Engendering Corruption: Gender and the Culture of Exchange in Central Asia

Abstract

Investigations into the specific nature of corruption within, primarily, the non-Western world have tended to offer both Eurocentric definitions of and solutions to corruption. These concerns have pervaded policy decisions implemented, instituted, and supported by INGOs in developing economies as a pathway enabling democratization, economic development, and gender equality. This article, using Central Asia and the culture of gift giving as a case study, focuses both on the broader implications of this position and studies that directly focus on the question of gender and corruption. I argue that what is defined as corruption, its modus operandi and gender difference, is set within universalistic categories that fail to account for perhaps the most crucial denominator—cultural context—which shapes gender relations and determines the nature and extent of both policy making and social change.