Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Front Matter, Esr Review

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction: Welcome To The New Esr Review, Paul C. Godfrey

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Creating A Dynamic Board, Paul Jansen, Andra Kilpatrick, Vishy Cvsa

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article is taken from a report issued in 2003 by the Nonprofit Practice at McKinsey & Company, entitled “The Dynamic Board: Lessons from High- Performing Non-Profits.”
Does a great nonprofit organization need an exemplary board of directors? If an organization has a visionary leader, a skilled staff, loyal donors, and a substantial endowment, what does the board really add? In our consulting work, we are frequently asked to help assess board performance and identify opportunities for improvement. To get a more precise view of what makes board governance effective, we interviewed the directors or board chairs of thirty-two of …

Smart Subsidies, Jonathan J. Morduch

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This essay is a reprint of Morduch's article “Smart Subsidy for Sustainable Microfinance,” published in the December 2005 issue (Vol. 6 No. 4) of Finance for the Poor, the quarterly microfinance newsletter of the Asian Development Bank.
Smart subsidy might seem like a contradiction in terms to many microfinance experts. Worries about the dangers of excessive subsidization have driven microfinance conversations since the movement first gained steam in the 1980s. From then on, the goal of serving the poor has been twined with the goal of long-term financial self-sufficiency on the part of microbanks, aiming for profitability became part …

More Than A Little Good, Kevin W. Crean

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Directors Of Nonprofit Boards, Kathleen O. Thompson

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article is adapted from Thompson’s article “Directors in a post-Enron world,” published in the Credit Union Magazine in April 2003.

Profitable Financial Systems, Maria Otero

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article is a transcription of Otero's speech entitled “The Future of Microfinance: Creating Financial Systems to Serve the Poor Majority,” given on 11 March 2005 at the Economic Self-Reliance Conference held at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Last November I met a widow of ten years in Arusha, Tanzania. Intent on providing a better life for her children and surviving as best she could, she had started a business selling rice soon after her husband died. Sophia has little education, but with a first loan of $50 she purchased a few kilo bags of rice for on-selling to …

Partner Profiles, Esr Review

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Microfranchising: A New Tool For Creating Economic Self-Reliance, Jason S. Fairbourne

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article is developed from a presentation given by Fairbourne and Stephen W. Gibson on December 2, 2005, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

End Matter, Esr Review

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Calendar, Esr Review

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Vol. 08 No. 1 Esr Review, Esr Review

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Three Kinds Of Culture In Mainstream Civilizations, Kazutake Miyahara

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Front Cover

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Helle Mathiasen

The Bridge

Since its founding in 1977, the Danish American Heritage Society (DAHS) has encouraged and supported efforts to research and preserve our ethnic heritage in Canada and the United States. The Society believes in the intrinsic value of building bridges between ideas and people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. An additional goal is the promotion of fellowship among those with an interest in events relating to Danish life, culture, and history.

Karen Blixen: The Quintessential Dane, Linda G. Donelson

The Bridge

The year 2005 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen and the 150th anniversary of the death of Soren Kierkegaard. It also is the 120th anniversary of Karen Blixen' s birth in 1885, and it is appropriate to talk about her at this conference. For the millions of Americans who have seen the movie Out of Africa, she may be the most famous Dane of all. We often imagine Karen Blixen as personified by Meryl Streep in the movie. But if you have read the book Out of Africa, you may rather think of Karen Blixen …

Grundtvig' S Relevance Today: The Current Debate, Henrik Wiegh Poulsen

The Bridge

Hardly any individual has meant more to Denmark and the Danes than Grundtvig. But lately he has suffered a fall from grace in public opinion. Why is this and what does it mean to Grundtvig and to Danish society?

Dealing With The "Third Enemy": English-Language Learning And Native-Language Maintenance Among Danish Immigrants In Utah, 1850-1930, Lynn Henrichsen, George Bailey, Jacob Huckaby

The Bridge

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, over 22,000 Scandinavians joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter referred to as the church or the LDS church) and migrated to Utah.1 Well over half of these Scandinavians, 12,350 (not including children age 12 and under), were Danes.2

This influx of people who spoke a language other than English and came from a cultural background different from that of the original Anglo-American settlers of Utah presented some perplexing challenges. Even Brigham Young, the territorial governor and LDS church president, found them difficult to resolve. According to local folklore, …

The Global Dane: Writing Soren Kierkegaard's Biography*, Joakim Garff

The Bridge

When Professor C.K.F. Molbech was asked the year after Kierkegaard's death to sketch a biographical portrait for a planned German translation of Either/Or, he went to his friend, the philosopher Hans Brochner, for advice and suggestions. Brochner, who knew the deceased personally, pondered it and then replied: When one restricts oneself to external events, there is of course very little to say about his life at all: he was born May 5, 1813, he was a student at the University in 1830, took his degree in theology in 1840, he submitted his doctoral thesis in 1841, and he died in …

Enok Mortensen And The Immigrant Experience: A View From The Lower Class, Rudolf Jensen

The Bridge

To begin with, I would like to cite several short quotations from Enok Mortensen's fiction to show his primary themes as well as his writing style.

...for jer Emigranter er der aldrig noget, der er saa godt som det var i Danmark...altid skal I sammenligne...1 [for you immigrants there is never anything as good as it was in Denmark...you always have to compare.]

...herover gik man med en underlig Uro i Sindet altid...bare et hundrede Dollars mere, eller Tusinde...eller Millionen...2 [over here in America you are always restless...only a hundred dollars more, or a thousand, or a million.]

...I det …

The Reception Of Danish Science Fiction In The United States, Kristine J. Anderson

The Bridge

Science fiction is a distinctly American genre. Although scholars have traced its origins back as far as the Latin writer Lucian of Samosata,1 it was Hugo Gernsback, a publisher of pulp magazines in the United States, who first gave the genre its name in the June 1929 issue of Wonder Stories. Gernsback had been serializing the scientific romances of such writers as Jules Verne and HG. Wells, emphasizing their treatment of technology and putting them forth as models for other budding writers to imitate. The magazines that Gernsback initiated became very popular, spawning more from other publishers. Groups of aficionados …

What Can We Learn From Danish Farmers?, Palle Pedersen

The Bridge

During the past 100 years, Danish agriculture has developed its position and ability to compete on international markets. Since Denmark joined the European Economic Community in 1973, productivity in Danish agriculture has increased considerably; and, with a food production sufficient for 15 million people and a population of only 5.2 million, Denmark exports two-thirds of it agricultural production to more than 180 countries. Overall, Denmark is the largest food exporter in the world relative to its population.1

Whose Memory Is It After All?, Inger M. Olsen

The Bridge

The EU (European Union) constitution was issued May 2005 and its preamble states that the writers have "let themselves be inspired by Europe's cultural, religious and humanistic inheritance which is the foundation for the development of the universal values: the individual human being's inviolable and inalienable rights as well as freedom, equality and constitutional state"1 2 The preamble goes on to mention the painful experiences that Europe has undergone and the fact that Europe is once again united. The final note states that Europe "wishes to develop further the public life's democratic and open character and work for peace, justice …

The Greater Challenge: Staying Home Or Emigrating?, Inger Wiehl

The Bridge

This presentation poses the challenge of emigrating versus that of staying home, exemplified by a Southern Jutlander who stayed home during the years of Prussian rule between 1864 and 1920 and one who left for America during those years. It begs the larger question of who endures more, those who leave or those who stay behind, a salient issue underlying all emigration and any significant parting. Put in classical terms: Who faces the greater challenge Odysseus or Penelope? He endures any number of dangers on his way back from Troy; she stays by her loom and keeps home intact for …

A Tale Of Two Geniuses--With Opposing Views Of Tales--And An Ingenious Critic Of Both: H.C. Andersen, Soren Kierkegaard, And Georg Brandes, Poul Houe

The Bridge

The year 2005 marks the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth and the 150th anniversary of Soren Kierkegaard's death. Kierkegaard's critique of Andersen as a novelist was merciless, and Andersen's relation to Kierkegaard the man and the thinker was not easygoing either. Both of these towering nineteenth century Golden Age Danes were first portrayed in a big way by the same Danish critic, Georg Brandes, himself a pivotal figure in nineteenth century European criticism. I thought it appropriate, therefore, to focus my paper on Andersen, Kierkegaard, and Brandes as three cornerstones of nineteenth century Danish culture.

Karin Michaelis: Famous Danish Novelist And Humanitarian Rebel With A Cause, Merete Von Eyben

The Bridge

Consider the following question: Which Danish author was not only one of the most famous European authors in the early part of the twentieth century, but also one of the most widely read female ones; had all of her books translated into German and some of them into as many as 30 other languages; wrote the most notorious bestseller of that period; celebrated her 60th birthday at a banquet hosted by Austrian PEN in Vienna where she was awarded both an Austrian and a Czechoslovakian medal and honored by the German language papers as Europe's Conscience; had her books banned …

The Veil Between Fact And Fiction In The Novels Of Kristian Ostergaard, John Mark Nielsen

The Bridge

The bicentennial of the births of Hans Christian Andersen and August de Bournonville and the 150th anniversary of the death of Soren Kierkegaard provide opportunity to reflect and celebrate how artists and philosophers interpret and express the complex network of values and ideas inherent in any culture. Great artists and thinkers are particularly successful in producing work that transcends a specific culture and achieves universality recognizable beyond the boundaries of that culture into which they were born. Certainly the works produced by Andersen, Bournonville, and Kierkgaard are not just Danish; their work engages and invites audiences to consider what it …

Carl Theodor Dreyer' S Response To Anti-Semitism In His Unfilmed Jesus Film Scenario, Peter G. Christensen

The Bridge

The controversy in 2004 over possible anti-Semitism in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ had precedents in earlier Jesus-films. Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to Matthew and Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth have also been accused of anti-Semitism. Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) wanted to combat anti-Semitism, as he directly stated in his own essays attached to his Jesus screenplay, which since his death has been published in English, Danish, and French versions. Dreyer began the film project in 1949-1950 in Independence, Missouri, writing in English, and he worked on it until the end of his life. However, he …

Back Cover

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Appendixb.

The Bridge

No abstract provided.