Microfinance in online space: a visual analysis of kiva.org

Abstract

Microfinance practices were originally developed in offline contexts. Modern microfinance practices were based on development models for the financial and social empowerment of the poorest of poor in developing countries. Several of these practices drew from existing traditions of money lending within local communities that were reformed to be in sync with rural development and the empowerment of the underprivileged individual. In present 'postmodern' times, microfinance providers are using online tools in the hopes of broadening the reach and extending the advantages provided by such a model of micro-lending and micro-borrowing. In this article, we examine an online peer-to-peer lending and borrowing website, Kiva.org, which uses online social networking tools in microfinance. The study is thus a close look at the actual content of the website with a view to understanding the representational practices of online space through Internet mediated microfinance.Le microfinancement dans l'espace en ligne : une analyse visuelle de Kiva.org Au départ, les pratiques de microfinancement ont été mises au point dans des contextes « hors ligne ». Les pratiques de microfinancement modernes se fondaient sur des modèles de dévelop-pement pour l'autonomisation financière et sociale des plus pauvres des pauvres dans les pays en développement. Plusieurs de ces pratiques s'inspiraient de traditions existantes de prêt d'argent au sein des communautés locales qui ont été réformées de manière à être en harmonie avec le développement rural et l'autonomisation de l'individu défavorisé. À notre époque « postmoderne », les prestataires de microfinancement ont recours à des outils en ligne dans l'espoir d'élargir la portée et d'étendre les avantages fournis par un tel modèle de micro-prêts et de micro-emprunts. Dans cet article, nous examinons un site Web de prêt et d'emprunt entre pairs en ligne, Kiva.org, qui emploie des outils en ligne de réseaux sociaux dans le contexte du microfinancement. Cette étude est donc un examen minutieux du contenu du site Web, dans le but de comprendre des pratiques représentationnelles de l'espace en ligne à travers le microfinancement obtenu par l'entremise d'Internet.Microfinanças no espaço online: uma análise visual da Kiva.org As práticas de microfinanças foram originalmente desenvolvidas em contextos offline. Práticas modernas de microfinanças estavam baseadas em modelos de desenvolvimento para o empoderamento financeiro e social dos mais pobres nos países em desenvolvimento. Muitas destas práticas foram extraídas de tradições existentes de empréstimo de dinheiro dentro de comunidades locais que foram reformadas para estar em sintonia com o desenvolvimento rural e o 880 Downloaded by [Washington University in St Louis] at 02:24 26 December 2014empoderamento dos indivíduos desfavorecidos. Em épocas atuais "pós-modernas", os provedores de microfinanças estão utilizando ferramentas on-line visando ampliar o alcance e estender as vantagens oferecidas por tal modelo de concessão de empréstimo em nível micro...

Making Poverty Into a Financial Problem: From Global Poverty Lines to KIVA.ORG

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“…As Premal Shah, Kiva's President, observes, ‘we let the average person be like a Bill Gates or a Rockefeller’ (cited in Heim, ). Kiva users respond by describing their activities as ‘you are a venture capitalist when you're on Kiva’ (quoted in Gajjala et al ., : 890). Allowing its lenders to partake in the feel‐good effect that comes from emulating famous philanthro‐capitalists is another, albeit very limited, way in which Kiva makes poverty alleviation through microfinance accessible to Northern publics.…”

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“…We use MovieLens [44] and Kiva.org [45] datasets for evaluation. To better evaluate the proposed method, two versions of MovieLens with different sizes (100K and 10M) have been used.…”

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