Cultural Dynamics

This article is an ethnographic study of the effects of micro-credit on gender relations in rural Bangladesh. Focusing on the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and three other leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country, I analyze the role of gender in the expansion of globalization and neoliberalism in Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank has become a global symbol of poor women's empowerment and is celebrated for its 98 percent loan recovery. In this article, I examine some of the NGO tactics behind the loan recovery programs. In particular, I examine how Bangladeshi rural women's honor and shame are instrumentally appropriated by micro-credit NGOs in the furtherance of their capitalist interests.

This article posits a homology between (1) the developmentalist logic endemic to hegemonic discourses of globalization and (2) the logic of the `too late' that drives the melodrama genre, to argue that the experience of globalization is, itself, highly melodramatic. Focusing on the far-reaching transformations of the Mumbai-based film industry and its global epiphenomenon `Bollywood', the article critically analyzes the hooplas and anxieties that structure contemporary Indian cultural nationalism. Countering overarching prognoses of global homogenization, it draws attention to the myriad ground-level transactions through which difference is capitalized and managed. This understanding of melodrama as the persistence of difference helps explain the continuing popularity of the genre in the global South.

This article examines the representation of home among members of the Lebanese diaspora in New York, Montreal and Paris. Lebanese immigrants view home as both a concrete reality that is achieved physically or in relation with others and a symbolic reference point that moves beyond territorial boundaries. These overlapping strategies allow them to imagine and recreate their sense of home and belonging (to both a past and present) that provide sources of stability used in dealing with life in the diaspora. However, these strategies also highlight a lack of desire to return to Lebanon as they illustrate how Lebanese immigrants bring home to their new settings in ways that question national forms of belonging and ethnic identification. As a result, the myth of return which was once considered a defining feature of diasporic communities is no longer a unifying point among members of the diaspora.

In countries where there is an absence of social activism and formal civil society, and where overt demands for women's citizenship rights are met with suspicion and resistance, what alternative strategies are available to mobilize women and induce social and legal reform toward gender equity? One strategy that has demonstrated effectiveness is to use legitimate, state-sanctioned institutions as vehicles for change. Due to the Gulf states' firm commitment and increasing investment in women's education, it would seem that integrating gender studies into research and pedagogy within academic institutions in the Gulf would be an obvious avenue for women's empowerment. Drawing on theories of the trans-formative potential of education for social change, weaving gender issues into popular education may offer an effective conduit for consciousness-raising among today's youth. Whether taught as separate, stand-alone programs or integrated into various (more traditional) disciplines, gendering curricula fosters liberatory pedagogy that empowers learners through active and responsive learning methodologies. This article will discuss best practices for women's empowerment through alternative channels, ranging from gendering of curricula in higher education to partnering with local academic institutions and women's groups to examine gender issues of specific contextual relevance. Given the dearth of local gender studies scholarship, academics and activists find themselves having to navigate uncharted territory as they appropriate culturally resonant symbols to reframe gender issues within a local context.