Self-help groups in the age of FinTech

Daivi Rodima-Taylor

Chapter 7 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Economic Anthropology, 2025, pp 124-128 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: There has been a proliferation of informal mutual help groups in many regions of the Global South. In Africa, the origins of such voluntary associations can be traced to past agricultural labor sharing and the groups later became effective mediators of cash. Rapidly spreading financial technology platforms intersect with these informal groups and target them with new financial products. The groups also utilize social media platforms as alternative virtual spaces that offer new opportunities but can sometimes feed scams and fraud. The article contributes to debates about FinTech-mediated financial inclusion, arguing that FinTech does not simply formalize financial relations but works at the intersection of formal and informal, by combining old and new, inanimate and peopled infrastructures. It highlights the need for detailed ethnographic studies of local economies in the Global South to avoid the reification of self-help groups as a panacea for financial inclusion in the digital age.

Keywords: Self-help groups; FinTech; Platform economies; Infrastructures; Economic formalization; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035312566
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