http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/imtfi_rw/rss Recent eScholarship items from Syntheses Sat, 12 Sep 2026 07:35:25 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9sp2c1b0 <p>In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade."&nbsp;</p><p>This is post 1 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9sp2c1b0 Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Balen, Maria Elisa Benítez, Edgar https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5rd6s8wn <p>In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade."&nbsp;</p><p>This is post 5 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5rd6s8wn Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Villareal, Magdalena Balen, Maria Elisa Morvant-Roux, Soléne https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2tj307dd <p>In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade."&nbsp;</p><p>This is post 3 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2tj307dd Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Baig, Noman Kustin, Bridget https://escholarship.org/uc/item/19p49780 <p>In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade."</p><p>This is post 1 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation in... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/19p49780 Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Rea, Stephen https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0sf6k03v <p>In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade."&nbsp;</p><p>This is post 2 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0sf6k03v Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Baig, Noman Kustin, Bridget https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6np7h4fn <p>This conference write-up synthesizes two days of IMTFI researcher presentations through a series of 7 blogposts (titles listed in bold within conference program below) on the IMTFI Blog authored by Liz Losh. View &nbsp;IMTFI's fourth cohort of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/research/2012/index.php">awarded research projects 2012</a>.&nbsp;Go to the Supplemental Material tab to download the conference program December 5-6, 2012 4th Annual Conference of IMTFI Researchers Program.</p><p> <strong>#1 - Longing and Belonging: Money, Mobility, and Practices of the Self (12/5/2012)</strong> </p><p>Session 1: Money, Mobility, and Practices of the Self- “Mobile Kin and Mobile Money: The Anthropology of International Remittances in Kenya” (Kenya) by Sibel Kusimba; “Generating, Storing and Exchanging Value: Comparing Financial Practices in Mexican and Indian Rural Communities” (Mexico and India) by Magdalena Villareal &amp; Isabelle Guerin; “Mobiles, Migrants and Money: A Study... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6np7h4fn Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Losh, Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/66b5b152 <p>This conference write-up synthesizes two days of IMTFI researcher presentations through a series of 7 blogposts (titles listed in bold within conference program below) on the IMTFI Blog authored by Liz Losh. View &nbsp;IMTFI's fifth cohort of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/research/2013/index.php">awarded research projects 2013</a>&nbsp;and complete <a href="https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/events/2013/2013-12-04-imtfis-fifth-annual-conference-for-funded-res.php">IMTFI Conference Schedule 2013</a>.</p><p> <strong>#1 - Burning a Hole in Your Pocket: Cash and Cashlessness (12/4/2013)</strong> </p><p>Session 1: Cash/Cashlessness - "Cashless or Cashlite? Mobile Money Use and Currency Redenomination in Zambia" (Zambia) by Vivian Dzokoto and Mwiya Imasiku; "Exploring the Nature, Scope and Feasibility of Existing Technological Infrastructure of India's National e-Governance Plan's Customer Service Scheme Towards Converting In-cash Transactions into Cashless Transactions"... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/66b5b152 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Losh, Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5sp74405 <p>This conference write-up synthesizes two days of IMTFI researcher presentations through a series of 8 blogposts (titles listed in bold within conference program below) on the IMTFI Blog authored by Liz Losh. View &nbsp;IMTFI's <a href="https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/research/2014/index.php">sixth cohort of&nbsp;awarded research projects 2014</a>&nbsp;and complete <a href="https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/newsevents/events/conference/imtfi_annualconference2014.php">IMTFI Conference Schedule 2014</a>.</p><p> <strong>#1 - Valuing Connection: The Interface between Tradition and Technology (12/10/2014)</strong> </p><p>Session 1: The Interface between Tradition and Technology - “Storing and Transferring Money in a Cash-Strapped Fishing Municipality in the Bicol Region” (Philippines) by Bernadette M. Gavino-Gumba, Ateneo de Naga University; “When the Dead Decide: An Investigation into the Influence of the Ancestors in the Decision to Use Mobile Technology in a Rural Community in Northern Ghana”... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5sp74405 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Losh, Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1100f0vq <p>This conference write-up synthesizes two days of research presentations that took place at UC Irvine for the June 1-2, 2009 The Bottom of the Pyramid in Practice Conference on the Virtualpolitik Blog authored by Liz Losh.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Go to the Supplemental Material tab to download The Bottom of the Pyramid in Practice Conference Flyer</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1100f0vq Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Losh, Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hd9926n <p>This conference write-up synthesizes two days of IMTFI researcher presentations through a series of 8 blogposts (titles listed in bold within conference program below) on the IMTFI Blog authored by Liz Losh. View &nbsp;IMTFI's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/research/2015/">awarded research projects 2015-2016</a>. Download the full program in the supplemental tab.</p><p> <strong>#1 - The Double Gold Standard: Session One of the 2016 Conference&nbsp;(4/20/2016)</strong> </p><p>Session 1: The Sharing Economy? Women and Girls and their Ties and Tensions"To Send or to Carry? Gendered Evaluations of Formal and Informal Remittance Practices in Migrant-Origin Villages in Central Java, Indonesia" by Carol Chan, University of Pittsburgh“Generational Tensions in the Uptake of Digital Financial Services: Adolescent Girls and Adults in Nigeria" by Jude Kenechi Onyima, Nnamdi Azikiwe University“Group versus Individual Strategies: Dynamic Social Networks of Mobile Money among Unbanked... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hd9926n Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Losh, Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9nc940rd <p>This conference write-up synthesizes two days of IMTFI researcher presentations through a series of 8 blogposts (titles listed in bold within conference program below) on the IMTFI Blog authored by Liz Losh. View &nbsp;IMTFI's third cohort of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/research/2011/index.php">awarded research projects 2011</a>.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>#1 - Liz Losh's Guest Blog: Beyond the 99% (12/6/2011)&nbsp;</strong>Welcome and Introductions by Bill Maurer, IMTFI Director</p><p> <strong>#2 - Liz Losh's Guest Blog: Failed States, Shitting Grounds, and Ethnic Slurs (12/6/2011)</strong> </p><p>Session 1: Money Cultures: Identity, Wealth &amp; Poverty - “Beyond the Failed State: Capital Mobilization, Investment and Entrepreneurship Among Somali Refugees in Nairobi, Kenya” by Kenneth Omeje and John Mwangi, United States International University (USIU);“Do Tobacco Growers Need Financial Inclusion? An Analysis into the Monetary Problems and Prospects Enshrouding Farmers... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9nc940rd Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Losh, Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/99r3s86k <p>This conference write-up synthesizes two days of IMTFI researcher presentations through a series of 6 blogposts (titles listed in bold within the conference program below)&nbsp;on the Virtualpolitik Blog authored by Liz Losh. View IMTFI's second cohort of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/research/2010/index.php">awarded research projects 2010</a>.&nbsp;Go to the Supplemental Material tab to download the conference program for the second cohort of IMTFI researchers: September 29-30, 2010 IMTFI Annual Conference for Researchers Program.</p><p> <strong>#1 – The Middle-Aged Technology (9/29/2010)</strong> </p><p>Session 1: Money and the Life-Course - “Money, Conflict, and Reciprocity in Rural Families in Zambia: The Case of Female University Students” - Robert Tembo, University of Zambia; “Consumption Smoothening, Financial Literacy and Old Age Vulnerability: Experiences of Success and Failure with a Private Pension System in Chile” - Aldo Madariaga, Nicolas Perez, and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/99r3s86k Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Losh, Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/44n4j6cv <p>The Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion at the University of California, Irvine, was founded in 2008. Its mission is to foster a community of inquiry and practice on new forms of money and financial technology among the world’s poorest people. IMTFI awards fellowships to researchers in the developing world to conduct 12-month projects, many with a strongly qualitative component. This report discusses IMTFI’s research in its first year 2008-09 and summarizes IMTFI's First Annual Conference that took place at UC Irvine from November 4-6, 2009.&nbsp;</p><p>This report includes <strong>Appendix: 11 Design Principles for Financial Services for the Poor:</strong> 1) Design for social obligation; 2) Design for social rank; 3) Flexibility with sanctions; 4) Structured illiquidity; 5) Change the iconography; 6) Design with local values; 7) Design for convertibility; 8) Help calculate convertibility, 9) Design for relative volume, not increment; 10) Lucky Numbers,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/44n4j6cv Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Maurer, Bill https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4cm5r8g0 This article explores the emerging field of 'mobile money': mobile phone-enabled systems for value transfer and storage, primarily in the developing world, which are heralded as signal interventions in the effort to broaden financial inclusion and bank the 'unbanked.' Focusing on the stories that circulate in the emergent network of expertise that is calling 'mobile money' into being, it discusses how economic techniques and social narratives about markets - specifically, narratives about the opportunities for profit and financial inclusion in the 'payments space' - format a consumer market for mobile money. Furthermore, it asks whether end-users' repurposing of mobile money - and the use of airtime as currency - heralds a new means of exchange or store of value, potentially remaking money in the process. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4cm5r8g0 Thu, 3 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Maurer, Bill https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5339-9893 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/41h3d3jv As financial transactions are increasingly digitized, old and new kinds of intermediaries are only expanding in importance. Intermediaries, mediators and brokers sit at critical junctures and operate between diverse financial arenas and pathways. We argue that mapping the intermediate entails identifying how different kinds of actors—human and non-human, objects and interfaces, institutions and practices—delimit or reify but also stitch together and overcome spatial and temporal differences in people's financial lives, while taking on varying burdens of risk. Mapping the intermediate is both an empirical and methodological exercise. Empirically, it requires following the agents and traders, brokers and material objects that facilitate transactions and add, extract, or re-work different kinds of value. Methodologically, intermediaries and the intermediate are not only the objects of analysis but act as analytical tools in their own right, making the process and politics of transactions... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/41h3d3jv Tue, 5 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Tankha, Mrinalini Dalinghaus, Ursula https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7fp2308n <p>Are you curious about how to design a research project on Bitcoin?</p><p>-Interested in enlivening your interview research with object-centered methods or social network analysis?</p><p>-How do you adapt research on financial management practices in locations as different as the San Francisco Bay Area and the border area of Haiti and the Dominican Republic?</p><p>-Find answers to these questions and more in the BETA version of our Consumer Finance Research Methods Toolkit.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7fp2308n Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Taylor, Erin B Lynch, Gawain Dalinghaus, Ursula https://escholarship.org/uc/item/574243f9 Over the past decade, mobile phone-enabled financial services, such as those made famous by the Kenyan mobile money platform M-Pesa, have been heralded as a means of poverty alleviation andfinancial inclusion. The mobile platform represents an exciting possibility as a delivery channel fordigital financial services and as a technology that, like money, connects people with one another. Yet mobile money deployments around the world have not had unequivocal success. In this working paper, we survey lessons from the first decade of research into mobile money, focusing on anarchive of studies produced by fellows funded by the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI), based at the University of California, Irvine. We describe mobile money’s primary use case—P2P money transfer—and argue that both the “Ps” and the “2s” of this model (mobile money’s “peers” and the technological and social infrastructures that intermediate them) must be understood in context. We... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/574243f9 Tue, 22 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Nelms, Taylor Rea, Stephen https://escholarship.org/uc/item/244423bg <p>In March of 2015 IMTFI arranged for a comprehensive visit to India to gather updates on four sponsored research projects with the following fellows and researchers: Mani Nandhi, Deepti KC, Nithya Joseph and Janaki Srinivasan.</p><p>This synthesis brings together the series—7 blogposts (10/2/2015-10/21/2015) featuring the four case studies—written up by IMTFI conference blogger Liz Losh. It examines a broad range of financial inclusion issues for specific targeted populations that differed by region, gender, and occupation. These studies included in-depth long-term field work with Delhi rickshaw pullers, rural women in Bihar, fishermen in Kerala, and silk workers in Karnakata.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/244423bg Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Losh, Liz https://escholarship.org/uc/item/91z9c88d <p>In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI fellows take on the recent demonetization move in India through 7 posts on the IMTFI Blog from January-February 2017. This synthesis serves as a collation of the 7 blogposts.</p><p>The series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events - based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of demonetization will conclude with a curated commentary by IMTFI on key themes, important questions, and what we can learn from these contributions for digital financial inclusion going forward.</p><p>#1 - Demonetization and its Discontents (1/24/2017) by Janaki Srinivasan</p><p>#2 - The Recent Indian Demonetisation and Cash Exclusion (1/26/2017) by Debashis Acharya</p><p>#3 - The Dangerous Liaisons between Demonetization and the Indian Informal Economy (Part 1) (1/30/2017) by Isabelle Guérin,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/91z9c88d Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion https://escholarship.org/uc/item/73q8h15b Emphasizing that there is no one-size-fits-all proposition, IMTFI researchers identify cross-cutting issues affecting client uptake for mobile and other electronic payment platforms. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/73q8h15b Wed, 9 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6834v821 Introduction to Money at the Margins. Book description:&nbsp;Mobile money, e-commerce, cash cards, retail credit cards, and more—as new monetary technologies become increasingly available, the global South has cautiously embraced these mediums as a potential solution to the issue of financial inclusion. How, if at all, do new forms of dematerialized money impact people’s everyday financial lives? In what way do technologies interact with financial repertoires and other socio-cultural institutions? How do these technologies of financial inclusion shape the global politics and geographies of difference and inequality? These questions are at the heart of&nbsp;<em>Money at the Margins</em>, a groundbreaking exploration of the uses and socio-cultural impact of new forms of money and financial services. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6834v821 Wed, 9 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Musaraj, Smoki Small, Ivan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2rh845ds <p>Think back to 2008: the first iPhone had just been released. M-Pesa, Safaricom’s mobile transfer service, was just beginning to hit the Kenyan countryside. The extent of the global financial crisis was becoming known. At the University of California, Irvine, south of Los Angeles, researchers had just begun thinking about the collision between mobiles and money. Founded that same year, the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) was in the process of supporting its first set of research projects, in countries ranging from Nigeria to Indonesia. When it funded its first cohort of 17 researchers from around the world in 2009, only a handful were exploring the expansion of mobile money technology. Three of the projects were in sub-Saharan Africa–in Kenya, Botswana and Nigeria. The other projects focused largely on alternative currencies, informal savings practices, programs. Five years later, in 2014, almost all of IMTFI projects involved research on mobile... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2rh845ds Wed, 9 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Tankha, Mrinalini https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s19r2qz New Organizational Models: Open-Source Financial Services Research https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s19r2qz Mon, 7 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Cliver, Melissa https://escholarship.org/uc/item/60p1x22r This synthesis features IMTFI projects in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, India, Mexico and the Philippines, exploring the theme of trust&nbsp;across four broad categories –Channels, Intermediaries, Accounting, and the Source. One of the key takeaways is that trust in new money technology grows when it can be one among many reliable channels for storing and transferring value. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/60p1x22r Mon, 7 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Dalinghaus, Ursula https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3fk2v13j <p>This white paper by Dr. Ursula Dalinghaus, Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Ripon College and affiliated scholar at the Institute for Money, Technology &amp; Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) University of California, takes a close look at the role of cash in society and the specific characteristics making it a public good, citing relevant studies, scholars and field experiments.</p><p>"Cash in circulation is growing on a global scale by approximately 3% per year; 80% of all payments worldwide are cash transactions. Cash is an essential part of every stable financial and economic system", stated ICA Chairman Wolfram Seidemann. "This paper demonstrates that cash is more than just a means of payment. It is a public good, part of modern life and vital for people's everyday lives."</p><p> <strong>Key takeaways</strong> </p><p>Cash is a public good that guarantees ease of use, accessibility, privacy, and many other unique qualities in local, national, and global monetary systems.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3fk2v13j Mon, 7 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Dalinghaus, Ursula https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18g0t59d <p>These snapshots of gender and financial inclusion provide a glance at some of the ways women interact with different forms of money in a shifting global financial landscape. Based on research conducted by IMTFI researchers all around the world, these snapshots address the way gender relations get reworked when money circulates through digital technologies and is regulated by new financial institutions.</p><p>Research from the Philippines, Kenya, Paraguay, Nigeria, Mexico and India demonstrates that women’s access to and engagements with money are extremely varied and strongly influenced by entrenched socio-cultural and economic modes of exclusion. Therefore women employ a host of different financial management strategies as means of empowerment – from hiding money in coke bottles, to rearing ruminants to speculating in gold. Moreover, financial education of women emerges as an important prerequisite for financial inclusion and one IMTFI research team recommends the use of cartoons... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18g0t59d Mon, 7 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9x78p9nn Why do financial intermediaries persist, despite the promises of disintermediation that accompanied the diffusion of digital technologies?Through a comparative qualitative study of financial intermediation in rural markets in Shan State, Myanmar, and Kerala, India, we map out and make visible official and unofficial roles played by different types of brokers (traders, hundi, transport companies, etc.), and different financial&nbsp; tools (cash, gold, land, banks, etc.), and look at how information and communication technologies&nbsp; (ICTs) fit in the interactions between the two. ICTs and human brokers perform functions that are sometimes&nbsp; complementary, sometimes in conflict, and sometimes simply different from each other. In examining&nbsp;the range of roles that (human and non-human) actors and material practices that are involved in&nbsp; conducting financial transactions have, we show the central role that historical legacies and&nbsp;politics play in explaining why... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9x78p9nn Fri, 4 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Oreglia, Elisa Srinivasan, Janaki Raghav, Krish https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8tj0678b <p>Over the last decade there has been a revolution in payment technologies. Digitization of bank accounts, new digital payment applications, and an array of new kinds of financial products and services have opened up a wide range of choices for storing, saving, sending, and receiving money. Digital finance has become an important tool in efforts to facilitate formalfinancial inclusion across the globe.</p><p>And yet, cash has also remained an essential tool for people’s financial practices and lives alongside these new payment forms. Evidence from both developing and developed payment markets shows that while digital payments may have increased exponentially, the demand for physical banknotes and coins has kept up with the pace of digital finance. Physical currency or physical accounting devices are ancient and crosscultural technologies, in continuous use since at least 1600 B.C. Aside from risks and benefits, they are wedded to an incredibly durable set of behaviors and social... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8tj0678b Fri, 4 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Dalinghaus, Ursula