Objective: Microfinance is a prevalent international antipoverty tool, but little is known about the experiences and viewpoints of individual microfinance participants. I explored the experiences of microfinance participants to better understand the degree to which they view and accept the neoliberal norms that undergird microfinance strategies. Method: Using grounded theory, discourse analysis, and known-sponsor sampling methods, I conducted 2 rounds of in-depth interviews with 60 women who participate in microfinance in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Results: In trying to be “good” entrepreneurs, participants became neoliberal subjects who take personal responsibility for poverty and intimate partner violence—factors that are beyond their control. Microfinance participants also exercised choice under limiting conditions and constraints within structures of patriarchy and poverty. Finally, they described “freedom” as freedom to work. Conclusions: Findings corroborate the suggestion that neoliberalism and its products create consumers and producers—not citizens—who are taught to value labor in terms of efficiency and productivity but not labor rights and a working class quality of life. This study reveals how microfinance can be a vehicle of dispossession by financialization, how microfinance legitimizes capitalism at the micro level, and how it depoliticizes potential anticapitalist movements.

中文翻译：

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检查孟加拉国的小额信贷参与者对新自由主义语言的使用

目的：小额信贷是一种普遍的国际反贫困工具，但对于个别小额信贷参与者的经验和观点知之甚少。我探索了小额信贷参与者的经验，以更好地理解他们对小额信贷战略的理解和接受的新自由主义规范的程度。方法：我使用扎实的理论，话语分析和已知赞助的抽样方法，对孟加拉国达卡的60名参加小额信贷的妇女进行了两轮深入访谈。结果：在努力成为“好”企业家时，参与者成为新自由主义的主体，他们对贫穷和亲密伴侣的暴力行为负有个人责任，这是他们无法控制的因素。小额信贷参与者还在父权制和贫困结构内的有限条件和约束下行使选择权。最后，他们将“自由”描述为工作自由。结论：结论证实了新自由主义及其产品创造了消费者和生产者而不是公民的建议，他们被教导要在效率和生产力方面重视劳动，而不是劳动权利和工人阶级的生活质量。这项研究揭示了小额信贷如何能够通过金融化成为剥夺的工具，小额信贷如何使微观上的资本主义合法化，以及如何使潜在的反资本主义运动政治化。这些发现证实了新自由主义及其产品创造了消费者和生产者而不是公民的建议，他们被教导要在效率和生产力方面重视劳动力，而不是劳动权利和工人阶级的生活质量。这项研究揭示了小额信贷如何能够通过金融化成为剥夺的工具，小额信贷如何使微观上的资本主义合法化，以及如何使潜在的反资本主义运动政治化。这些发现证实了新自由主义及其产品创造了消费者和生产者而不是公民的建议，他们被教导要在效率和生产力方面重视劳动力，而不是劳动权利和工人阶级的生活质量。这项研究揭示了小额信贷如何能够通过金融化成为剥夺的工具，小额信贷如何使微观上的资本主义合法化，以及如何使潜在的反资本主义运动政治化。