Revolutionizing Human Development: Learning from Feminist Co-operators in the Americas
03 June 2025, 4:00 pm–6:00 pm

Black feminist co-operators engage in globalizing solidarity economies through a specific form of mutual aid – formally referred to as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs)–to meet livelihood needs. These women call themselves the Banker Ladies, and the ROSCAs they run are rooted in equity, collectivity and self-help.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Organiser
-
Institute of Advanced Studies
Location
-
IAS Common GroundG11, ground floor, South WingUCL, Gower St, LondonWC1E 6BTUnited Kingdom
Black feminist co-operators engage in globalizing solidarity economies through a specific form of mutual aid – formally referred to as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs)–to meet livelihood needs. These women call themselves the Banker Ladies, and the ROSCAs they run are rooted in equity, collectivity and self-help. Members decide on the rules and processes of how to make regular contributions to a fund that is given in whole or in part to each member in turn.
This lecture draws on empirical work that involves interviews with hundreds of Black women in five Caribbean countries, in Canada’s big cities of Toronto and Montreal, as well as in Ghana and Ethiopia of her recently published book, The Banker Ladies. This research calls on policy-makers to fund a ROSCA federation and for all co-operators to correct erasure and the citational blindness. By valuing informal institutions, as well as acknowledging and remunerating the work of the Banker Ladies is a move towards inclusive financial economies, and by extension it can revolutionize the field of international development.
Please register to attend: https://ucl-bankerladies.eventbrite.co.uk
The Banker Ladies: Vanguards of Solidarity Economics and Community-Based Banks, published by University of Toronto Press, May 2024
Photo credit: Wade Hudson, 2022
The UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies is a world-leading centre for critical interdisciplinary research into the past, present, and future of capitalism. It brings together UCL faculty and students studying how markets, finance and economic institutions shape our everyday life, structure societies’ capacity to change, and are contested and remade across time and space.
About the Speaker
Caroline Shenaz Hossein
Caroline Shenaz Hossein is Canada Research Chair of Africana Development & Feminist Political Economy and Associate Professor of Global Development at UTSC and member of the Royal Society of Canada’s new college. Hossein is cross-appointed to the graduate programme of Political Science and Sociology, University of Toronto. Hossein is founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies (DISE) Collective. Hossein’s research navigates solidarity economies–a movement started in the Global South–which prioritizes social profitability over financial gain. She also holds an Ontario Early Researcher Award (2018-2026) and previously a IDG SSHRC (2017-2020). Currently Hossein is a board member to the International Association of Feminist Economics, advisor to Oxford University Press, editorial board member to the U.N. Task Force for the Social and Solidarity Economy and a visiting researcher at the Institute of Advanced Studies, the Centre for Capitalism Studies at UCL, UK.
Hossein is the author of the award-winning book ‘Politicized Microfinance’ (2016), ‘The Banker Ladies’ by the University of Toronto Press (2024); co-author of ‘Critical Introduction to Business and Society’ (2017); editor of ‘The Black Social Economy’ (2018), co-editor of ‘Community Economies in the Global South’ (2022) and ‘Beyond Racial Capitalism: Cooperatives in the African Diaspora’ (2023) both by Oxford University Press. Her forthcoming books are ‘Africana Feminist Economics’ by Cambridge University Press and an open-access book on DIY Community Finance. Prior to becoming an academic, she worked for 16 years in a number of global organizations in economic development. Follow her work and The DISE Collective at www.Africanaeconomics.com
More about Caroline Shenaz Hossein