Comparative Practices and Perspectives

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This is a qualitative comparative case study which investigated the values, practices, perspectives, and strategies of Indian and American community organizers (practitioners and volunteers of non- profits and non-governmental organizations) who use microfinance, including savings schemes, as an instrument within the social intermediation process of developing disadvantaged women's capacities for self-sufficiency/empowerment. The focused inquiry was conducted through in-depth interviews of directors, staff members and volunteers/community- based organizers of a women's business center in Northern Virginia, a large US metropolitan area, and a women's federation in the rural Himalayas. Katz's framework for constructing analytical topographies, contour lines and countertopographies was used to structure the various levels of analysis. Differences were explained by situating each organization in Mayoux's theoretical paradigms of "Women's Empowerment through Microfinance." Analyses concluded with the construction of countertopographies on practices and strategies aimed towards collectively empowering women in disparate places around the world.