Community Economies in the Global South Case Studies of Rotating Savings, Credit Associations, and Economic Cooperation

People across the globe engage in social and solidarity economics to help themselves, their community, and society on their own terms.

Community Economies in the Global South examines how people who conscientiously organize rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) bring positive changes to their own lives as well as others. ROSCAs are a long-established and well documented practice, especially those organized by women of colour. Members make regular deposits to a fund as a savings that is then given in whole or in part to each member in turn based on group economics. This book spotlights women in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia who organize and use these associations, composed of ordinary people belonging to similar class origins who decide jointly on the rules to suit the interests of their members. The case studies show how they vary greatly across countries in the Global South, demonstrating that ROSCAs are living proof that diverse community economies do exist and have been around for a very long time. The contributors recount stories of the self-help, activism, and perseverance of racialized people in order to push for ethical, community-focused business, and to hold onto local knowledge, grounded theory, and lived experience, reducing the need to rely on external funding as people find ways to finance sustainable, debt-free business ventures. The first collection on this topic edited by two women of colour with roots in the Global South, this volume is a rallying call to other scholar-activists to study and report on how racialized people come together, pool goods, and diversify business in the Global South.

Caroline Shenaz Hossein, York University, Toronto,Christabell P. J., University of Kerala

Caroline Shenaz Hossein is Associate Professor of Global Development and Political Science at the Department of Global Development Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough. She is the author of the award winning Politicized Microfinance: Money, Power, and Violence in the Black Americas (University
of Toronto Press, 2016). She is the editor of The Black Social Economy: Exploring Community-Based Diverse Markets (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She is the Founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies Collective.


Christabell P.J. is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Kerala. She has held faculty positions at a number of institutions in India and at the University of Gondar, Ethiopia. She is the author of Women Empowerment Through Capacity Building: The Role of Micro-Finance (Concept, 2009)
and Inclusive Growth Through Social Capital Formation: Is Microfinance an Effective Tool for Targeting Women? (Concept, 2016), and has contributed chapters to edited volumes, published research papers in academic journals, and written popular articles in magazines.

Preface
Foreword, Naila Kabeer
1. An Introduction: ROSCAs as Living Proof of Diverse Community Economies, Caroline Shenaz Hossein and Christabell P.J.
I Latin America and the Caribbean
2. Learning about Money Cooperatives: The Modern Juntas in Peru, Belinda Román, Samiré Adam, and Ana Paula Saravia
3. Caribbean Women s Use of Susu, Partner, Sol and Box-hand as Quiet Resistance, Caroline Shenaz Hossein
II Africa
4. Alajo Shomolu: Money, Credit and Banking the Nigerian Ajo Way, Salewa Olawoye-Mann
5. Mother, Here Is Your Stone: The Story of Susu in Ghana, Samuel Kwaku Bonsu
6. Stokvels: A South African Innovation in Economic Justice for Women, Ann Armstrong
7. Community Building and Ubuntu: Using Osusu in the Kangbeng-Kafoo Women s Group in The Gambia, Haddy Njie
III South East Asia and India
8. A Quiet Resistance: Karen Woman Entrepreneurs Leading Savings Groups in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, Istvan Rado and Seri Thongmak
9. Arisan: Producing Economies of Care in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Ririn Haryani and Kelly Dombroski
10. Money Pool (Hụi/Họ) in the Mekong Delta: An Old Way of Doing Finance in Rural Vietnam, Nga Dao
11. Keralite Women s Collective Finance in South India: The Kudumbashree Movement and Indigenous Finance, Christabell P.J.
12. Conclusion: Indigeneity, Politicized Consciousness and Lived Experience in Community Economies, Caroline Shenaz Hossein and Mary Njeri Kinyanjui