327 The Howard Journal of Communications, 24:327–347, 2013 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1064-6175 print/1096-4649 online DOI: 10.1080/10646175.2013.805983 Kiva.org, Person-to-Person Lending, and the Conditions of Intercultural Contact SARA L. MCKINNON Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA ELIZABETH DICKINSON Communication Area, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA JOHN N. CARR Department of Geography, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA KARMA R. CHÁVEZ Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA Emerging groups such as Kiva International are using the Internet to make person-to-person microlending available by matching mostly First World lenders with Third World borrowers. This study analyzes 635 lender profile Web pages on Kiva.org to identify how Kiva International and its lenders imagine this intercultural, financial exchange through an analysis of discourses that lenders use in their lender profiles to describe their motivations for lending. This article first provides background on Kiva International and the role of the Internet in addressing power inequalities, and then explains the methodological approach. Next, we reveal the themes that emerged in our analysis of lender profiles, addressing the ways that neoliberal discourses of individualism and personal responsi- bility guide lenders’ motivations for participating in Kiva.org’s microlending process. Finally, we offer discussion and implica- tions of this deployment of neoliberal discourse for intercultural Address correspondence to Dr. Sara L. McKinnon, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 6016 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706. E-mail: smckinnon@wisc.edu Downloaded by [University North Carolina - Chapel Hill] at 12:38 20 October 2013