Who Benefits? The Interactional Determinants of Microfinance’s Varied Effects

Since its emergence as a development tool, scholars and practitioners have questioned microfinance’s short- and long-term impacts but have had insufficient empirical evidence to assess them. To address this gap, this paper draws on mixed method research to assess the effects of microfinance loan and educational services over time. It explores why, even within the same microfinance institution (MFI), some borrowers benefit from microfinance services more than others in the short-term, and examines how this translates into long-term impacts. The article identifies understudied sources of intra-group variation: the diversity and choices of borrowers and MFI employees interacting with each other and their broader contexts.     

Book reviews

The following books are reviewed.

The Hammonds: a marriage in history STEWART A. WEAVER, 1999 Stanford: Stanford University Press viii + 349 pp., ISBN 08047 3242 6, hardback, £30 (US$49.50)

Centering Women: gender discourses in Caribbean slave society HILARY McD. BECKLES, 1999 Oxford: James Currey; Kingston: Ian Randle; Princeton: Markus Wiener. xxv + 211 pp., ISBN 976 8123 78 8, £15.95

Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt: a sourcebook JANE ROWLANDSON (Ed.), 1998 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xviii + 406 pp., ISBN 0 521 58212 1, hardback, 0 521 58814 4, paperback

Contesting Politics: women in Ireland, north and south YVONNE GALLIGAN, EILIS WARD & RICK WILFORD (Eds), 1999 Boulder: Westview Press. xv + 278 pp., ISBN 0 8133 3417 9, £17.50

Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices: women on Texas cotton farms, 1900–1940 REBECCA SHARPLESS, 1999 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. xxiii + 319 pp., ISBN 0 8078 2456 9, hardback, 0 8078 4760 7, paperback, $19.95

Cato's Tears and the Making of Anglo-American Emotion JULIE ELLISON, 1999 Chicago: University of Chicago Press. xi + 229 pp., ISBN 0 226 20595 9, hardback, $28, 0 226 20596 7, paperback, £11.50

Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the powerful women of early Hollywood CARI BEAUCHAMP, 1997 Berkeley: University of California Press. 475 pp., ISBN 0 520 21492 7, paperback, £11.50

Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies: two women's travel narratives of the 1790s DEIRDRE COLEMAN, 1999 London: Leicester University Press. xviii + 247 pp., ISBN 0 7185 0150 0, £17.99

With Women';s Eyes: visitors to the New World, 1775–1918 MARION TINLING, 1999 Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. xvii + 207 pp., ISBN 0 8061 3050 4, £24.50

Broken Silence: voices of Japanese feminism SANDRA BUCKLEY, 1997 Berkeley: University of California Press. xix + 382 pp. ISBN 0 520 08513 2, hardback, 0 520 08514 0, paperback

Conversations in Cold Rooms: women, work and poverty in nineteenth-century Northumberland JANE LONG, 1999 Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Royal Historical Society, Boydell Press. xii +241 pp., ISBN 0 86193 340 4, £40.00

Women in Espionage: a biographical dictionary M.H. MAHONEY, 1993 Santa Barbara: ABC–CLIO. xiii + 253 pp., ISBN 0 87436 743 3, £24.95

In Obedience to Instructions: FANY in the SOE in the Mediterranean MARGARET PAWLEY, 1999 Barnsley: Leo Cooper. xiii + 178 pp., ISBN 0 85052 633 7, £19.95

Enslaved Daughters: colonialism, law and women's rights SUDHIR CHANDRA, 1998 Delhi: Oxford University Press. xi + 249 pp.

English Sexualities, 1700–1800 TIM HITCHCOCK, 1997 Basingstoke: Macmillan. ix + 172 pp., ISBN 0 312 165373–0, hardback, 0 312 16574 9, paperback.

Secret Sexualities: a sourcebook of seventeenth and eighteenth century writing IAN McCORMICK (Ed.), 1997 London: Routledge. ix + 262 pp., ISBN 0 415 13953 8, hardback, £45, 0 415 13954 6, paperback.

Tradition and Liberation: the Hindu tradition in the Indian women's movement CATHERINE A. ROBINSON, 1999 Richmond: Curzon. x + 230 pp., ISBN 0 7007 1143 0.     

Semiotics and lived-spaces: Merleau-Ponty's concept of freedom as a potential goal for community transformation

In Maurice Merleau-Ponty's (1945 Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945/1962). Phenomenology of perception (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) Phenomenology of Perception, there is a short chapter at the end of the book dedicated to the concept of freedom. Although brief, and often ignored, this chapter arguably presents the central crux of the thesis Merleau-Ponty works to constitute throughout a majority of the text: namely, that any sort of free action is only truly possible should one recognize, in his or her local circumstances, the reasons and conditions necessary for freedom to be considered at all. This current article takes up this concept of freedom, as well as others such as intercorporeity and the lived-body, as imperative points of consideration for both psychologists and child and youth workers who are interested in transforming communities on a local scale. Some examples of recent empirical research on community intervention are discussed in relation to the aforementioned concepts, with an emphasis on the importance of place and embodiment.     

A model of parental involvement in adolescent drinking and driving

This article presents a model of parental involvement in prevention of teenage drinking and driving. Research findings are reviewed on why adolescents drink and drive, and what parents' knowledge, attitudes, and practices are related to youthful impaired driving. Reasons for parents' ineffectiveness at intervening to prevent their teenagers from drinking and driving are described. It is suggested that parents' effectiveness at preventing alcohol use and alcohol-impaired driving among their teenagers depends upon their stage of involvement. The different stages of parental involvement are defined as awareness, acceptance, action, and consequences. The specific components of these stages are described, and evidence is presented indicating that parents tend to be unaware of the true extent and nature of teen drinking, and thus less prone to acceptance and action.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from Syracuse University. Research interests: impaired driving, adolescent risk taking, substance abuse, and health threat perception.Received M.P.H. in health education from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Research interests: alcohol-impaired driving.     

Attitudes to corruption amongst Russian police officers and trainees

The police are perceived by overseas agencies to play a key role in thedevelopment of democratic states. In the Russian Federation, the promotion of trust between the police and the public has been hampered by the fact that police are perceived by the public, and reported by the media, to be open to using their positions at work to obtain money, goods or services. Survey research about beliefs and values concerning corruption was conductedamongst students and serving officers attending a police institute, whichprovides the most promising Russian police recruits with a four-year higher education leading to the rank of ``officer'. From these ranks will come those police who are likely in future to shape both policy and institutional values. The data provided evidence that ``fast-streamed' police recruits think that corruption is often justifiable and/or morally acceptable underparticular circumstances, or for particular goals.