Tracing mutations in neoliberal development governance : "fintech", failure, and the politics of marketization

This article interrogates recent policy pronouncements around the promotion of emerging financial technologies (fintech) as means of enabling financial inclusion. It is argued that situating this emergent ‘turn to technology’ in the context of a longer-running pattern of failed efforts to promote the development of financial markets for the poor in the Global South offers us a useful lens on the dynamics of neoliberalism. The article develops this analysis by drawing together interlinked discussions of ‘neoliberal reason’, highlighting the central role played by the diffusion of market institutions in neoliberal projects with Marxian discussions highlighting the crucial underlying role of labour in enabling the operation of markets. In this context the appeal to ever-more fine-grained information with which to allocate credit underlying the turn to technology can both be read as yet another attempt to ‘re-engineer’ the market, and also seen as a doomed project. Empirically, this argument is fleshed out through an engagement with key framework documents around financial inclusion and technology from the World Bank and G20

The global governance of informal economies : the International Labour Organisation in East Africa

This article develops a Gramscian approach to the governance of ‘informal’ economies through a historical study of International Labour Organization (ILO) programmes in East Africa. Drawing on Gramsci’s conception of the ‘subaltern’, the article highlights the ways in which the articulation of ‘informality’ in policy documents is coloured by broader struggles over the political organisation of labour. The article develops this argument through two case studies. The first examines the World Employment Programme mission to Kenya in the 1970s that popularised the concept of ‘informal’ labour. The second is a contemporary programme on apprenticeships in the informal economy that originated in Tanzania

The global politics of forced labour

This article examines the politics of governing forced labour. It develops and applies an approach drawing on Marx’s conception of the historical formation of ‘free’ labour in the process of ‘primitive accumulation’ and Gramsci’s conception of the ‘relations of force’. Viewed through this lens, rather than representing discrete ontological categories, the boundary between ‘free’ and ‘forced’ labour is repositioned as largely a contested and ambivalent artefact of governance. The concept of the ‘political relations of force’ highlights the ways in which such constructions are shaped by complex intersections between a diversity of different social forces. This approach is subsequently applied in an analysis of an International Labour Organization project on dealing with ‘traditional slavery’ in Niger

Squeaky Gears: Bicycling, Dissent, and Political Innovations

The Reflective Essay describes a research journey that started from an idea that was significantly revised during the course of his deep and thoughtful engagement with sources and with people. The ascent of bicycling in the past decades has been the concerted result of political innovations. Cities across America have begun repurposing space to accommodate the bicycle. In examining this social trend and its impetus, this paper locates dissent as the primary vehicle of transit change in favor of bicycling. Contextualizing the bicycle in urban theory, critical spatial analysis, and its own history of being a radical technology, the paper provides an acute explanation of how the bicycle is a subversive technology, and why the movement has proved effective. Portland, Oregon’s history of political innovation and dissent drives the concluding analysis—illuminating the role of dissent in the bicycle movement. The paper’s implications inform the work of community groups, planners, policy-makers, and dissenters alike

The International Labour Organisation and the ambivalent politics of financial inclusion in West Africa

This article examines the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in promoting ‘financial inclusion’ in West Africa. The role of the ILO in microfinance and financial inclusion has often been overlooked, in contrast to the role played by the World Bank, G20 and like institutions. The ILO is significant here because it suggests a number of ambiguities and important political dynamics that have gone overlooked in previous critical discussions of microcredit, which have often focused on the politics of commercialisation, indebtedness and accumulation by dispossession. This article draws instead on Gramsci’s concepts of subalternity and organic crisis to suggest that the politics of ‘financial inclusion’ in practice are often shaped as much by the political dynamics engendered by the erosion of postcolonial order as by the imperatives of accumulation. The argument is illustrated empirically by examining ILO activities on microinsurance and ‘inclusive finance for workers’ in West Africa, with an emphasis on Senegal

A Critical History of Poverty Finance

Starting from the recent rise of much-hyped ‘fintech’ (financial technologies) solutions for development finance, which have been heralded by the World Bank/IMF/G20 etc as a silver bullet in the fight against poverty, this monograph provides a critical historical context of development finance from a post-colonial perspective. Whilst engaging with the specific weaknesses of the most recent trends of mobile technologies, microinsurance etc in ‘Digital Financial Inclusion’ efforts, author Nick Bernards explains how and why these suffer from the same shortcomings as previous iterations of neoliberal ‘financial inclusion’, namely that they all rely on and ultimately reinforce existing patters of inequality and uneven development, many of which date back to the first days of colonialism; and that they rely on artificially created markets that simply aren’t there among the world’s most disadvantaged economic actors. The critical assessment of fintech is certainly one selling point of this book, though its major original contribution lies in providing the broader backdrop of why this type of quintessentially neoliberal pipe dream of poverty alleviation cannot work and never has. Bernards puts fintech in the lineage of efforts led in particular by colonial administrations in Africa and South Asia since the 1930s, and then later by the World Bank in the 1970s, whose underlying principles can be traced back to the first guiding principles of colonial rule. The book hence offers both, an astute analysis of the current fintech fad as well as a thorough and detailed colonial history of development finance. The book would be clearly an academic monograph, and I guess could conceivably be priced even higher than suggested here. Having said that, I found Nick’s writing style to be eminently readable and actually potentially capable of drawing in some of the elusive ‘interested general public’ readership. Nick’s home discipline is international politics, but his regional specialism is sub-Saharan Africa, which I think is apparent in his writing that seems just as informed by on-the-ground experiences as by theoretical analysis. He is Canadian and still has decent ties there (PhD at McMaster in 2016). Might be worth asking Fernwood/BTL if they’d be interested in a co-pub. In sum, I think this could be a low-risk, solid title that sits well at the intersections of development and postcolonial studies as well as critiques of neoliberal economics and digital capitalism

The International Labour Organization and African Trade Unions : tripartite fantasies and enduring struggles

This article examines the complex and contradictory history of interactions between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and trade unions in Africa from 1960 to the present. The paper focuses in particular on ILO efforts to deliver technical assistance to trade unions. I highlight the tensions raised by the mismatch between ILO’s adherence to a particular view of industrial unionism rooted in northern European experience, which I label the ‘tripartite fantasy’ and the political and economic realities of labour in Africa. The article draws on original archival and interview evidence to trace out the subtle conflicts raised by these tensions. It focuses in particular on the difficulty in balancing the principle of freedom of association with efforts to promote ‘unity’ among African unions. These tensions played out most clearly in efforts to organise assistance to unions under apartheid. The article concludes by reflecting on the difficult position of the ILO in contemporary African politics