Moneylending and moral reasoning on the capitalist frontier in Kyrgyzstan

Mathijs Pelkmans and Damira Umetbaeva

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article explores the links between informal moneylending and aspects of sociality and morality. It documents the moral reasoning and strategizing of two female moneylenders who operate in the radically destabilized context of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. By analyzing these women’s lending practices and the way they talk about their experiences, we are able to document in some detail the constitutive intertwinement of morality, sociality, and formality in the workings of credit and debt, and demonstrate how questionable behavior is transformed into moral practice. This in turn highlights important features of the post-Soviet capitalist frontier.

Keywords: moneylending; morality; frontier; Central Asia; post-Soviet societies; economic anthropology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-12-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis and nep-iue
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Anthropological Quarterly, 13, December, 2018, 91(3), pp. 1049-1074. ISSN: 0003-5491

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:84409

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