Women and the Politics of Place

by Wendy Harcourt, Arturo Escobar

Overview

A team of researchers and activists in development, geography, women's rights, and related fields explore how women in place are living their lives at different levels of resistance and creativity in the face of what are often perceived to be overwhelming and largely abstract global forces. Case studies include Pakistan, Columbian black movement struggles, rural Finland, Zapatista women, and Palestine. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565492080
Publisher:	Kumarian Press, Inc.
Publication date:	09/28/2005
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Arturo Escobar is a professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is author of the influential book Encountering Development-The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. His recent research has focused on the intersection among development, capital, and social movements in the Colombian Pacific region. Specifically, he is concerned with looking in the context of the transnational debates on rainforest political ecology and biodiversity conservation.

Wendy Harcourt is a program adviser at the Society for International Development, an international development NGO and Editor of Development, the SID quarterly journal, and the current Chair of Women in Development, Europe. She writes extensively in the field of gender and development and has led several research and policy programs for SID, the UN, and European NGOs on globalization, alternative economics and gender, reproductive rights and health, culture and communications.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Practices of Difference: Introducing "Women and the Politics of Place" Arturo Escobar and Wendy Harcourt; 1) Bodies in Places, Places in Bodies Yvonne Underhill-Sem; 2) The Body Politic in Global Development Discourse: A Woman and Politics of Place Perspective Wendy Harcourt; 3) Transforming Passion, Politics, and Pain Fatma Alloo; 4) Politics of Place and Women's Rights in Pakistan Khawar Mumtaz; 5) Political Landscapes and Ecologies of Zambrana-Chacuey: The Legacy of Mama Tingo Dianne Rocheleau; 6) Domesticating the Neo-Liberal City: Invisible Genders and the Politics of Place Gerda R. Wekerle; 7) Women and the Defense of Place in Colombian Black Movement Struggles Libia Grueso and Leyla Andrea Arroyo; 8) Women Displaced: Democracy, Development, and Identity in India Smitu Kothari; 9) Building Community Economies: Women and the Politics of Place J)K) Gibson-Graham; 10) Place-based Politics and the Meaning of Diverse Economies for Women and Young People in Finland; 11) Place-based Globalism: Locating Women in the Alternative Globalization Movement Michal Osterweil; 12) Zapatista Women: Place-based Struggles and the Search for Autonomy Marisa Belausteguigoitia; 13) Out of the Shadows: Listening to Place-based Narratives of Palestinian Women Randa Farah; 14) Still Challenging 'Place': Sex, Money, and Agency in Women's Migrations Laura M. Agustin; 15) Politics of Place in Multilevel Games: Arab Women Acting or Reacting? Lamis A.M. al-Shejni; Conclusion - The Women and the Politics of Place and the Place of Politics for Women: Some Reflections for the Future Sonia Alvarez

Editorial Reviews

"Providing important insights for feminist theory and globalization studies, Women and the Politics of Place takes us into the often neglected realms of globalization found in concrete places, organizations, and women's bodies that highlight affirmative initiatives to improve life and meet basic needs. This book is a welcome and sophisticated tool for understanding the places of women in the ever-evolving spaces of contemporary global politics and culture."

"All of the essays point to existing practices within place-based women’s struggles that represent both resistance and place-based alternatives to the presumed hegemony of patriarchal neoliberal globalization. As Alvarez points out, the volume contributes immensely to the awaremess of the global ‘in place’ while also helping to "disturb place-based strategies" that may only be suffocating for women or apologias for the maintainance of power asymmetries...Highly recommended."

"Explores the experiences of women across a wide cross-section of political realities of power. The voices of these women speak eloquently, demonstrating the value of their experience. This is particularly important in a time when global entities seem to promote free-market Darwinism as a viable response to world poverty and inequality... brings home the connectedness of movements in a profound way."

From the Publisher