Key to China's plans to promote rural development is the de-marginalisation of the countryside through the incorporation of rural areas into the urban-based market-oriented financial system. For this reason, Chinese development planners have turned to microcredit -- i.e. the provision of small-scale loans to 'financially excluded' rural households -- as a means of increasing 'financial consciousness' and facilitating rural de-marginalisation. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork in rural China, this book examines the formulation, implementation and outcomes of government-run microcredit programmes in China, illuminating the diverse roles that microcredit plays in local processes of socioeconomic development and the livelihoods of local actors. It details how microcredit facilitates de-marginalisation for some, while simultaneously exacerbating the marginalisation of others; and exposes the ways in which microcredit and other top-down development strategies reflect and reinforce the contradictions and paradoxes implicit in rural China's contemporary development landscape.

[Nicholas Loubere](https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/en/persons/nicholas-loubere(071dc3f5-b9a4-4762-b13c-3490428ce1dc).html) is an Associate Senior Lecturer in the Study of Modern China at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University. His research examines socioeconomic development in rural China, with a particular focus on microcredit and migration.

Front Material1. Introduction1.1 Contested and Paradoxical Rural Development in China1.2 The Rise of the Global Microfinance Movement and the Adoption of Microcredit in Rural China1.3 Research Questions and Objectives1.4 Research Methodology and Fieldwork Sites1.5 Book Outline2. Rural Financial Services in China: Historical and Literature Review2.1 The Trajectories and Contours of the Rural Financial Landscape since 19492.2 Research on Rural Financial Services in China2.3 Conclusion3. Making Microcredit: Policy Formulation and Implementation3.1 The Formulation of Microcredit Policy3.2 A Tale of Three Townships: Microcredit Implementation at the Local Level3.3 Conclusion4. Variation in Microcredit Implementation: Understanding Heterogeneity from a Relational Perspective4.1 Differentiated Financial Landscapes and Segmented Financial Markets4.2 Strategising and Rationalising Pressures and Incentives4.3 Interpersonal Relationships and Negotiations at the Interface4.4 Emergence and Complexity in Implementation Outcomes4.5 Conclusion5. Microcredit as Modernisation and De-marginalisation5.1 The Linear Progression Development Paradigm5.2 Local Interpretations of Microcredit as a Means of De-marginalisation5.3 Microcredit as De-marginalisation Through Capital, Knowledge, and Technology Transfers5.4 Microcredit as De-marginalisation Through the Formation of New Socio-political and Socioeconomic Linkages5.5 Microcredit as De-marginalisation Through Employment, Local Cooperation, and Financial Inclusion5.6 Microcredit and Local Livelihood Improvement5.7 Conclusion6. Microcredit, Precarious Livelihoods and Undercurrents of Marginalisation6.1 The Unequal Foundations of Development and Relational Marginality6.2 The Rural-Urban Dichotomy and Relational Marginality in the Chinese Context6.3 Microcredit as Resource Diversion and Extraction6.4 Microcredit as Elite Capture and Exclusion6.5 Microcredit as Precarity, Risk, and Exploitation6.6 Conclusion7. Conclusion7.1 In Summary7.2 Key Findings7.3 Directions for Future ResearchEnd Material- Bibliography- Interview Lists- Index