IMPROVING FINANCIAL INCLUSION: TOWARDS A CRITICAL FINANCIAL EDUCATION FRAMEWORK

ABSTRACT Empirical research suggests that financial inclusion initiatives - such as facilitating access to financial resources or providing microcredit - are alone not enough to lower socioeconomic disparities. In this article, we adopt a critical stance as a guide for our empirical investigation. Our aim is to propose a financial education framework, tailored to low-income micro-entrepreneurs, that embraces new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and seeks to improve financial inclusion and social emancipation. This empirical study was conducted in an Amazonian municipality in Brazil where recent access to ICTs has brought about important and varied socioeconomic changes. Results show that ICT-supported and tailored critical financial education can play a dual role: on the one hand, access to financial education might decrease the effects of generative mechanisms on global/local tensions, triggered by standardized ICT applications; on the other hand, such access might increase financial inclusion and social transformation through the integration of guiding principles into financial education programs.

摘要：实证研究表明，仅依靠金融普惠（financial inclusion）举措——例如拓宽金融资源获取渠道或提供小额信贷（microcredit）——并不足以缩小社会经济差距。本文以批判立场作为实证研究的指导原则，旨在为低收入微型创业者量身打造一套融合新型信息与通信技术（ICTs）的金融教育框架，以期改善金融普惠水平并推动社会解放。本实证研究于巴西亚马逊地区的一座市镇开展，当地近年来因接入信息与通信技术而发生了意义深远且形式多样的社会经济变革。研究结果显示，依托信息与通信技术的定制化批判式金融教育可发挥双重作用：一方面，此类金融教育能够削弱标准化信息与通信技术应用所引发的全球/地方紧张局势背后的生成机制的影响；另一方面，通过将核心指导原则融入金融教育项目，该模式可进一步提升金融普惠程度并促进社会转型。