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This paper presents the advances of a research project about the efforts of a women's association of the coastal region of Jalisco within the frame of the Alternative Rural Financing System (SIFRA), and in particular the expansion and reformulation of livelihood strategies that women are developing with this micro-credit program's support. It discusses the relevance of the concepts of assets and social capital to analyze the program's results, as well as their usefulness to identify the shared resources and understand the processes through which they are established, used, and tested. It also argues that such processes are vulnerable to conflicts and the exercise of power, and that keeping this in mind may help to avoid turning social capital into a normative concept and to define its analytical capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]