The theoretical framework of this dissertation is based on Amartya Sen’s capability approach (Chapter 2). In the early 1980s, development economist Amartya Sen developed the capability framework as a broad normative framework for the evaluation and assessment of individual well-being and social arrangements mainly in countries in the Global South (Sen, 1999, 2009). I chose the capability approach was chosen because of its strong focus on the notion of freedom as the capability to live the life each individual is aiming for. The freedom to choose a particular lifestyle is an intrinsic part of Sen’s notions of agency and well-being (Sen, 1999). After elaborating on notions of agency and well-being in detail, I turn to the role of financial self-help groups and how their members are influenced by social structures. This chapter concludes by operationalizing the theoretical framework into three capabilities (C1–C3) that serve as sensitizing concepts throughout the dissertation. These capabilities focus on the potential impact CAF groups have on members’ abilities to develop social networks (C1), to control their financial household management (C2), and to adopt an enterprising attitude (C3). Chapter 3 discusses my research methodology. I describe how the three capabilities (C1–C3) were applied as sensitizing concepts in the set-up of this particular action research (Blumer, 1954). I also explain in more detail how, by using sensitizing concepts, I combined an inductive research approach with a deductive angle. Then, I elaborate on the fundamental elements of this action research project: the implementation of the CAF groups as well as the collection and analysis of the empirical data. Finally, I reflect on how I designed and carried out this action research, with a special focus on the interaction between researcher and CAF members as research participants. A more detailed background description of the Dutch financial landscape is provided in Chapter 4. The chapter focuses on two particular financial self-help groups: ROSCAs among Ethiopians and Ghanaians living in the Netherlands. Compared to the formal banking system dominating the current financial landscape, these financial self-help groups claim effectivity instead of efficiency in the operation and management of their respective groups. By exploring developments in the current financial landscape, this chapter argues that distinguishing different kinds of resilience creates possibilities for analysing the different roles of financial arrangements and institutions for the financial landscape. Thus, this explorative study on ROSCAs questions the dominance of the financial side of the coin that has resulted from the efficiency-driven institutions of the financial sector. Chapter 5 presents each CAF group in more detail. The reader gets to know the different members of each CAF group and their motivations to join. Financial performance is assessed according to members’ savings and loan behaviour during the period of their participation. The quantitative data is analysed on how much the members of a respective CAF group saved and how much they borrowed from the group’s fund during the entire period of the research. These insights help the reader to better understand the differences and similarities between the five CAF groups. Chapter 6 discusses the empirical findings from the first three CAF groups. This chapter explores whether and how participation in a CAF group improves individuals’ well-being with regard to expanding their social networks, improving their financial household management, and strengthening their entrepreneurial positions. It also shows how participating in CAF groups at the grassroots level contributes to the well- Balancing the social and financial sides of the coin26being of vulnerable people in the Netherlands. Finally, the chapter reconsiders Sen’s notion of freedom for the particular context of overconsumption, inequality, and overindebtedness. In applying Sen’s capability approach, I realized that the approach has a “blind spot” regarding individuals’ possible impacts on the structures within and around them. By adding notions of Giddens’s structuration theory to the core concepts of the capability approach, I rendered the capability approach more sensitive to how CAF-group members may interact with their surrounding structures (Chapter 7). The relation between individuals and surrounding societal structures is extensively discussed in what is often referred to as the agency-structure debate (Ritzer, 2003). This debate is based on differing views about whether and to what extent individuals have a free will and can act according to their preferences, values, and personal feelings, or to what extent they are the “product” of their surrounding social structures. By expanding the capability approach with the notions of internal structures, on the one hand, and more proximate and more distant societal structures, on the other (Stones, 2008), I detail not only how individual agents are influenced by their surrounding structures, but how they might also have – however small and modest – an impact on those structures themselves. As a result, this chapter not only provides answers to how CAF-group participation affects individual members’ access to social networks, their financial household management, and their entrepreneurial positioning, but it also enabled me to investigate how and why individuals join a CAF group to take part in a so-called countermovement. Thus, I also consider how CAF members could possibly play a role in their surrounding social structures, like the existing financial landscape and the emerging participation society in the Netherlands.One way in which a CAF group can play a role in the surrounding structures is to become a community of practice. Wenger (1998) describes a community of practice as a group of people who share a certain domain of interest that distinguishes them from others. In a community of practice, it is crucial to learn from each other by engaging in joint activities and discussions. To discuss whether and how some of the CAF groups studied here turned into a community of practice, I apply the criteria of a common goal, trust, democratic leadership, and accumulation of knowledge in Chapter 8. The application of these criteria to the functioning of the CAF groups also provides more insight into how members interacted which each other in the different CAF groups. I will show how two of the five CAF groups indeed turned into communities of practice. Chapter 9 concludes this dissertation by linking the empirical findings on the individual level (Chapters 6 and 7) with those on the group level (Chapter 8). I follow this with a general discussion of the main contribution to theory development made by the Balancing the social and financial sides of the coin27expansion of Sen’s capability approach with Giddens’s structuration theory. Then, I discuss the role of CAF groups in enabling individual participants to balance the social and financial sides of the coin. Finally, I conclude this dissertation by showing how CAF groups have the potential to empower their members to meet the expectations of the participation society and the challenges of the contemporary financial landscape. I also provide recommendations for how engaged scholars doing action research can be reflective about the way they interact with their research participants and for how practitioners can set up CAF groups in the field. In the Epilogue, I tell the story of Cash2Grow. Based on the experiences and findings of my research, I co-founded the Cash2Grow foundation to promote savings groups in the Netherlands as a tool for financial and social empowerment. By developing improved savings-group methodologies and financial education tools, the foundation aims to train staff and volunteers from different types of (welfare) organizations to establish savings groups among their target populations. At the moment, we are also collaborating with similar organizations in Spain, Italy, Germany, and Poland to learn more from each other in a project subsidized by the EU.
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In the aftermath of the systemic financial crises of 2007-9, several scholars argued that the problem of systemic financial crises is not well understood. At the same time, the introduction of digital technologies led to new threats and opportunities for the design of the monetary and financial system. For example, thousands of private cryptocurrencies have been implemented and hundreds of research papers on the (possible) introduction of public digital currencies have been published. It is often not explained why these new forms of digital money are needed and which (systemic) problems they (can) solve. In addition, the literature does not provide requirements nor guidelines to shape the development of the monetary and financial system in the digital age. This thesis applies design science to the monetary and financial system as a whole. The application of this novel methodology offers new possibilities to examine this complex system. The contribution of this thesis is threefold. First, different theories on money, banking and systemic financial crises have been researched through an extensive literature review and balance sheets. Second, those theories have been used to develop design requirements and guidelines. Finally, the consensus and pivotal dissensions about the systemic problem(s) of the current monetary and financial system, requirements and guidelines among experts have been identified through semistructured interviews. This research process results in widely supported requirements that demarcate the design space and widely supported guidelines that aim to give direction within the design space, that is, to the future development of the monetary and financial system.
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Woningcorporaties (woco’s) trachten een bijdrage te leveren aan een duurzaam gedreven, volledig circulaire economie in 2050. Daartoe voeren zij tools in zoals kennis over circulair bouwen of ketensamenwerking. Die verzameling tools wordt in dit onderzoek levenscyclusdenken genoemd. Het invoeren van levenscyclusdenken vraagt om een systemische verandering die complex is en transdisciplinair en praktische veranderingen op alle hiërarchische lagen binnen de woco. Daartoe is een dialoog nodig tussen die lagen, die momenteel ontbreekt. Dit leidt tot de onderzoeksvraag: Op welke wijze kan binnen de interne keten van woningcorporaties de dialoog worden gefaciliteerd over het structureel invoeren van levenscyclusdenken? Binnen het consortium van woningcorporaties (Wonion, Mitros), partners (HEMUBO, Van Wijk Vastgoedonderhoud) en experts (dr. ir. Ad Straub en Gijs van Mil) ontsluiten we een dialoog tussen projectleider, asset manager, directie en/of beleids- of strategiemedewerker en financiën over de gevolgen van levenscyclusdenken op de interne organisatie van woningcorporaties. Vervolgens wordt onderzocht of SNA als basis kan dienen voor een dialoogtool die in een groter onderzoek kan worden doorontwikkeld. De beoogde resultaten zijn: 1) Een leer- en bewustwordingsproces onder beroepsprofessionals uit verschillende hiërarchische lagen en afdelingen van woco’s door het openen van de dialoog over de betekenis van levenscyclusdenken in hun werkpraktijk; 2) Een visuele omschrijving (SNA) van de complexiteit van levenscyclusdenken bij woco’s; 3) Netwerkvorming en vraagarticulatie voor het opstarten van een groter project (bijv. RAAK-Publiek) waarin de bredere productieketen wordt meegenomen; 4) Een digitaal prototype (app) dat woco’s in staat stelt zelf een SNA te maken om de dialoog op gang te brengen. Naast doorwerking in onderzoek werkt het project direct door in de onderwijspraktijk van de HU-Master of Urban Area Development. De hierboven genoemde woningcorporaties zijn opdrachtgever voor masterstudenten. Het activiteitenplan is gekoppeld aan de looptijd van de cursus “Strategisch beheer”.
This Impuls 2020 proposal of ArtEZ University of the Arts focuses on strengthening the institutional structure and organizational infrastructure of its Research and Outreach Unit, by developing and building ArtEZ Research & Outreach. ArtEZ Research & Outreach is a centralized research incubation and development space to facilitate the large communities of researchers at ArtEZ. Based on the portfolio of diverse practices, disciplinary competences, and domain expertise, it explores and develops common grounds for new ways of shared, de-disciplined research and outreach activities across the university and with relevant external partners and stakeholders. The 2 key areas in which Impuls-activities will be performed are: 1. Strategic Research Programming and Networking – Aligning expertise, combining research resources and developing strategic networks Our first objective is to define a long-term Strategic Research Program, to set the directions of urgent and future-proof research topics, directly related to needs and demands from internal (research, education) and external (societal, industrial) stakeholders, with the ambition to create maximum value and impact for researchers, students and professionals and preserving the power of art. This area also includes networking, to develop diverse multi-stakeholder consortia within and around the selected strategic research topics. Our objective is to create multi-lateral exchanges, bringing people together in diverse communities for building consortia to prepare for joint practices of research, impact, accountability, and intervention towards collective research development. 2. Professional Research Support Infrastructure We need to develop and professionalize our research support infrastructure to facilitate professors and researchers in preparing, performing and managing (organizationally and financially) their research projects. The ambition is to increase ArtEZ’ participation in projects for research in the arts, from networking to dissemination and implementation of the research results and output, by developing a strong and sustainable research portfolio and financing strategy.
