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" Reframing subaltern organizational praxis in transmodernity: A study of the Grameen Bank "
M. A. Auwal
D. S. Descutner, Arvind
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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68723
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| Doc. No
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TL27652
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| Call number
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9518058
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| Main Entry
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M. A. Auwal
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| Title & Author
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Reframing subaltern organizational praxis in transmodernity: A study of the Grameen Bank\ M. A. AuwalD. S. Descutner, Arvind
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| College
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Ohio University
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| Date
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1994
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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1994
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| Page No
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250
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| Abstract
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I conceptualized this study from a transmodern perspective, defining transmodernity as an emergent conceptual and historical space in which the discourses of modernity and those of postmodernity combine to create both problematics and possibilities. For subaltern/non-Western cultures, transmodern problematics stem from (1) their saturation with the institutions and practices of modernity, which cripples their reconstruction efforts, and (2) the pervasive global predominance of (post)modern Western discursive practices, which rhetorically suppresses their liberating praxes. The transmodern problematics, however, allow possibilities for reinterpretation and reframing of subaltern past, present, and future, which modernity has colonized. To generate insights about reframing subaltern organizational praxis, I examined the international rhetorical success and the organizational practices of the "Grameen" (rural) Bank in the transmodern geopolitical context. I examined how Grameen, as subaltern organization, has become well-received in its home country Bangladesh and overseas and how liberating its organizational practices are, using "dialectical syncretism" as an interpretive frame from a critical position. I drew on a variety of pretheorized and systemic sources of data including my personal experience, semiotic-ethnographic fieldwork, and study of literature. Grameen maintains a rhetoric of social praxis grounded in social contingencies and permeated with symbolic identification. Contributing to Grameen's rhetorical success are its creativity in praxical responses to social exigencies, its efficiency in praxis management, and its advocacy of poverty relief as a generic human issue. Grameen transcends modernity by transforming the philosophy and strategy of capital use to achieve both a capitalistic end (i.e., making profit) and an uncapitalistic objective (i.e., improving the socioeconomic status of the poor). Grameen fosters postmodern-style micropractices to empower the subaltern poor marginalized by modernity. Grameen eliminates collateral in banking and involves the poor with their indigenous knowledge in productive self-employment. Grameen, however, fails to transcend the intrinsic flaws within its capitalist frame and privileges certain rituals and myths of modernity, which contradict its liberating stance. Analyzing Grameen's microcapitalistic praxis, I present insights suggesting that subaltern cultures can promote their liberating praxes without taking extreme anti-Western positions and that they can also rhetorically survive without stepping into the cultural mode of modernity.
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| Subject
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Communication and the arts; Social sciences; Education; Bangladesh; Communication; Social structure; Social studies education; Banking; 0534:Social studies education; 0700:Social structure; 0459:Communication; 0770:Banking
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D. S. Descutner, Arvind
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Ohio University
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