Financial diaries were first developed by Stuart Rutherford and others in an attempt to provide a better method for understanding the lives of the poor. The financial diaries in the present study track the cash flows of 39 people on a daily basis from March 2015 to November 2016 in the town of Kapasia, Bangladesh. The diaries provide a precise look at the different financial decisions the diarists took over time and the different interactions that others had with them. Financial diaries help to uncover the social dynamics that are hidden in nationwide statistics by adding important ethnographic and financial information in a day-to-day basis. Coupled with interviews, a more detailed understanding can be achieved about the different dynamics of the lives of people living in poverty. The present study proposes the usage of financial diaries as a way to enhance both the practical and philosophical aspects of the capabilities approach by providing an alternative way of tracing human development by focusing on the different rules and resources embedded in the social structure of the diarists. The study outlined several different examples of the social and financial resources available to people and the different rules pertaining to these resources. The results measure how the different types of social and financial resources act as a pre-condition of choice as they can either enhance or reduce people’s ability to do and be different things.

Financial diaries were first developed by Stuart Rutherford and others in an attempt to provide a better method for understanding the lives of the poor. The financial diaries in the present study track the cash flows of 39 people on a daily basis from March 2015 to November 2016 in the town of Kapasia, Bangladesh. The diaries provide a precise look at the different financial decisions the diarists took over time and the different interactions that others had with them. Financial diaries help to uncover the social dynamics that are hidden in nationwide statistics by adding important ethnographic and financial information in a day-to-day basis. Coupled with interviews, a more detailed understanding can be achieved about the different dynamics of the lives of people living in poverty. The present study proposes the usage of financial diaries as a way to enhance both the practical and philosophical aspects of the capabilities approach by providing an alternative way of tracing human development by focusing on the different rules and resources embedded in the social structure of the diarists. The study outlined several different examples of the social and financial resources available to people and the different rules pertaining to these resources. The results measure how the different types of social and financial resources act as a pre-condition of choice as they can either enhance or reduce people’s ability to do and be different things.

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