Oikos Workshop | Financial Infrastructures for Resilience: The Case of the South Bronx

The Oikos working group at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge invites you to a workshop with Antonieta Castro-Cosio on her paper about financial infrastructures for resilience in the South Bronx.

RSVP to shari.wolk@nyu.edu for the paper.

In her paper, Castro-Cosio explores the role of “informal” financial practices and institutions in the shaping of resilient urban communities, with a focus on low and moderate-income urban communities. To do so, she looks at different types of financial transactions and services that exist in such communities, and studies in detail the so-called “informal” mechanisms that exist therein, particularly the Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs). It is argued that these institutions serve as substitutes or complements for the deficient access that populations in such communities have to formal financial services, and constitute part of their safety networks to be resilient in the face of external circumstances like economic shifts, failing policies, medical emergencies, or natural disasters. Castro-Cosio tests this hypothesis against the findings from a case study in a neighborhood in the South Bronx in New York City, where she was accepted to join one of such circles and documented her own experience, as well as that of the rest of the members in the network.

Antonieta Castro-Cosio is a Public and Urban Policy thinker and researcher with over 15 years of experience in various aspects of development and public policy, including in public institutions and international representations. Her work aims to design and evaluate effective policies for low- and moderate-income urban communities to enable them to sustainably develop and achieve their full potential. She served for four years at the British Embassy in Mexico as Director of its Sustainable Development program, funded by the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies at The New School Castro-Cosio obtained a MSc. in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BSc. in International Relations from the Tec of Monterrey, as well as a specialization certificate in Energy and Environmental Management and Policy from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO).