Feminist Futures: Re-Imagining Women, Culture and Development

by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran, Priya Kurian

Overview

The editors (sociologists and political scientists from the U. of California at Santa Barbara and New Zealand's U. of Waikato) feel that discussions of culture and women need to be seen in the context of the consequences of a "global (mal)development." Ranging across multiple sites in the Third World, they present discussions of development that place women at the center and place culture on a par with political economy. Also central to the approach they promote is the understanding the production and reproduction cannot be separated in the lives of most women. Distributed by Palgrave. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781842770290
Publisher:	Zed Books
Publication date:	01/28/2003
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Kum-Kum Bhavnani is professor of sociology, global studies, and feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

John Foran is professor of sociology and environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Priya A. Kurian is associate professor of political science and public policy at the University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Table of Contents

1. An Introduction to Women, Culture and Development - Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran and Priya Kurian

Visions 1
Maria's Stories - Maria Ofelia Navarrete
The Woof and the Warp - Luisa Valenzuela
Consider the Problem of Privatization - Anna Tsing

Part 1: Sexuality and the Gendered Body
2. 'Tragedies' in Out-of-the-way Places: Oceanic Interpretations of Another Scale - Yvonne Underhill-Sem
3. Queering Development: Institutionalized Heterosexuality in Development Theory, Practice and Politics in Latin America - Amy Lind and Jessica Share
4. Claiming the State: Women's Reproductive Identity and Indian Development - Rachel Simon-Kumar
5. Bodies and Choices: African Matriarchs and Mammy Water - Ifi Amadiume

Visions 2
On Engendering a Better Life - Raka Ray
Empowerment - Snakes and Ladders - Jan Nederveen Pieterse
Gendered Sexualities and Lived Experience: The Case of Gay Sexuality in Women, Culture and Development - Dana Collins
Condoms and Pedagogy: Changing Global Knowledge - Peter Chua

Part 2: Environment, Technology, Science
6. Managing Future(s): Culture, Development, Gender and the Dystopic Continuum - David McKie
7. Negotiating Human-Nature Boundaries, Cultural Hierarchies and Masculinist Paradigms of Development Studies - Priya Kurian and Debashish Munshi
8. Imagining India: Religious Nationalism in the Age of Science and Development - Banu Subramaniam

Visions 3
Conversations towards Feminist Futures - Arturo Escobar and Wendy Harcourt
Knitting a Net of Knowledge: Engendering Cyber-Technology for Disempowered Communities - Debashish Munshi and Priya A. Kurian
Seeing the Complexity: Observations and Optimism from a Costa Rican Tourist Town - Darcie Vandegrift
Dreams and Process in Development Theory and Practice - Light Carruyo

Part 3: The Cultural Politics of Representation
9. Of Rural Mothers, Urban Whores and Working Daughters: Women and the Critique of Neocolonial Development in Taiwan's Nativist Literature - Ming-yan Lai
10. The Representation of Mostaz'af/'the Disempowered' in Revolutionary and Postrevolutionary Iran - Minoo Moallem
11. Mariama Bâ's So Long a Letter: 'Women, Culture and Development' from a Francophone/Postcolonial Perspective - Anjali Prabhu

Visions 4
The Subjective Side of Development: Sources of Well-being, Resources for Struggle - Linda Klouzal
Culture and Resistance: A Feminist Analysis of Revolution and 'Development' - Julia D Shayne
Alternatives to Development: Of Love, Dreams and Revolution - John Foran

Editorial Reviews

"[The authors] focus on the need for a new paradigm in development studies in which women and the significance of culture are central... they raise key questions for ...rethinking development for the 21st century." -- Lourdes Beneria, Cornell University

"These engaging, often surprising chapters challenge us to think new thoughts about the dynamic interactions between culture and gender." -- Cynthia Enloe, author of Bananas, Beaches and Bases

"A powerful critique combined with a framework for a new paradigm linking women, culture, and development that draws from richly textured analysis of environment, sexuality, science and technology, and cultures of representation. This is an exciting new book." -- Gita Sen, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India

"This is a truly exciting collection which successfully integrates some critical concerns of feminist studies and cultural studies to present a fresh perspective on Third World development." -- Bina Agarwal, University of Delhi

From the Publisher