Bootstrap Dreams: U.S. Microenterprise Development in an Era of Welfare Reform

by Nancy Jurik

Overview

Declines in real wages, increases in the number of poor families, and cutbacks to welfare and other safety-net programs have stimulated the popularity of microenterprise development programs (MDPs). These programs typically offer training and loans to individuals seeking to operate very small businesses. MDPs are often presented as a path to the self-sufficiency that comes with entrepreneurship and as an example of the success of market-based alternatives to government programs. In Bootstrap Dreams, Nancy C. Jurik analyzes the origins and maturation of these programs in the United States.

Based on a national sample of fifty programs and an eight-year case study of one in particular, this is a rare book about microenterprise development. Jurik understands the positive social mission of MDPs, but she is not blind to the problems that they encounter. Jurik's clear perception of potential difficulties and her keen ability to place the microenterprise movement in the larger context of welfare reform and globalization make Bootstrap Dreams a valuable book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801489976
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	03/23/2005
Series:	Ilr Press Books
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nancy C. Jurik is Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University. She is the coauthor of Doing Justice, Doing Gender: Women in Law and Criminal Justice Occupations and coeditor of New Directions in Justice, Law, and Social Control.

What People are Saying About This

Christopher Gunn

Bootstrap Dreams is to my knowledge the most comprehensive study of the microfinance/microenterprise phenomenon in the United States. It situates microenterprise development programs in a broad international history, in domestic political changes, and in a context that emphasizes race, gender, and class. The claims Nancy C. Jurik makes are judicious and well supported by the evidence.

Marjorie DeVault

This book tracks the growth of domestic microenterprise development programs. One extremely interesting aspect of this phenomenon is the transfer of economic development strategies first implemented in developing nations to poorer communities in the United States. Nancy C. Jurik's conception of microenterprise development programs as embedded in a larger economic context is both astute and appropriate.

Editorial Reviews

"Bootstrap Dreams is to my knowledge the most comprehensive study of the microfinance/microenterprise phenomenon in the United States. It situates microenterprise development programs in a broad international history, in domestic political changes, and in a context that emphasizes race, gender, and class. The claims Nancy C. Jurik makes are judicious and well supported by the evidence."

--Christopher Gunn, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

"This book tracks the growth of domestic microenterprise development programs. One extremely interesting aspect of this phenomenon is the transfer of economic development strategies first implemented in developing nations to poorer communities in the United States. Nancy C. Jurik's conception of microenterprise development programs as embedded in a larger economic context is both astute and appropriate."

--Marjorie DeVault, Syracuse University

From the Publisher

"This book tracks the growth of domestic microenterprise development programs. One extremely interesting aspect of this phenomenon is the transfer of economic development strategies first implemented in developing nations to poorer communities in the United States. Nancy C. Jurik's conception of microenterprise development programs as embedded in a larger economic context is both astute and appropriate."

Marjorie DeVault

"Bootstrap Dreams is to my knowledge the most comprehensive study of the microfinance/microenterprise phenomenon in the United States. It situates microenterprise development programs in a broad international history, in domestic political changes, and in a context that emphasizes race, gender, and class. The claims Nancy C. Jurik makes are judicious and well supported by the evidence."

Christopher Gunn