Financial Inclusion: How an Idea Became a Global Agenda
Title: Financial Inclusion: How an Idea Became a Global Agenda
Author: Tyler Girard
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Publication Date: May 2026
About the Book: Explore the rapid global push to bring billions of people into formal financial systems in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Tracing the rise of the “financial inclusion agenda,” Girard explores how access to banking, credit and digital payments became a central goal of global economic governance. Drawing on interviews and primary research across multiple countries, the book reveals how this agenda has been shaped, adapted and contested in different contexts. Through the concept of “participatory ambiguity,” Girard offers a fresh perspective on how ideas gain global traction and what that process reveals about power, technology and decision-making in an increasingly connected world.
About the Author: Girard received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Western Ontario in 2021. In recognition of his dissertation and academic achievements, he was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal. Girard’s research explores the political economy of digital technologies and technological change, the promotion of global norms or agendas and methodological issues of measurement and scaling.