The Subaltern Speaks? Performing Poverty through Online Microfinance: A Critical Analysis of Kiva.org

What is it about?

This article critically examines the visuals and texts on Kiva.org, using race in cyberspace and the notion of the subaltern as theoretical frameworks (Nakamura, 2002, 2008). The imbalances of the past still exist in digital forms on the Internet. This article argues that, although organizations like Kiva seek to promote social change in low- and middle-income countries, the Web 2.0 technologies they use generate some of the same inequalities they seek to address. These inequalities question the development and social change characteristic of these digital technologies. The study concludes that, although the empowered appear to speak on sociofinancial networks like Kiva.org, paradoxically, their voices are silenced through the same Web 2.0 technologies used to empower them.

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