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An innovative resilience approach: Financial self-help groups in contemporary financial landscapes in the Netherlands

Author

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  • Julie-Marthe Lehmann

    (Faculty of Business, Finance and Marketing, Research Platform The Next Economy, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands)

  • Peer Smets

    (Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

This study questions efficiency-driven institutions in the financial sector during and after the financial crisis of 2008. Frustration about inadequately working financial institutions encouraged citizens to employ self-help initiatives reflected in the revival of, for example, financial cooperatives, sharing economies and community currencies. Some of these grassroots initiatives, such as financial self-help groups, are imported by migrants and refugees. Compared to the formal banking system, financial self-help groups claim effectivity and a human face instead of efficiency in operation and management. We look at financial self-help groups among Ethiopians and Ghanaians living in the Netherlands, placing these financial self-help groups within the contemporary financial landscape. Here, diversity instead of a monoculture of banking institutions shows us a way to a more sustainable financial system. Moreover, this article shows that a combination of different kinds of resilience creates possibilities for analysing the dynamics of a kaleidoscope of financial arrangements and institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Julie-Marthe Lehmann & Peer Smets, 2020. "An innovative resilience approach: Financial self-help groups in contemporary financial landscapes in the Netherlands," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(5), pages 898-915, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:52:y:2020:i:5:p:898-915
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19882946
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Seyfang, Gill & Longhurst, Noel, 2013. "Growing green money? Mapping community currencies for sustainable development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 65-77.
    3. Caroline Shenaz Hossein, 2018. "Building Economic Solidarity: Caribbean ROSCAs in Jamaica, Guyana, and Haiti," Perspectives from Social Economics, in: Caroline Shenaz Hossein (ed.), The Black Social Economy in the Americas, chapter 0, pages 79-95, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Peer Smets, 2019. "Indian community-based housing finance systems: potentials and pitfalls for urban development and housing improvement," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 586-600, October.
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    2. Elena Magli & Micaela Mazzei & Olga Biosca & Neil McHugh, 2024. "Exploring ‘Alternatives' in the Consumer Credit Market: Community Development Finance Institutions in the United Kingdom," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 115(5), pages 598-614, December.

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