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Saving, Spending, and Future-Making: Time, Discipline, and Money in Development

Author

Listed:
  • Maia Green

    (Social Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, England; Visiting Fellow, Research on Poverty Alleviation, PO Box 33223, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)

  • Uma Kothari

    (Institute for Development Policy and Management, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, England)

  • Claire Mercer

    (Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, England)

  • Diana Mitlin

    (Institute for Development Policy and Management, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, England; International Institute for Environment and Development, 80-86 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8NH, England)

Abstract

Money is a distributed technology for the government of futures. Using ethnographically informed accounts of social practices around saving and collective remittances in poor countries this paper examines how the malleability of money enables it to have the potential for formalisation which allows it to be brought into formal relations of future-making and foreclosure, at the same time as its potential for investments and reallocation enables it to be the basis of flexible and adaptive strategies of future-making. We show how individuals engaged in development aspirations strive to achieve futures through the collection, care, and use of money, and how strategies of formalisation, discipline, and framing accord money developmental capacities. The liquidity of money renders it a flexible vehicle for personal and collective aspirations while representing risk of leakage to other persons and ventures. The paper examines the strategies used by low-income savers and hometown associations in their concerns with establishing rules and discipline around the flexibility of money.

Suggested Citation

  • Maia Green & Uma Kothari & Claire Mercer & Diana Mitlin, 2012. "Saving, Spending, and Future-Making: Time, Discipline, and Money in Development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(7), pages 1641-1656, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:7:p:1641-1656
    DOI: 10.1068/a44640
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    References listed on IDEAS

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