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Juggling with debt, social ties, and values the everyday use of microcredit in rural South India

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  • Isabelle Guérin

    (CESSMA UMRD 245 - Centre d'études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Inalco - Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales - UPD7 - Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7)

Abstract

Drawing on long-term field engagement with microcredit programs in rural northern Tamil Nadu (South India), in this article I examine how this specific form of debt is used, experienced, signified, and interrelated to other forms of debt. I attempt to define debt from an economic and anthropological perspective and to highlight the diversity of values surrounding debt. Debt has a material value and actively contributes to producing social worth, setting debtors and creditors within local systems of social hierarchy, producing or eroding trust, and inserting people into local networks of wealth distribution, extending dependency and patronage ties. Far from being static, the social significance and regulation of debt are continually discussed and negotiated through practices of juggling sources of indebtedness. Yet owing to its multiple forms, debt is not only a powerful force for the reproduction of power relations but also a potential vehicle for the reconfiguration of forms of dependence. Analyzing practices and processes is essential for understanding the reasons for this ambivalence and how it plays out in specific historical contexts for situated subjects.

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  • Isabelle Guérin, 2014. "Juggling with debt, social ties, and values the everyday use of microcredit in rural South India," Post-Print ird-01471734, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:ird-01471734
    DOI: 10.1086/675929
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://ird.hal.science/ird-01471734v1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Supriya Garikipati & Isabelle Agier & Isabelle Guérin & Ariane Szafarz, 2017. "The Cost of Empowerment: Multiple Sources of Women’s Debt in Rural India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(5), pages 700-722, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lekh Nath Paudel, 2022. "Remittances and the reconfiguration of rural finance in Nepal (1900–1960)," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(4), pages 822-838, June.
    2. Marcus Taylor & Remy Bargout & Suhas Bhasme, 2021. "Situating Political Agronomy: The Knowledge Politics of Hybrid Rice in India and Uganda," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(1), pages 168-191, January.
    3. Isabelle Guérin & Vincent Guermond & Nithya Joseph & Nithya Natarajan & Govindan Venkatasubramanian, 2021. "COVID‐19 and the Unequalizing Infrastructures of Financial Inclusion in Tamil Nadu," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(4), pages 927-951, July.
    4. Aaron Z. Pitluck & Fabio Mattioli & Daniel Souleles, 2018. "Finance beyond function: Three causal explanations for financialization," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 157-171, June.
    5. Zhou, Jun & Korkmaz, Aslihan Gizem & Li, Youwei & Yue, Pengpeng & Yan, Yuhan, 2025. "The sword of damocles: Debt and depression," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. Isabelle Guérin & Christophe Nordman & Elena Reboul, 2019. "The gender of debt and the financialisation of development. Insights from rural southern India," Working Papers CEB 19-016, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Hadrien Saiag, 2020. "Financialization from the margins," Post-Print hal-02516543, HAL.
    8. Hadrien Saiag, 2020. "Consumer Credit and Debt," Post-Print halshs-03095993, HAL.

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