This presentation will provide an overview of my institutional ethnography of U.S. microenterprise development programs (MDPs).

MDPs provide training and small business loans to individuals seeking to develop small enterprises that are owner-operated and

employ fewer than five workers. Many U.S. programs function as non-profits, and model elements of MDPs in southern hemisphere

(i.e., developing) nations. They promise to alleviate poverty by empowering the poor to “help themselves” in this era of welfare

reform and other declines in the social “safety net.” The programs aim to serve individuals who are marginalized through unemployment,

underemployment, and wages insufficient to support their families.  My research includes a longitudinal case study of one MDP in the

southwestern U.S. as well as interviews with providers at 50 other U.S. programs. I examine the interactions of program funders,

staff, and clients in various program stages. The analysis traces the links between this local program and others like it around the

country. It also maps the connections between MDP experiences and their larger social historical context, particularly issues commonly

confronting workers in the new economy. Specifically, my findings identify contradictions within microenterprise development practice

as practitioners attempt to balance funder demands for program sustainability with the provision of services to poor and low income

clients. Funder pressures to manage MDPs in ways that mirror idealized images of market-sector efficiency also challenge

programs’ ability to offer services that are responsive to the real life circumstances and needs of disadvantaged clients.

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