The dense social and politic life of social agents in the "Banco do Povo" organizational structure

Abstract

This article is based on interviews and field research in the Banco do Povo. We startedby identifying the social credit agents who are part of the Banco do Povo’s organizational structureand by presenting some of their daily practices. Then, we explored the possible links among theseagents and local politicians. Subsequently, following our hypothesis of the presence of a “patronagegrammar” which defines the social and practical relations in the social relation chain constituted oflocal politic power/organizational structure/client, we explored the empirical data and related it, in asystemic fashion, to the literature about microfinance. Finally, we entwine considerations about theinflections which local power politic imprints onto the whole social relation, leading to considerationsnever registered in the existent literature.