'Freedom from Poverty is Not for Free': Rural Development and the Microfinance Crisis in Andhra Pradesh, India

• Published in: Journal of agrarian change Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 484 - 504
• Main Author: TAYLOR, MARCUS
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.10.2011
• Subjects: agrarian crisis; Agricultural economics; agricultural finance; Andhra Pradesh; Andhra Pradesh, India; Banking; Certainty; Consumption; Contradictions; debt; distress; drought; farmer suicides; farmers; Freedom; India; Microfinance; Narratives; Neoliberalism; politics; Poverty; Psychological Distress; Rural Areas; Rural development; rural economics; rural poverty; rural sociology; Studies; trade liberalization; uncertainty; Vulnerability; Andhra Pradesh India; India

Within neoliberal development discourse, the poor are represented as entrepreneurial subjects for whom integration into formalized financial systems can facilitate their escape from poverty. This paper examines how the 2010 microfinance crisis in Andhra Pradesh reveals significant fault lines that u...