Duke, S: Comparative Practices and Perspectives

This is a qualitative comparative case study which investigated the values, practices, perspectives, and strategies of Indian and American community organizers (practitioners and volunteers of non- profits and non-governmental organizations) who use microfinance, including savings schemes, as an instrument within the social intermediation process of developing disadvantaged women‘s capacities for self-sufficiency/empowerment. The focused inquiry was conducted through in-depth interviews of directors, staff members and volunteers/community- based organizers of a women s business center in Northern Virginia, a large US metropolitan area, and a women s federation in the rural Himalayas. Katz s framework for constructing analytical topographies, contour lines and countertopographies was used to structure the various levels of analysis. Differences were explained by situating each organization in Mayoux s theoretical paradigms of Women s Empowerment through Microfinance. Analyses concluded with the construction of countertopographies on practices and strategies aimed towards collectively empowering women in disparate places around the world.