The Banker Ladies - bookrastinating.com

Published May 2024 by University of Toronto Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-4875-1783-0

All over the world, Black and racialized women engage in the solidarity economy through what is known as mutual aid financing. Formally referred to as rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), these institutions are purposefully informal to support the women’s livelihoods and social needs and act to reject tiered forms of neoliberal development. The Banker Ladies – a term coined by women in the Black diaspora – are individuals that voluntarily organize ROSCAs for self-sufficiency and are intentional in their politicized economic cooperation to counter business exclusion.

Caroline Shenaz Hossein reveals how Black women redefine the banking cooperative sector to be inclusive of informal institutions that are democratic and focused on group consensus, and which build an activist form of economic cooperation that is intent on making social profitability the norm. The book examines the ways in which diasporic Black women who organize mutual aid receive little to no …

All over the world, Black and racialized women engage in the solidarity economy through what is known as mutual aid financing. Formally referred to as rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), these institutions are purposefully informal to support the women’s livelihoods and social needs and act to reject tiered forms of neoliberal development. The Banker Ladies – a term coined by women in the Black diaspora – are individuals that voluntarily organize ROSCAs for self-sufficiency and are intentional in their politicized economic cooperation to counter business exclusion.

Caroline Shenaz Hossein reveals how Black women redefine the banking cooperative sector to be inclusive of informal institutions that are democratic and focused on group consensus, and which build an activist form of economic cooperation that is intent on making social profitability the norm. The book examines the ways in which diasporic Black women who organize mutual aid receive little to no attention.

Unapologetically biased towards a group of women who have been purposely sidelined and put down for what they do, The Banker Ladies highlights how, in order to educate oneself about their contributions to politics and economics, it is imperative to listen to the voices of hundreds of Black women in charge of financial services for their communities.

3 editions

Ben Waber reviewed The Banker Ladies by Caroline Shenaz Hossein

A Solid Core with Lots of Introductory Material

3 stars

The core of this book is a fascinating and important exploration of rotating savings and credit associations in different parts of the world, with Hossein demonstrating how the Black and racialized women who run and participate in these associations benefit from and conceptualize this activity. There's a lot of introductory material here on why these people are traditionally marginalized by the financial sector and why the fields of economics and sociology have tended to discount these associations. If you're unfamiliar with the literature on economic and sociological discrimination this will be useful context, but otherwise you're best off skipping these sections.

Ben Waber

rated it

April 16

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