Abstract

MARTINEZ BENAVIDES, Alejandra. Credit circuits: fiado and relational work in a small business in Cali, Colombia. Estud. sociol [online]. 2021, vol.39, n.116, pp.467-494.  Epub Sep 06, 2021. ISSN 2448-6442.  https://doi.org/10.24201/es.2021v39n116.1946.

This article examines the operation of one of the most common forms of informal credit in Colombia: el fiado. Based on ethnographic field work carried out at a second-hand clothing store in the Aguablanca District in Cali, Colombia, el fiado is proposed as a credit circuit, in other words, as an economic configuration that develops from interpersonal relationships, with shared moral ideas, accounting systems, temporalities, spatialities, limits and boundaries, enabling people to reach stable agreements in the absence of external authorities to enforce these agreements. It begins with a case study to propose a framework of analysis and explore the various ways people maintain relationships that permit the development of el fiado, according to their own needs and rationalities.

Keywords : fiado; circuit; relational work; credit/debt.