With global neoliberal capitalism coming within a hair's breadth of entirely collapsing in late 2008, and with many resigned to the fact that there is a lot more deprivation, pain and humiliation to come, the search for a far more stable, equitable,dignified, environmentally sustainable and...

This paper looks at the radical policies introduced in Medellin, in Colombia, to promote local development and social inclusion. While not always successful, the paper finds that they hold out a useful foundation for further reforms and measures to build local economic development success and...

This paper looks at the progress with the microfinance model in post-conflict Bosnia. It analyses why the evidence clearly indicates that has begun to fail as a development model and the international development community has made a major policy mistake in promoting it. It analyses some of the...

This paper looks at the microcredit model made famous by Dr. Muhammad Yunus and explains the key reasons why it has failed as a poverty reduction and local development instrument. It also briefly analyses some of the reactions to this failure by the microcredit industry and why many microcredit...

This article argues that the microfinance model that arrived in Latin America in the 1970s has proven, as elsewhere around the world, to be an almost wholly destructive economic and social policy intervention. Centrally, I argue that the microfinance model is responsible for embedding and giving...

Academic analyses and impact evaluation studies produced by the international development community almost all conclude that the microfinance model has made an important net contribution to the economic and social recovery of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereafter Bosnia). However, as we now...

In both developing and transition economies, microfinance has increasingly been positioned as one of the most important poverty reduction and local economic and social development policies. Its appeal is based on the widespread assumption that simply ‘reaching the poor' with microcredit will...

This paper looks at the history of cooperative development in South East Europe and why it was once a very progressive development. It considers the Yugoslav worker-self-management system and its successes and failures, before making some observations on the future

Microcredit was once universally lauded in international development community circles as a 'magic bullet'. Using the example of South Africa, this paper shows that microcredit has actually been an 'anti-developmental' local financial model, and one of the most calamitous financial sector...

This article argues that the microfinance model that arrived in Latin America in the 1970s has proven, as elsewhere around the world, to be an almost wholly destructive economic and social policy intervention. Centrally, I argue that the microfinance model is responsible for embedding and giving...