Gender and Green Governance: The Political Economy of Women's Presence Within and Beyond Community Forestry - Softcover

Agarwal, Bina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199683026 ISBN 13: 9780199683024

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Economists studying environmental collective action and green governance have paid little attention to gender. Research on gender and green governance in other disciplines has focused mainly on women's near absence from forestry institutions. This interdisciplinary book turns that focus on its head to ask: what if women were present in these institutions? What difference would that make?

Would women's inclusion in forest governance - undeniably important for equity - also affect decisions on forest use and outcomes for conservation and subsistence? Are women's interests in forests different from men's? Would women's presence lead to better forests and more equitable access? Does it matter which class of women governs? And how large a presence of women would make an impact? Answers to these questions can prove foundational for effective environmental governance. Yet they have hardly been empirically investigated.

In an analysis that is conceptually sophisticated and statistically rigorous, using primary data on community forestry institutions in India and Nepal, this book is the first major study to comprehensively address these wide-ranging issues. It traces women's history of exclusion from public institutions, the factors which constrain their effective participation, and how those constraints can be overcome. It outlines how strategic partnerships between forestry and other civil society institutions could strengthen rural women's bargaining power with community and government. And it examines the complexities of eliciting government accountability in addressing poor rural women's needs, such as for clean domestic fuel and access to the commons.

Located in the interface of environmental studies, political economy and gender analysis, the volume makes significant original contributions to current debates on gender and governance, forest conservation, clean energy policy, critical mass and social inclusion. Traversing uncharted territory with rare analytical rigor, this lucidly written book will be of interest to scholars and students as well as policy makers and practitioners.

About this title

About the Author:

Bina Agarwal, Director and Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, India

Bina Agarwal has held distinguished positions at several leading universities and lectured world-wide. She was Harvard's first Daniel Ingalls visiting professor and held the Winton Chair at the University of Minnesota. She has been Vice-President of the International Economic Association; President of the International Association for Feminist Economics; on the Board of the Global Development Network; and a founder member of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics. She serves on the editorial boards of several international academic journals, on the UN Committee for Development Policy and the Indian Prime Minister's Commission on Land Reforms. Author of eight books and many professional papers, she has contributed to broadening the frontiers of economic thought both theoretically and empirically. An economist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary and inter-country explorations, her pioneering work on gender inequality in property and land, and on environmental issues, has had global impact

Review:

"What are the factors that affect womens participation in institutions of collective deliberation? What impact does their presence in these institutions have on their outcomes?... Bina Agarwals tour de force looks at these issues in the context of womens presence in community forestry, and argues that womens presence, in the right critical mass, makes a considerable difference to outcomes.... The book is an extraordinarily rich mine of hypothesis and a model of careful testing. All those interested in how institutions of deliberation work will mine it for a long time to come."--Indian Express

"Path-breaking...a landmark contribution...[Agarwal] fills, as she also argues, two critical gaps in womens economic empowerment, one relating to command over private property and the other relating to command over public resources and institutions. ...an immense contribution not only to ecological economics but also to political science, rural sociology, and energy studies."--Economic & Political Weekly (India)

"An exceptional outcome of the interdisciplinary work undertaken by the author. It cuts across a number of areas which are of growing policy relevance, such as inclusion of women, sustainability of natural forests, local institutions, rural energy, etc. The language of the book is simple and the facts are easy to understand even for a general reader. The author has been distinctively able to maintain the smooth flow of the book. ...the book will be of enormous reference for a range of users including policy-makers, researchers in the fields of environment, political economy, energy, social sciences, etc., as well as civil society groups and students."--South Asia Economic Journal

"Bina Agarwal's study combines a theoretical review with detailed qualitative and quantitative data from 135 community forestry institutions (CFIs), so that regression analyses of relationships are supported with quotes providing the voices of women themselves who are involved in forest management. The result is a nuanced analysis that demonstrates the value of mixed-methods approaches. It is an important book for those interested in forestry or South Asia as well as their gender dimensions, but also has considerably broader lessons." --Feminist Economics

"The grounded and realistic perspective of Bina Agarwal's Gender and Green Governance is so important to contemporary debates. Specifically, it looks at community
forestry, its institutions and governance in the context of gender.The author's voice compels us to distrust truisms, thrust aside mindsets and ultimately, to see that equity and truth do not lie in numbers or theories. They are embedded in reality. Cutting across areas of economics, environmental studies, political economy, gender studies, local green governance and public policy, this book needs to be read by all--academicians, environmentalists, economists, government officials, rural workers, NGO-workers,
policy makers-- this is a book for the people." --Indian Journal of Gender Studies

"Few authors write a landmark academic text. Smaller still is the list of scholars who have written two such texts, which is what Bina Agarwal has now done. It is a rigorous, engaged and deeply serious exploration of the conditions under which the greater involvement of women in forest management committees improves the quality of environmental (or green) governance. Agarwal's wonderful book should not be the last word on Gender and Green
Governance, but must act as a spur to further and more effective work that will seek to build upon and challenge her key public policy findings. Gender and Green Governance will rightly be acknowledged as a classic not just in environmental studies, but in studies of development, governance, public action and public service delivery more broadly." --Journal of Development Studies

"Gender and Green Governance is a magisterial work of astounding erudition. While resplendent with field interviews and statistical tables, its ultimate significance is as a thought-provoking examination of political institutions--what makes them legitimate, efficient, inclusive, representative and stable over time."--Studies in Indian Politics

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0199683026
• ISBN 13: 9780199683024
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528