Topic modeling analysis of Community Savings Groups: evidence from the combined literature

Abstract

Objective: To identify topics of study related to Community Savings Groups (CSGs) from the literature available.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Some phases of natural language processing were implemented. The data were obtained from scientific databases and gray literature. The analysis included 228 abstracts of papers, theses, working papers, and reports. The Latent Dirichlet Allocation model was used to identify the topics.

Results: Six topics have been the focus of the discussion about the existence and impact of CSGs in the last two decades.

Study Limitations/Implications: Texts without abstracts in English were excluded.

Findings/Conclusions: The topics found deal with various aspects on which CSGs have had an impact, such as health, empowerment, primary sector, violence, and other aspects related to existence. Additional evidence is required to consider CSGs as an effective and sustainable mechanism that facilitates well-being.