Abstract

I explore the story of Sufia, as told by Muhammad Yunus, the "poor people's banker". First, I examine the accounts which alternative economic and philosophical approaches (Conventionalism, Libertarianism, Welfarism, the Capabilities approach) may provide of the employment relation in which Sufia was involved. The purpose is to understand alternative positions in the light of their analytical and normative arguments concerning the case in hand. In the second part of the paper, I illustrate how the credit channel may be instrumental to a general project to overcome the "limited access problem", or "property rights constraint", which lies at the root of many employment relations. Key to Yunus's approach, according to the proposed interpretation, is the promotion of independent work.