small circle of specialists, microfinance today enjoys an increasing popularity. Nevertheless, its media coverage and the hopes that the public authorities rest in it, are often founded on an erroneous vision of its impact and the services that it provides to the masses. This vision presupposes the following: That the essential need of most impoverished populations is the need for credit, since they strongly prefer to start their own small entrepreneurial activities, rather than earn wages. That the main limiting factor in the expansion of microcredit is the lack of resources for lending. That solidarity loans are the most common form of microcredit. That the main clients of microfinance institutions are women from the poorest sections of society. That microcredit institutions that are both profitable and can serve a poor or very poor clientele, can be put in place very rapidly. So many common misconceptions, except in exceptional circumstances.

Keywords: microfinance, poverty, financial exclusion

• Microfinance en Asie: entre traditions et innovations

Isabelle Guérin, Kamala Marius-Gnanou , Thierry Pairault et Jean-Michel Servet (eds), IFP-IRD-Karthala, 2005, 229 p. (Distributed by Karthala).
Language: French. 18 €

The objective of this book is to show, beyond particular political and social contexts, the main challenges microfinance organisations have to deal with today. The book is divided in three parts: the institutionalization of informal finance practices, the linkage of microfinance and public policies and the ability of microfinance to combat inequalities or to promote democratic practices and empowerment. Microfinance appears to be the fruit of a permanent co-production based on crossbreeding and hybridization where "tradition" and "innovation" interact and enrich themselves mutually. The authors conclude by inquiring as to its future. Without lapsing into pessimism, they are wary of any optimism that would blind them to the known weaknesses of microfinance institutions and their practices.

Keywords: microfinance, inequality, public policy, informal finance

• Microfinance challenges: empowerment or disempowerment of the poor?

Edited by Isabelle Guérin & Jane Palier, 2005, 384 p. (CSS n°10)
Language: English. 450 Rs (16 €)

The causal relation between microfinance and empowerment is neither linear, nor unequivocal, and it is even less systematic. This book is an attempt to nourish the debate, on the one hand, by combining theoretical reflections and case studies, and on the other hand, by engaging practitioners and researchers from various backgrounds. The first part is an attempt to define the concept of empowerment. The second part highlights the central role of the environ-ment: the link between microfinance and empowerment is all the more subtle, and sometimes unfore-seeable, as microfinance projects take place within an economic, socio-cultural and political context that is itself complex, evolutionary and which partially conditions the results obtained. The third part relates to the crucial question of evaluation.

Keywords: microfinance, empowerment, poverty

• Microfinance: from daily survival to social change

Edited by Isabelle Guérin & Jean-Michel Servet, 2003, 153 p. (PPSS n° 30)
Language: English. 200 Rs (7 €)

Is microfinance simply a short-term response to immediate problems or is it a possible engine of transformation in social relations and in the struggle against certain forms of oppression and discrimination? Through examples as varied as India, China, and Senegal, the texts presented here show that one cannot avoid a preliminary analysis of social dynamics and the way in which monetary and financial practices - including microfinance - take part in these social dynamics. If we admit that money and finance are social structures, the capacity of microfinance to democratize economic practices and to transcend hierarchical relations becomes more problematic. It supposes a global solution, where financial services must be supplemented by education as well as lobbying and advocacy.

Keywords: microfinance, informal finance, inequalities