The general aim of the research network is to develop new ways of looking at issues related to microfinance : to connect philosophers interested in global justice issues with microfinancing practice and those aspects of it that strike economists as problematic; to expose economists and development studies academics to liberal global justice theory and its departures from the utilitarian frameworks in which they often feel at home; and to influence practice, since both NGO figures involved in poverty reduction and commercial practitioners in financial exclusion are participants.
More specifically, the goals of the AHRC Network on Microfinance are:
1. To establish how microfinancing institutions–such as unconventional banks and NGOs– might be included in the set of institutions currently recognized by Rawlsian theories of global justice.
2. To provide a rigorous moral evaluation of microfinancing practice globally, taking into account e.g.
- its effect on gender discrimination
- the bearing of religious scruples on it
- moral issues related to interest charges
- the support given to it by Northern governments
- the involvement in it of Northern banks
- its prospect as a measure for reducing financial exclusion among the poor of the North, and urban areas of the South
3. To stimulate interchange on microfinancing between academics from South Asia, where it is longest established, and academics from the North.
4. To open an unusual interdisciplinary interface between academics from philosophy, business, development, and economics in the UK and abroad practices
By the end of the project will have produced:
- A volume of philosophical papers on microfinancing and the theory of justice.
- A volume of interdisciplinary papers from the meetings
- Website and blog for the network for wide international exposure
- A sustainable interdisciplinary network capable of making additional grant applications for further work in this important area.
