Multiple Mediations in Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67224/2/10.1177_0308275X9301300404.pd

Culture, Law, and Social Policy: Changing the Economic Status of Ghanaian Women

Historically, a woman\u27s traditional position in the home has conflicted with her ability to enter the public arena and to shape public policy. Although the rhetoric of African states suggests otherwise, this conflict has been a continual and recurrent problem for African women, both in colonial and in postcolonial times. How are African women to deal with the imbalance between public and private roles, between traditional roles and modern expectations? How are they to balance their own needs and responsibilities against the state\u27s need to channel women\u27s labor into export industries? Faced with these tensions, African judges and policymakers have recently attempted to alter inheritance and land laws that restrict the economic status of women and limit their ability to participate fully in economic development

Managing co-operation: trust and power in Ghanaian associations

Through a rich empirical study of forms of collective action in Ghana, this paper examines how groups sustain co-operation in the absence of strong legal institutions and mechanisms (such as legal contracts or regulated loan finance) that are often taken for granted in most ‘western’ economies. It presents evidence from case studies of micro-saving groups, palm oil processing groups and transport associations, which indicate that co-operation is based on trust and power, both of which are based on culturally specific norms. Decisions to co-operate are shaped by a combination of conscious calculations, habitual actions and unquestioning compliance or obedience. The way that trust and power are articulated also varies according to local context, and attempts to facilitate and support co-operative activities have to build on the existing co-operative structures that are embedded in the local, culturally specific, social relations