This thesis aims to investigate from a feminist perspective whether women in a rural community in... more This thesis aims to investigate from a feminist perspective whether women in a rural community in Bolivia can use microfinance to negotiate better terms for their citizenship rights. Citizenship frames debates on inclusion and development as Bolivia struggles with the demands of market reform and the imperative to include marginalised citizens. Drawing on participant observation, focus groups and interviews, I consider microfinance as a rural development strategy and examine whether or not access to credit may provide a space for
In 2016, Bolivia's indigenous fashions gained a place on the global stage. The Brazilian ambassad... more In 2016, Bolivia's indigenous fashions gained a place on the global stage. The Brazilian ambassador to La Paz hosted a catwalk show dedicated to the luxury designers who specialise in avant garde, high quality variations on the distinctive pollera outfit – the pleated skirt, derby hat, shawl and striking jewellery that have been definitive of indigenous identity in La Paz for centuries. In the same year New York fashion week featured, for the first time, a designer from Bolivia, Eliana Paco Paredes, who is also known for her elegant and luxurious pollera designs. This article explores the development of Chola Paceña fashions and traces its social and political lineage, and place in traditions that continue to underpin Aymaran social networks and economies, whilst also becoming a symbol of their consumer power. Bolivian GDP has tripled since 2006, and this wealth has accumulated in the vast urban informal markets which are dominated by people of indigenous and mestizo descent. It is predictable that such a rise in consumption power should enable a burgeoning fashion industry. However, the femininities represented by the designs, the models and the designers place in sharp relief gendered and racialized constructions of value and how the relationship between tradition, culture and economy, has configured in scholarly work on creative labour which has been predominantly based on the experience of post-industrial cities in the global North.
Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate, (2017), ‘The ‘Solidarity Economy’ Model and Local Finance: Le... more Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate, (2017), ‘The ‘Solidarity Economy’ Model and Local Finance: Lessons from New Left Experiments in Latin America?’ in Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate (eds) Seduced and Betrayed: Exposing the Contemporary Microfinance Phenomenon, SAR Press
This article argues that, the dynamics, exchanges, mobilities and logics that create the urban sp... more This article argues that, the dynamics, exchanges, mobilities and logics that create the urban space of La Paz challenge the key terms of debates and theories in critical urban studies. Whilst the physical topography of La Paz leaves an unforgettable, unique impression, the cultural, ethnic/racial, social, economic and political map in this city presents penetrating and indelible challenges to critical urban theory, that can itself inform analyses of cities around the world that are similar and dissimilar in myriad ways. In the urban landscape of La Paz can be read the multiple power struggles that have shaped the city, and whilst the logic of capital has indeed underpinned many of these tensions, the racialised dynamics of colonialism, the political struggles that demarcate the formal and the informal, the competing modes of governance that have jurisdiction over the city, and the gendered struggles that are never only confined to the household, have been crucial in shaping the Bolivian capital.
Este artículo explora cómo la ciudad de La Paz ha cambiado a raíz del surgimiento de la "chola bu... more Este artículo explora cómo la ciudad de La Paz ha cambiado a raíz del surgimiento de la "chola burguesía" en Bolivia –personas que trabajan en gran parte en el comercio informal y que han sido particularmente beneficiados por el triplicado del PIB de Bolivia durante el último diez años. El aumento de la riqueza en los mercados informales bien establecidos en La Paz ha sido tal que las familias cuya residencia y medios de subsistencia están basados en áreas marginadas de la ciudad ahora están invirtiendo en la propiedad en el lujoso barrio de la 'Zona Sur'. Este estudio de caso puede leerse como un ejemplo del fenómeno global de la gentrificación, aunque requiere una fuerte base empírica en las construcciones locales de clase, raza y pobreza. Sin embargo, argumento que una crítica más profunda de las teorías utilizadas para analizar los cambios urbanos son necesarios para captar las complejidades políticas, económicas y culturales de los cambios recientes en La Paz. Palabras clave: Ciudad, Movilidad social, burguesía chola, La Paz, teoría crítica urbana. No ordinary city: What critical urban theory can learn from La Paz (Bolivia) This article explores how the city of La Paz has changed as a result of the emergence of the "chola bourgeoisie" in Bolivia-people who work largely in informal commerce and who have been particularly benefited by the triplicate of Bolivia's GDP during the last ten years. The increase in wealth in established informal markets in La Paz has been such that families whose residence and livelihoods are based in marginal areas of the city are now investing in property in the luxurious neighborhood of the 'Southern Zone'. This study case can be read as an example of the global phenomenon of gentrification, although it requires a strong empirical basis in the local constructions of class, race and poverty. However, I argue that a deeper critique of the theories used to analyze urban changes are necessary to capture the political, economic, and cultural complexities of recent changes in La Paz.
Chapter 16 in Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate, (eds.) Seduced and Betrayed: Exposing the Cont... more Chapter 16 in Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate, (eds.) Seduced and Betrayed: Exposing the Contemporary Microfinance Phenomenon. School for Advanced Research Advanced Seminar Series. University of New Mexico Press, New Mexico, USA.
This chapter highlights the importance of maintaining a gendered approach in considering alternatives. Microfinance's targeting of women borrowers has been pernicious in many ways, as other chapters in this volume demonstrate; many scholars, have highlighted the corrosive effects of using social networks as collateral, particularly when the focus is entirely on the financial sustainability of the institution rather than women's empowerment per se. Nevertheless, the way certain feminist organisations have used microfinance has been instructive in terms of the gendered exclusion and oppression inherent in the way economic development is understood and generally practised. The chapter ends by summarising critiques of microfinance from the point of view of feminist economics, and, looking forward, highlights the need to rethink the economy with gender as the key category of analysis in order to offer alternatives which have a genuine promise to empower women.
La Paz, Bolivia, and its neighbouring city, El Alto, have been experiencing patterns of urban acc... more La Paz, Bolivia, and its neighbouring city, El Alto, have been experiencing patterns of urban accumulation, dispossession and displacement that demonstrate the importance of social, cultural and historical logics to understanding the politics of urban space. A striking feature of these patterns is that the image of the person who has accumulated enough wealth to displace people, is that of an indigenous woman. The Aymaran woman, traditionally dressed in pollera skirt and Derby hat, who pays in cash for luxurious properties in the affluent, white area of the Zona Sur, is a trope that has entered popular culture and political discourse. In this article, I explore the development of this cultural trope from its emergence in the 2009 film named after the area in question, Zona Sur, and subsequent uses of images of this film in social media to describe and resist political changes in the city as related to space, property and belonging. My contention is that the trope of the rich Aymaran woman, and the reversal of expected patterns of urban development that she represents, places the colonial, cultural and gendered dynamics that structure how capital shapes urban space, into sharp relief. The rich Aymaran woman who has made her money in informal commerce transgresses ideas of propriety and belonging in La Paz, and also received ideas about urban processes and gender in critical geographical literature.
The 'Urban Century' has seen a rise in power of cities, and the emergence of city mayors as signi... more The 'Urban Century' has seen a rise in power of cities, and the emergence of city mayors as significant political actors both nationally and globally. The power of city mayors, which unifies pragmatic, techno-managerial leadership with the authority and legitimacy of public office, invites a reappraisal of the gendered construction of power in the 'Urban Century', and the particular notions of hegemonic masculinity that city mayors recreate. This article explores the example of Medellín, Colombia, whose mayor Sergio Fajardo is widely regarded to have stewarded the city's rapid reduction in violence. Fajardo's leadership can be characterised as typical of the phenomenon of smart, cosmopolitan, charismatic mayors who are seen to respond professionally to local needs by making smart investment decisions and attracting international capital.
In this article I look at the pressures exerted on academics in England, particularly early caree... more In this article I look at the pressures exerted on academics in England, particularly early career researchers, by the collision of what in many cases is an elitist work culture with the neoliberalization, metricization, and managerialization of the academy. I draw on the work of the radical psychoanalyst R. D. Laing, who argued that to understand madness, we have to first critique our ideas of normality and “sanity,” which he argues are inherently constructed of “double binds.” I utilize my own experience working on gender equality in universities, and as an early career lecturer in a geography department, to explore how academics find themselves positioned in a web of neoliberal and traditional, elitist power dynamics and the implications for their mental health. L'équilibre mental, la « folie », et le monde universitaire
Cet article pose un regard sur les pressions exercées sur les professeurs d'université en Angleterre, notamment les chercheurs en début de carrière, et qui résultent dans de nombreux cas du conflit direct entre une culture de travail élitiste et le néolibéralisme ainsi que la propension à tout mesurer et gérer dans le monde universitaire. Je me situe dans le courant de pensée du psychanalyste radical R. D. Laing qui a fait valoir qu'avant de concevoir la folie, nous devons d'abord remettre en question les idées reçues au sujet de la normalité et de « l'équilibre mental », lesquelles, selon lui, résultent nécessairement de « doubles contraintes ». L'expérience acquise dans le cadre de travaux menés sur l'égalité des sexes dans les universités et à titre de chargé de cours en début de carrière dans un département de géographie m'a permis d'établir les bases de cette étude. Je m'intéresse aux professeurs d'université et comment ils se retrouvent coincés dans un filet de forces élitistes, tant néolibérales que traditionnelles, et sur les conséquences pour leur santé mentale.
In this intervention I look at the differential pressures exerted on early career researchers by ... more In this intervention I look at the differential pressures exerted on early career researchers by the collision of what in many cases is an ‘old school’, some would say elite, some elitist, work culture with the neoliberalisation, metricisation and managerialisation of the academy. It will draw in particular on the work of radical psycho-analyst RD Laing, whose starting point was that to understand madness, we had to first critique our ideas of normal, which he argues are inherently constructed of ‘double binds’. I draw on my own experience working on gender quality in universities as an early career lecturer, to explore how academics find themselves positioned in a web of neoliberal and traditional, elitist power dynamics. This will be considered in the context of work on exclusion and exclusivity in the academy, and the changing structures of universities – in particular managerialism and metricisation.
Medellín, Colombia, used to be the most violent city on earth. In recent years, however, it would... more Medellín, Colombia, used to be the most violent city on earth. In recent years, however, it would appear that investments and regeneration projects targeted at the poorest, most marginalised areas of the city, as well as innovative public transport projects, have resulted in a sharp decline in violence. Whereas in 1993 the homicide rate was 375 per 100,000 population, the current statistics are now comparable with major cities in the US, and the murder rate in Medellín for 2012 was 52 per 100,000. This book examines the claims made about the 'Medellín Miracle' by looking at the political processes behind the policies that have become known as 'Social Urbanism'. The central contention of this book is that violence – in its many forms – needs to be understood as a political issue. The changes in the political fabric in Medellín and the transformations in terms of urban development policies were far more complex than the term 'miracle' suggests.
From the outset, analyses of the 2008 financial crisis, in mainstream as well as feminist discuss... more From the outset, analyses of the 2008 financial crisis, in mainstream as well as feminist discussions, have been gendered. In particular, rampant risk taking in an unregulated environment, widely deemed to be a principle cause of the crash, has been associated with masculine characteristics. In this article, I explore how the concepts of gender and risk entwine in two films on the financial crisis – The Other Guys and Margin Call. By looking at how gender is used to dramatise financial risk, I explore how understandings of high-risk behaviour are gendered, and the implications this has in the context of finance. Fictional representations mediate public understanding of this notoriously complex field as the number of films and documentaries on the crisis demonstrates. Exploring how gender is used to communicate risk reminds us that risk taking is part of a performance of masculinity that needs to be established by constructing a feminine, risk-averse other. The contention of this paper is that, to address gender bias in finance and the economy, gendered meanings of risk need to be openly challenged, and cultural and material analyses of gendered inequality brought into dialogue.
Latin America's turn away from neoliberalism and adoption of decolonising alternatives to develop... more Latin America's turn away from neoliberalism and adoption of decolonising alternatives to development has been spearheaded -nowhere more so than Bolivia -by indigenous movements. The gender ideology of chachawarmi is part of this decolonisation programme, but has been criticised for disguising gendered exploitation. These tensions are explored by looking at, in Escobar's words, 'the concrete struggles within particular communities'. Based on long-term research in rural Bolivia, this article situates the chachawarmi ideal in the multiple influences on the recreation of gender identities, and considers the complex ways in which chachawarmi as mobilised politically may influence gendered power.
Abstract: This article analyses the gendered contradictions of microfinance's celebrated “double... more Abstract: This article analyses the gendered contradictions of microfinance's celebrated “double bottom line” of social and financial impact. The example of microfinance is used to illustrate the gendered and colonial constructions of “risk” and “responsibility” that underpin neoliberalism and its gendered paradoxes. After revisiting the discursive critique of these terms, I draw on how indigenous women participating in a microfinance institution in Bolivia describe their experience to suggest how gendered ideas of risk and responsibility are framing their negotiation of and resistance to the market. While the gendered and colonial construction of risk creates dynamics that perpetuate indigenous women's exclusion from the market, the terms of the resistance and use of the intervention also challenge feminist critiques of neoliberal governmentality developed mostly with reference to advanced modernity and welfare regimes.
Treinta años después de haber creado las políticas de Consenso de Washington, el nuevo milenio ob... more Treinta años después de haber creado las políticas de Consenso de Washington, el nuevo milenio observó la manera como América Latina adoptó una amplia gama de políticas de desarrollo económico y social con tintes izquierdistas, donde el Estado adoptó un nuevo papel, aún a nivel local. En Colombia, la ciudad de Medellín ha encabezado el nuevo movimiento de activismo local, y los resultados iniciales de esta nueva trayectoria radical han sido positivos.
The village banking approach to microfinance aims to empower women by giving them responsibility ... more The village banking approach to microfinance aims to empower women by giving them responsibility for and control over certain aspects of the intervention. This paper explores how women members negotiate participation in the bank and analyses the relationship between responsibility, risk and empowerment. It is based on an ethnographic study in Luribay, Bolivia where the microfinance institution Credit with Rural Education has been operating since 2000. The village bank is placed in the context of gender relations in Luribay and ideas of risk, responsibility and empowerment explored in that context.
This thesis aims to investigate from a feminist perspective whether women in a rural community in... more This thesis aims to investigate from a feminist perspective whether women in a rural community in Bolivia can use microfinance to negotiate better terms for their citizenship rights. Citizenship frames debates on inclusion and development as Bolivia struggles with the demands of market reform and the imperative to include marginalised citizens. Drawing on participant observation, focus groups and interviews, I consider microfinance as a rural development strategy and examine whether or not access to credit may provide a space for
In 2016, Bolivia's indigenous fashions gained a place on the global stage. The Brazilian ambassad... more In 2016, Bolivia's indigenous fashions gained a place on the global stage. The Brazilian ambassador to La Paz hosted a catwalk show dedicated to the luxury designers who specialise in avant garde, high quality variations on the distinctive pollera outfit – the pleated skirt, derby hat, shawl and striking jewellery that have been definitive of indigenous identity in La Paz for centuries. In the same year New York fashion week featured, for the first time, a designer from Bolivia, Eliana Paco Paredes, who is also known for her elegant and luxurious pollera designs. This article explores the development of Chola Paceña fashions and traces its social and political lineage, and place in traditions that continue to underpin Aymaran social networks and economies, whilst also becoming a symbol of their consumer power. Bolivian GDP has tripled since 2006, and this wealth has accumulated in the vast urban informal markets which are dominated by people of indigenous and mestizo descent. It is predictable that such a rise in consumption power should enable a burgeoning fashion industry. However, the femininities represented by the designs, the models and the designers place in sharp relief gendered and racialized constructions of value and how the relationship between tradition, culture and economy, has configured in scholarly work on creative labour which has been predominantly based on the experience of post-industrial cities in the global North.
Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate, (2017), ‘The ‘Solidarity Economy’ Model and Local Finance: Le... more Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate, (2017), ‘The ‘Solidarity Economy’ Model and Local Finance: Lessons from New Left Experiments in Latin America?’ in Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate (eds) Seduced and Betrayed: Exposing the Contemporary Microfinance Phenomenon, SAR Press
This article argues that, the dynamics, exchanges, mobilities and logics that create the urban sp... more This article argues that, the dynamics, exchanges, mobilities and logics that create the urban space of La Paz challenge the key terms of debates and theories in critical urban studies. Whilst the physical topography of La Paz leaves an unforgettable, unique impression, the cultural, ethnic/racial, social, economic and political map in this city presents penetrating and indelible challenges to critical urban theory, that can itself inform analyses of cities around the world that are similar and dissimilar in myriad ways. In the urban landscape of La Paz can be read the multiple power struggles that have shaped the city, and whilst the logic of capital has indeed underpinned many of these tensions, the racialised dynamics of colonialism, the political struggles that demarcate the formal and the informal, the competing modes of governance that have jurisdiction over the city, and the gendered struggles that are never only confined to the household, have been crucial in shaping the Bolivian capital.
Este artículo explora cómo la ciudad de La Paz ha cambiado a raíz del surgimiento de la "chola bu... more Este artículo explora cómo la ciudad de La Paz ha cambiado a raíz del surgimiento de la "chola burguesía" en Bolivia –personas que trabajan en gran parte en el comercio informal y que han sido particularmente beneficiados por el triplicado del PIB de Bolivia durante el último diez años. El aumento de la riqueza en los mercados informales bien establecidos en La Paz ha sido tal que las familias cuya residencia y medios de subsistencia están basados en áreas marginadas de la ciudad ahora están invirtiendo en la propiedad en el lujoso barrio de la 'Zona Sur'. Este estudio de caso puede leerse como un ejemplo del fenómeno global de la gentrificación, aunque requiere una fuerte base empírica en las construcciones locales de clase, raza y pobreza. Sin embargo, argumento que una crítica más profunda de las teorías utilizadas para analizar los cambios urbanos son necesarios para captar las complejidades políticas, económicas y culturales de los cambios recientes en La Paz. Palabras clave: Ciudad, Movilidad social, burguesía chola, La Paz, teoría crítica urbana. No ordinary city: What critical urban theory can learn from La Paz (Bolivia) This article explores how the city of La Paz has changed as a result of the emergence of the "chola bourgeoisie" in Bolivia-people who work largely in informal commerce and who have been particularly benefited by the triplicate of Bolivia's GDP during the last ten years. The increase in wealth in established informal markets in La Paz has been such that families whose residence and livelihoods are based in marginal areas of the city are now investing in property in the luxurious neighborhood of the 'Southern Zone'. This study case can be read as an example of the global phenomenon of gentrification, although it requires a strong empirical basis in the local constructions of class, race and poverty. However, I argue that a deeper critique of the theories used to analyze urban changes are necessary to capture the political, economic, and cultural complexities of recent changes in La Paz.
Chapter 16 in Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate, (eds.) Seduced and Betrayed: Exposing the Cont... more Chapter 16 in Bateman, Milford and Maclean, Kate, (eds.) Seduced and Betrayed: Exposing the Contemporary Microfinance Phenomenon. School for Advanced Research Advanced Seminar Series. University of New Mexico Press, New Mexico, USA.
This chapter highlights the importance of maintaining a gendered approach in considering alternatives. Microfinance's targeting of women borrowers has been pernicious in many ways, as other chapters in this volume demonstrate; many scholars, have highlighted the corrosive effects of using social networks as collateral, particularly when the focus is entirely on the financial sustainability of the institution rather than women's empowerment per se. Nevertheless, the way certain feminist organisations have used microfinance has been instructive in terms of the gendered exclusion and oppression inherent in the way economic development is understood and generally practised. The chapter ends by summarising critiques of microfinance from the point of view of feminist economics, and, looking forward, highlights the need to rethink the economy with gender as the key category of analysis in order to offer alternatives which have a genuine promise to empower women.
La Paz, Bolivia, and its neighbouring city, El Alto, have been experiencing patterns of urban acc... more La Paz, Bolivia, and its neighbouring city, El Alto, have been experiencing patterns of urban accumulation, dispossession and displacement that demonstrate the importance of social, cultural and historical logics to understanding the politics of urban space. A striking feature of these patterns is that the image of the person who has accumulated enough wealth to displace people, is that of an indigenous woman. The Aymaran woman, traditionally dressed in pollera skirt and Derby hat, who pays in cash for luxurious properties in the affluent, white area of the Zona Sur, is a trope that has entered popular culture and political discourse. In this article, I explore the development of this cultural trope from its emergence in the 2009 film named after the area in question, Zona Sur, and subsequent uses of images of this film in social media to describe and resist political changes in the city as related to space, property and belonging. My contention is that the trope of the rich Aymaran woman, and the reversal of expected patterns of urban development that she represents, places the colonial, cultural and gendered dynamics that structure how capital shapes urban space, into sharp relief. The rich Aymaran woman who has made her money in informal commerce transgresses ideas of propriety and belonging in La Paz, and also received ideas about urban processes and gender in critical geographical literature.
The 'Urban Century' has seen a rise in power of cities, and the emergence of city mayors as signi... more The 'Urban Century' has seen a rise in power of cities, and the emergence of city mayors as significant political actors both nationally and globally. The power of city mayors, which unifies pragmatic, techno-managerial leadership with the authority and legitimacy of public office, invites a reappraisal of the gendered construction of power in the 'Urban Century', and the particular notions of hegemonic masculinity that city mayors recreate. This article explores the example of Medellín, Colombia, whose mayor Sergio Fajardo is widely regarded to have stewarded the city's rapid reduction in violence. Fajardo's leadership can be characterised as typical of the phenomenon of smart, cosmopolitan, charismatic mayors who are seen to respond professionally to local needs by making smart investment decisions and attracting international capital.
In this article I look at the pressures exerted on academics in England, particularly early caree... more In this article I look at the pressures exerted on academics in England, particularly early career researchers, by the collision of what in many cases is an elitist work culture with the neoliberalization, metricization, and managerialization of the academy. I draw on the work of the radical psychoanalyst R. D. Laing, who argued that to understand madness, we have to first critique our ideas of normality and “sanity,” which he argues are inherently constructed of “double binds.” I utilize my own experience working on gender equality in universities, and as an early career lecturer in a geography department, to explore how academics find themselves positioned in a web of neoliberal and traditional, elitist power dynamics and the implications for their mental health. L'équilibre mental, la « folie », et le monde universitaire
Cet article pose un regard sur les pressions exercées sur les professeurs d'université en Angleterre, notamment les chercheurs en début de carrière, et qui résultent dans de nombreux cas du conflit direct entre une culture de travail élitiste et le néolibéralisme ainsi que la propension à tout mesurer et gérer dans le monde universitaire. Je me situe dans le courant de pensée du psychanalyste radical R. D. Laing qui a fait valoir qu'avant de concevoir la folie, nous devons d'abord remettre en question les idées reçues au sujet de la normalité et de « l'équilibre mental », lesquelles, selon lui, résultent nécessairement de « doubles contraintes ». L'expérience acquise dans le cadre de travaux menés sur l'égalité des sexes dans les universités et à titre de chargé de cours en début de carrière dans un département de géographie m'a permis d'établir les bases de cette étude. Je m'intéresse aux professeurs d'université et comment ils se retrouvent coincés dans un filet de forces élitistes, tant néolibérales que traditionnelles, et sur les conséquences pour leur santé mentale.
In this intervention I look at the differential pressures exerted on early career researchers by ... more In this intervention I look at the differential pressures exerted on early career researchers by the collision of what in many cases is an ‘old school’, some would say elite, some elitist, work culture with the neoliberalisation, metricisation and managerialisation of the academy. It will draw in particular on the work of radical psycho-analyst RD Laing, whose starting point was that to understand madness, we had to first critique our ideas of normal, which he argues are inherently constructed of ‘double binds’. I draw on my own experience working on gender quality in universities as an early career lecturer, to explore how academics find themselves positioned in a web of neoliberal and traditional, elitist power dynamics. This will be considered in the context of work on exclusion and exclusivity in the academy, and the changing structures of universities – in particular managerialism and metricisation.
Medellín, Colombia, used to be the most violent city on earth. In recent years, however, it would... more Medellín, Colombia, used to be the most violent city on earth. In recent years, however, it would appear that investments and regeneration projects targeted at the poorest, most marginalised areas of the city, as well as innovative public transport projects, have resulted in a sharp decline in violence. Whereas in 1993 the homicide rate was 375 per 100,000 population, the current statistics are now comparable with major cities in the US, and the murder rate in Medellín for 2012 was 52 per 100,000. This book examines the claims made about the 'Medellín Miracle' by looking at the political processes behind the policies that have become known as 'Social Urbanism'. The central contention of this book is that violence – in its many forms – needs to be understood as a political issue. The changes in the political fabric in Medellín and the transformations in terms of urban development policies were far more complex than the term 'miracle' suggests.
From the outset, analyses of the 2008 financial crisis, in mainstream as well as feminist discuss... more From the outset, analyses of the 2008 financial crisis, in mainstream as well as feminist discussions, have been gendered. In particular, rampant risk taking in an unregulated environment, widely deemed to be a principle cause of the crash, has been associated with masculine characteristics. In this article, I explore how the concepts of gender and risk entwine in two films on the financial crisis – The Other Guys and Margin Call. By looking at how gender is used to dramatise financial risk, I explore how understandings of high-risk behaviour are gendered, and the implications this has in the context of finance. Fictional representations mediate public understanding of this notoriously complex field as the number of films and documentaries on the crisis demonstrates. Exploring how gender is used to communicate risk reminds us that risk taking is part of a performance of masculinity that needs to be established by constructing a feminine, risk-averse other. The contention of this paper is that, to address gender bias in finance and the economy, gendered meanings of risk need to be openly challenged, and cultural and material analyses of gendered inequality brought into dialogue.
Latin America's turn away from neoliberalism and adoption of decolonising alternatives to develop... more Latin America's turn away from neoliberalism and adoption of decolonising alternatives to development has been spearheaded -nowhere more so than Bolivia -by indigenous movements. The gender ideology of chachawarmi is part of this decolonisation programme, but has been criticised for disguising gendered exploitation. These tensions are explored by looking at, in Escobar's words, 'the concrete struggles within particular communities'. Based on long-term research in rural Bolivia, this article situates the chachawarmi ideal in the multiple influences on the recreation of gender identities, and considers the complex ways in which chachawarmi as mobilised politically may influence gendered power.
Abstract: This article analyses the gendered contradictions of microfinance's celebrated “double... more Abstract: This article analyses the gendered contradictions of microfinance's celebrated “double bottom line” of social and financial impact. The example of microfinance is used to illustrate the gendered and colonial constructions of “risk” and “responsibility” that underpin neoliberalism and its gendered paradoxes. After revisiting the discursive critique of these terms, I draw on how indigenous women participating in a microfinance institution in Bolivia describe their experience to suggest how gendered ideas of risk and responsibility are framing their negotiation of and resistance to the market. While the gendered and colonial construction of risk creates dynamics that perpetuate indigenous women's exclusion from the market, the terms of the resistance and use of the intervention also challenge feminist critiques of neoliberal governmentality developed mostly with reference to advanced modernity and welfare regimes.
Treinta años después de haber creado las políticas de Consenso de Washington, el nuevo milenio ob... more Treinta años después de haber creado las políticas de Consenso de Washington, el nuevo milenio observó la manera como América Latina adoptó una amplia gama de políticas de desarrollo económico y social con tintes izquierdistas, donde el Estado adoptó un nuevo papel, aún a nivel local. En Colombia, la ciudad de Medellín ha encabezado el nuevo movimiento de activismo local, y los resultados iniciales de esta nueva trayectoria radical han sido positivos.
The village banking approach to microfinance aims to empower women by giving them responsibility ... more The village banking approach to microfinance aims to empower women by giving them responsibility for and control over certain aspects of the intervention. This paper explores how women members negotiate participation in the bank and analyses the relationship between responsibility, risk and empowerment. It is based on an ethnographic study in Luribay, Bolivia where the microfinance institution Credit with Rural Education has been operating since 2000. The village bank is placed in the context of gender relations in Luribay and ideas of risk, responsibility and empowerment explored in that context.
This thesis aims to investigate from a feminist perspective whether women in a rural community in... more This thesis aims to investigate from a feminist perspective whether women in a rural community in Bolivia can use microfinance to negotiate better terms for their citizenship rights. Citizenship frames debates on inclusion and development as Bolivia struggles with the demands of market reform and the imperative to include marginalised citizens. Drawing on participant observation, focus groups and interviews, I consider microfinance as a rural development strategy and examine whether or not access to credit may provide a space for rural Aymaran women to negotiate better terms for their citizenship within a market led development trajectory. My fieldwork took place in the Aymaran-speaking municipality of Luribay, Bolivia, from February to September 2006. I visited 43 credit groups in 11 different localities in the municipality. Of these I focussed on six groups in four different locations. I held two focus groups of nine women in two locations. I then held interviews with 25 women, 12 of whom had also participated in focus group discussions. The uses to which women put credit and their concerns regarding investment and debt shed light on different ideas of citizenship and priorities occurring in the mainstream and rural areas. My analysis highlights the importance of identity, interdependence and the moral economy to market activity. Cooperation and reciprocity, upheld by tradition and community norms and sanctions, make economic activity possible. There is tension between the competitive demands of a liberal market and women’s lives in cooperative, land-based, rural communities. Microfinance Institutions’ provision of credit may address this tension by recognising ‘social collateral’ and so, despite being market and production focussed, may be more compatible with the cooperative dynamic of rural areas. However, the competitive entrepreneurial activity encouraged by the MFI could threaten co-operative, reciprocal relations within the community that are vital to economic activity.
Uploads
Papers by Kate Maclean
This chapter highlights the importance of maintaining a gendered approach in considering alternatives. Microfinance's targeting of women borrowers has been pernicious in many ways, as other chapters in this volume demonstrate; many scholars, have highlighted the corrosive effects of using social networks as collateral, particularly when the focus is entirely on the financial sustainability of the institution rather than women's empowerment per se. Nevertheless, the way certain feminist organisations have used microfinance has been instructive in terms of the gendered exclusion and oppression inherent in the way economic development is understood and generally practised. The chapter ends by summarising critiques of microfinance from the point of view of feminist economics, and, looking forward, highlights the need to rethink the economy with gender as the key category of analysis in order to offer alternatives which have a genuine promise to empower women.
L'équilibre mental, la « folie », et le monde universitaire
Cet article pose un regard sur les pressions exercées sur les professeurs d'université en Angleterre, notamment les chercheurs en début de carrière, et qui résultent dans de nombreux cas du conflit direct entre une culture de travail élitiste et le néolibéralisme ainsi que la propension à tout mesurer et gérer dans le monde universitaire. Je me situe dans le courant de pensée du psychanalyste radical R. D. Laing qui a fait valoir qu'avant de concevoir la folie, nous devons d'abord remettre en question les idées reçues au sujet de la normalité et de « l'équilibre mental », lesquelles, selon lui, résultent nécessairement de « doubles contraintes ». L'expérience acquise dans le cadre de travaux menés sur l'égalité des sexes dans les universités et à titre de chargé de cours en début de carrière dans un département de géographie m'a permis d'établir les bases de cette étude. Je m'intéresse aux professeurs d'université et comment ils se retrouvent coincés dans un filet de forces élitistes, tant néolibérales que traditionnelles, et sur les conséquences pour leur santé mentale.
Sample chapter available here: http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/social-urbanism-and-the-politics-of-violence-kate-maclean/?K=9781137397355
Published article available here: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/CaGjRaWYKgU8gxavEDAM/full#.VO4RUMZhR3N
This chapter highlights the importance of maintaining a gendered approach in considering alternatives. Microfinance's targeting of women borrowers has been pernicious in many ways, as other chapters in this volume demonstrate; many scholars, have highlighted the corrosive effects of using social networks as collateral, particularly when the focus is entirely on the financial sustainability of the institution rather than women's empowerment per se. Nevertheless, the way certain feminist organisations have used microfinance has been instructive in terms of the gendered exclusion and oppression inherent in the way economic development is understood and generally practised. The chapter ends by summarising critiques of microfinance from the point of view of feminist economics, and, looking forward, highlights the need to rethink the economy with gender as the key category of analysis in order to offer alternatives which have a genuine promise to empower women.
L'équilibre mental, la « folie », et le monde universitaire
Cet article pose un regard sur les pressions exercées sur les professeurs d'université en Angleterre, notamment les chercheurs en début de carrière, et qui résultent dans de nombreux cas du conflit direct entre une culture de travail élitiste et le néolibéralisme ainsi que la propension à tout mesurer et gérer dans le monde universitaire. Je me situe dans le courant de pensée du psychanalyste radical R. D. Laing qui a fait valoir qu'avant de concevoir la folie, nous devons d'abord remettre en question les idées reçues au sujet de la normalité et de « l'équilibre mental », lesquelles, selon lui, résultent nécessairement de « doubles contraintes ». L'expérience acquise dans le cadre de travaux menés sur l'égalité des sexes dans les universités et à titre de chargé de cours en début de carrière dans un département de géographie m'a permis d'établir les bases de cette étude. Je m'intéresse aux professeurs d'université et comment ils se retrouvent coincés dans un filet de forces élitistes, tant néolibérales que traditionnelles, et sur les conséquences pour leur santé mentale.
Sample chapter available here: http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/social-urbanism-and-the-politics-of-violence-kate-maclean/?K=9781137397355
Published article available here: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/CaGjRaWYKgU8gxavEDAM/full#.VO4RUMZhR3N