Debtor's Empowerment: Muhammad Yunus and the Rhetoric of Microfinance

<p>This thesis analyzes the rhetoric of Muhammad Yunus as an articulation of a new governing logic, one that reconstitutes the concept of poverty and binds the poor to the apparatus of global capitalism through a new logic of micro-enterprise. Working within a Foucauldian critical framework informed by the rhetorical scholarship of Ronald W. Greene and Joshua Hanan, the argument proceeds by first paying careful attention to Yunus' work as constitutive of a new grid of intelligibility through which to view the poor and then demonstrating the application of this reformed discourse on "creditworthiness" in articulating a novel regime of commensuration. This line of reasoning culminates in an examination of the role Yunus' reconstitution of the poor through the logic of micro-enterprise played in implementing an increasingly neoliberal policy framework in apparatuses of international development such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Brooks, Kaleb W.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Joshua Hanan, Ph.D.
• Christina Foust
• Robert Urquhart

• Articulation
• Commensuration
• Grameen
• Microcredit
• Microfinance
• Yunus
• Economics
• Finance

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/90

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1089