ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emergence of the digital financial inclusion paradigm, including the role of new communicative technologies in facilitating inclusive innovation practices. It examines the “mobile money revolution” in East Africa, exploring in particular the central role of local practices of money management and user innovations in the success of that digital finance initiative. Building on the analysis of the impact of mobile money, the chapter considers emerging practices of person-to-person payments based on block-chain technologies in developing economies. It examines the conceptually novel approaches to sending and receiving migrant remittances made possible by the blockchain technology, which include new digital forms of money, novel payment infrastructures, and new types of remittance actors such as fintech start-ups and other non-bank financial service providers. The chapter demonstrates that the social meaning attached to actual financial practice helps to illuminate the broader impact of the digital financial technologies as they move through the material and human infrastructures.
