Dinero prestado y economías populares. Un acercamiento a las trayectorias de los créditos gota a gota en Medellín

This article explores how gota a gota loans become embedded in the labor processes of the popular economy in the city of Medellín. To this extent, it seeks to highlight the political order underlying the money lent by these moneylenders. In contrast to the dominant approaches, the approach proposed here does not focus exclusively on violent practices of debt collectors or the outcomes of state regulations on the credit market. Rather, in this article, gota a gota moneylenders are observed from the point of view of valorization, indebtedness and labor process of popular economies. The success of these debt relations, we argue, lies in its ability to present itself as a guarantor of popular life and labor.