09 Jul Reading Paper

Lamia Karims book Microfinance and Its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh is the only ethnography we will read during this class, so it is important to understand what ethnographic research looks like and how it can provide important insights into the perspectives of local communities and women that reveal unintended consequences of development practices.

This paper will engage with concepts from the structural functionalism perspective by examining the manifest (intended) and latent (unintended) functions, and the dysfunctions of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Bangladesh. This paper focuses exclusively on Karims ethnographic study. You are responsible for reading the Intro, Chapter 1 (pg 1-5), and all of Chapters 2 and 3. This should provide enough context and examples to include in your paper.

Instead of summarizing the book, your paper should provide a critical analysis by discussing the original manifest functions of the MFIs in the Bangladesh context, their latent functions for local communities and particularly women, and finally their dysfunctions for society. The purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate that you read the selected readings from the book, understood the authors findings, and can apply the concepts of manifest/latent functions and dysfunctions to critically examine the outcomes of development in peoples everyday lives.

Paper Details

• This paper specifically focuses on the findings from Lamia Karims book, so this is the only source you need to discuss in the paper
• The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that you engaged with the reading, so bring in specific examples from the book to discuss in your paper
• Paraphrase when possible, but if you do use direct quotes include page numbers
• Papers must be 3 FULL pages; double-spaced; 12 pt Times New Roman font; PDF or doc
• This is a formal paper, so do not include I or personal opinions