Gendered redistribution and family debt: The ambiguities of a cash transfer program in Brazil

Abstract

Latin American conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are usually regarded as policies of social protection that question the neoliberal agenda. This article suggests instead that the Brazilian CCT Bolsa Família (Family Grant) is ambiguous in the sense that it was consolidated in association with policies of expansion of financial markets in the country under the rubric of social rights and female emancipation. To analyze the ambiguities of the program, we first delve into official federal documents and practices, which expose the connections between financialization and cash transfer. Second, we build on ethnographic data investigating the financial lives of Bolsa Família beneficiaries in the city of São Paulo. Our findings suggest that there are two scales at which Bolsa Família is associated with financialization: on the national level, the state‐led policy of cash transfer provides the conditions for the expansion of the banking system, and vice versa; on the local level, among the beneficiaries, Bolsa Família and access to credit tools trigger lateral dependencies and family conflicts.

Anything but micro—no small change: Informality practices at a nonprofit microlender in Washington, DC

“…The benefits of this increased social capital were lower default risk, strengthened social networks, and greater information sharing. In contrast, however, Badue and Ribeiro (2018) found that borrowers in Brazil preferred owing to a bank rather than to a friend because “the friend is always around.”…”

“…Its major critique, however, is that it entrenches unequal, hierarchical global and local relationships. Through the financialization of the poor, it promulgates a cycle of indebtedness and dependency (Badue and Ribeiro 2018).…”

Finance beyond function: Three causal explanations for financialization

“…Another, as the OPE perspective identifies, is that national and international political institutions generate them. Both sources are well illustrated in Badue and Ribeiro's (2018) research. They demonstrate that a cash transfer program promoted by the Brazilian state and called Bolsa Familia is appropriated and manipulated by the beneficiaries for different relational goals.…”

Trampa De Iliquidez: Los Sujetos Sobreendeudados Y Sus Consecuencias Cognitivas

“…La desregulación del mercado del crédito en las sociedades modernas puede motivar la aprobación de créditos a usuarios financieros que verdaderamente no tienen posibilidades de pagar (Kus, 2015). Este aspecto resulta especialmente relevante porque, cuando las familias se encuentran en situación de vulnerabilidad, se pueden generar esquemas inestables de financiación del gasto que solo conducen a los deudores a situaciones peores (Badue & Ribeiro, 2018).…”