Microloans and micronarratives: Sentiment for a small world

Public Culture

Volumn 21, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 269-292

  Black, Shameem ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 68549132282     PISSN: 08992363     EISSN: 15278018     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/08992363-2008-029     Document Type: Article

References (97)

1. For selected moments in this interdisciplinary retheorization, see Kristeva 1991; Rorty 1993; Bhabha 1996; Heater 1996; Nussbaum 1996a, 1996b, 1997; Tuan 1996; Brennan 1997; Cheah and Robbins 1998; Posnock 1998; Robbins 1999; Gilroy 2000; Hill 2000; Pollock et al. 2000; Anderson 2001; Berman 2001; Dharwadker 2001; Singer 2002; Archibugi 2003; Ghosh 2004; Grewal 2005; Nwankwo 2005; Appiah 2006; Aravamudan 2006; Cheah 2006; Stanton 2006; and Walkowitz 2006.
2. Even Martha Nussbaum (1996b), responding explicitly to the concerns of Robert Pinsky, Gertrude Himmelfarb, and Michael W. McConnell, defends the affective power of cosmopolitanism not through sentimental discourse but through explicitly elite forms of literature, such as Athenian tragedy.
3. On the implicit masculinity of the keywords of cosmopolitan debate, see Pollock et al. 2000: 583.
4. For a defense of sentimentality, see Tompkins 1985: 122-46. For a variety of perspectives on the possibilities and limitations of compassionate emotion, see Berlant 2004.
5. I thank Susan Edmunds for suggesting the word size to describe my understanding of when sentiment may be effective.
6. The original name of the Web site was Kesho, but it was abandoned when English-speakers found it difficult to spell. See Flannery 2007.
7. On the history of the Grameen Bank, see Bornstein 1996.
8. On the Bank's effect on women, see Mizan 1994.
9. Riz Khan reported on Kiva on Al-Jazeera on November 8, 2007. The segment "Make a Difference" aired on The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 4, 2007, while "Changing the World One Loan at a Time" appeared on the Today show on September 3, 2007. National Public Radio aired a number of segments on Kiva, including an appearance by Clinton on September 7, 2007. See also Clinton 2007: 27-28.
10. Larson's feature report, which first aired on CNBC, also ran on the Today show on December 13, 2007
11. In the first week of January 2008, loans were funded in an average of 3.5 hours.
12. See Kiva, "Inside Kiva," www.kiva.org/about/story (accessed January 12, 2009).
13. See Kiva, "Khanlar Aliyev," www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=27024 (accessed January 12, 2009).
14. On the vexed relationship between viewing representations of suffering and working to ameliorate that suffering, see Sontag 2003. For an analysis of compassion fatigue, see Tester 2001.
15. See www.kiva.org/app.php (accessed January 12, 2009).
16. Even critiques of this position note that the perception of gendered moral reasoning persists. See Tronto 1993: 91.
17. See Kiva, "Kiva Lender: Melissa and Her Three Kids," www.kiva.org/lender/melissa2665 (accessed January 12, 2009).
18. See Kiva, "Kiva Lender: Viki," www.kiva.org/lender/viki6273 (accessed January 12, 2009).
19. See Kiva, "Kiva Lender: David," www.kiva.org/lender/david1936 (accessed January 12, 2009).
20. See Kiva, "Kiva Lender: Steve," www.kiva.org/lender/japhyboy (accessed January 12, 2009).
21. See Kiva, "Press Center," www.kiva.org/about/ataglance (accessed January 12, 2009).
22. See www.kiva.org/about/storyideas (accessed January 23, 2008).
23. See Kiva Friends, www.kivafriends.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=4c6f855965584497f42b31b8b124cc29&/topic,2345.0.html (accessed January 12, 2009).
24. See Kiva, "Press Center," www.kiva.org/about/ataglance (accessed January 12, 2009).
25. Not all unconventional lender images are necessarily repressive or hierarchical in effect. One woman from Maryland posted an artfully composed image of an open door that gives the viewer a glimpse into what appears to be her home. While no person was figured in this photograph, the symbolism of the threshold offers an intriguing visual icon of the relationship envisioned among lender, borrowers, and other lenders. See Kiva, "Kiva Lender: Kay," www.kiva.org/lender/kay1272 (accessed January 12, 2009).
26. It should be noted that the structure of loans without interest payments is not part of Kiva's original intent; instead, it has much to do with American regulations about selling overseas investments. For complex financial reasons, Kiva does not offer its lenders the possibility of interest on their loans.
27. See Kiva, "Betty Garcia Ovando," www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=21667 (accessed January 12, 2009).
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