Introducing Micro-finance in Sweden

The case describes the first year of efforts to introduce microfinance as a tool to work with vulnerable groups in Sweden, more particularly ex-convicts, former drug-addicts and longterm unemployed women of immigrant background. The teaching objective is to discuss whether micro-finance can be seen as a tool to catalyze social change in developed welfare states such as Sweden, or if it rather reinforces the very power structures it aims to subvert. The author uses the case to analyse the efforts to introduce a new concept to wellestablished economic and social actors, as well as to understand the difficulties of building collaborations between actors with different logics. The analysis is threefold: 1. The mobilization and generation of social capital; 2. The conflict of logics/frames; 3. The frame alignment process set in motion by micro-finance The case is based on extended field research. It was written for students of social entrepreneurship. It has also been tested on students enrolled in the Philosophy and Economy Masters Program.