Feminisms in Development: Contradictions, Contestations and Challenges - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842778196 ISBN 13: 9781842778197

Publisher: Zed Books, 2006

Synopsis

The political project of reasserting feminist engagement with development has proceeded uneasily in recent years. This book examines how the arguments of feminist researchers have often become depoliticised by development institutions and offers richly contextualised accounts of the pitfalls and compromises of the politics of engagement. Speaking from within academic institutions, social movements, development bureaucracies and national and international NGOs, the contributors highlight on-going battles for interpretation and the unequal power relations within which these battles take place. They engage with the challenges of achieving solidarity in the context of increasingly polarised geo-political relations, and advance a diversity of critiques of simplified ideas about gender, and how these ideas come to be interpreted in institutional policies and practices.

About this title

About the Author:

Andrea Cornwall is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies,  Elizabeth Harrison is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, and Ann Whitehead is Professor of Social Anthropology, all at the University of Sussex. 

Review:

'It is honest, level-headed, yet deeply committed to core feminist values and principles. Its editors and authors must be commended for their courage and their persistence with the difficult questions.' Gita Sen 'A lively and self-critical set of essays on the perils and potentials of feminist engagements with the structures of power in the development field, by those who have been there.' Naila Kabeer 'Using an international perspective, it provides indispensable insights for everyone working on development, activists and women's movements around the world.' Pinar Ilkkaracan 'Highly recommended to researchers, teachers, and activists in all fields of development study and practice.' Population and Development Review 'Their work is significant for GAD (Gender and Development) practitioners and should be a mandatory read.' Wendy Miller, Lilith 'The book is exemplar in the field of feminist writing ... pioneering in its insights on the trajectory of gender and development debates and policy choices that have resulted from feminist engagement. The conceptual breadth of this work is impressive as it seamlessly covers multiple topics that are central to gender and development debates ... A compelling read.' Feminist Economics

About this edition

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1842778196
• ISBN 13: 9781842778197
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 262
• Editor: Cornwall Andrea, Harrison Elizabeth, Whitehead Ann