Microfinance was pioneered in the developing world as the lending of small amounts of money to entrepreneurs who lacked the kinds of credentials and collateral demanded by banks. Similar practices spread from the developing to the developed world, reversing the usual direction of innovation, and today several hundred microfinance institutions are operating in the United States. Replicating Microfinace in the United States reviews experiences in both developing and industrialized countries and extends the applications of microlending beyond enterprise to consumer finance, housing finance, and community development finance, concentrating especially on previously underserved households and their communities.

An assessment of "the microfinance revolution" from an economics perspective that draws on lessons from academia and international practice to challenge conventional assumptions.

This book establishes the context for a fruitful debate on the merits and demerits of asset building for the poor by setting out the basic ideas involved in asset-building programmes and proposals.

We live in a period marked by the ascendency of corporations. At the same time, the number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – such as Amnesty International, CARE, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Save the Children, and the WWF – has rapidly increased in the last twenty years. As a result, these two very different types of organization are playing an increasingly important role in shaping our society, yet they often have very different agendas. This book focuses on the dynamic interactions, both conflictual and collaborative, that exist between corporations and NGOs. It includes rigorous models, frameworks, and case studies to document the various ways that NGOs target corporations through boycotts, proxy campaigns, and other advocacy initiatives. It also explains the emerging pattern of cross-sectoral alliances and partnerships between corporations and NGOs. This book can help managers, activists, scholars, and students to better understand the nature, scope, and evolution of these complex interactions.

A critical examination of the social capital debate, which establishes a foundation for progressive reform in community development practice and local government. In response to the ongoing debate over the role social capital plays in the creation and continuation of a healthy civic culture, Community-Based Organizations in Contemporary Urban Society studies the close relationship that social capital shares with local context, social organization, and institutional structure. The book's timely analysis illuminates the institutional barriers currently affecting the mobilization of social capital and establishes a foundation for social and political reform in the future. All components of capital formation--including human, financial, and cultural capital--are identified and considered as they relate to the community development process, as well as how social capital relates to race, class, gender, and religion in urban society. Community-Based Organizations in Contemporary Urban Society offers vital extensions to existing literature on social capital and allows the reader to consider this topic from multiple perspectives through its broad spectrum of interdisciplinary essays by sociologists, political scientists, and urban planners. The essays discuss important steps in the mobilization of social capital, as well as its role in microfinance programs, community development corporations, homeowners associations, religious institutions, and neighborhood associations. Individual chapters present an array of theoretical arguments, empirical analysis, and applied case studies that are of interest to academics, practitioners, and activists in the community development field.

Why is it such a challenge to provide telecommunications to rural areas? High initial infrastructure investment, relative low call volumes, high maintenance costs due to harsh environments, cash box collection needs, cash security costs (for coin operated phones), card availability (for prepaid airtime systems), technical illiteracy, remote locations, and high transportation costs are just some of the impediments to providing rural telecommunications access. This manual is based on the experiences of the Village Phone Programmes in Bangladesh and Uganda. In rural villages where no telecommunications services have previously existed, the programme provides cellular phones via a sustainable financing mechanism to poor entrepreneurs who use the phone to operate a business. Such has been the success that over 2,000 village phone businesses are now operating in remote villages of Uganda. This manual is a guideline for replicating the programme in a new country. It establishes a template for creating sustainable initiatives that bring telecommunications to the poor, create viable new businesses for micro-entrepreneurs, and expand the customer base for telecommunications companies.

This book draws on case studies of social, economic and political governance policies from Latin America, Africa and Asia to examine the circumstances in which governments and societies produce policies that overcome initial opposition to meet their aims.

* First book to link housing and microfinance * Presents international and US experience As the premier book to provide a comprehensive overview of housing microfinance worldwide, Housing Microfinance sets the standard for future work in the field. The expert contributors combine wisdom from the separate fields of housing policy and microfinance, demonstrating what each can learn from the other. With solid guidance for practitioners and policymakers, the book reviews important issues for international and domestic microfinance institutions that are considering expanding into housing and for providers of conventional housing loans who seek to offer their services to poor clients who lack collateral or regular income.

Hess proposes a theory of scientific and technological change that considers the roles of both industry and grassroots consumers in setting the research agenda in science and technology and he identifies alternative pathways by which social movements can influence scientific and technological innovation. He analyzes four of these pathways: industrial opposition movements organized against targeted technologies (as in the campaign against nuclear energy); technology- and product-oriented movements, which press for alternatives (as does the organic food movement); localism, which promotes local ownership (as in "buy local" campaigns); and access pathways, which support a more equitable distribution of resources. Within each pathway, Hess examines reforms in five areas: agriculture, energy, waste and manufacturing, infrastructure, and finance. Hess's theoretical argument and the empirical evidence he presents demonstrate the complex pattern of incorporation (of grassroots innovations) and transformation (of alternative ownership structures and alternative products) that has characterized the relationship of industry and activism.