Enabling inclusion through alternative discursive formations: the regional development of community development loan funds in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article explores the growth and geography of Community Development Loan Funds (CDLFs) in the UK. CDLFs usually operate locally to overcome financial exclusion by providing a mechanism that enables wider social inclusion in disadvantaged areas. The article uses two cases studies of CDLFs to show how these alternative financial institutions balance the tension between profitability versus social objectives. CDLFs are ‘alternative’ financial institutions as their business model is based on alternative discursive formations of profitability related to value. Combining these variables produces a complex uneven regional geography of access; complex as local CDLF availability may still imply that organizations experience financial exclusion.