Book review: Cultural Diversity and Social Discontent: Anthropological Studies on Contemporary India by R. S. Khare. (New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998, pp. 282, £35 h/bk)
Journal of International Development, 2000
Wellbeing and poverty in marginalised communities : Zambia and India compared
Bangladesh
Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 29, 1995
Dependence and Autonomy: Women's Employment and the Family in Calcutta
Man, Sep 1, 1991
ABSTRACT Incl.app., bibl., index
Relational Wellbeing:a Theoretical and Operational Approach.Vol. 43
Relational wellbeing is an emergent construct grounded in the interpretivist tradition in social ... more Relational wellbeing is an emergent construct grounded in the interpretivist tradition in social science. It approaches people as subjects, and aims to understand the ways they see the world in as near to their own terms as possible. This contrasts with mainstream approaches to subjective dimensions of wellbeing in psychology and economics, which take a positivist approach, positioning people as objects, whose variability is to be investigated through observation rather than inter-locution. Since the recent upsurge in interest in wellbeing has focused on its subjective dimensions, or ‘happiness’, it seems paradoxical that the social science traditions that emphasise subjectivity should thus far have been marginalised in wellbeing debates. This paper draws together recent contributions which take a more relational, qualitative approach, as a step towards reversing this trend. The final section considers how relational wellbeing may be operationalised in policy and practice.
Research Summary WP36 - 2009 Religions and Development Research Programme Women's empowerment and Islam in Bangladesh
A Space for Unlearning? A Relational Perspective on North–South Development Research
The European Journal of Development Research, Jun 2, 2020
The politics of knowledge is a foundational issue in development research. This includes question... more The politics of knowledge is a foundational issue in development research. This includes questioning the processes through which knowledge is produced and the terms of the ‘partnerships’ or ‘collaborations’ involved. Such analyses tend to emphasise structural difference and can reproduce all too familiar tropes of dominating global North and deficit global South. This paper takes instead a relational perspective to investigate how such notions are generated, sustained and may be contested through interactions between people, and between people and their contexts. For data, the paper draws on experiences and observations related in a 2018–2019 workshop series on international collaborations in development research. It argues the need to go beyond a focus on ‘mentoring’ or ‘capacity building’ to explore the interactive generation of researcher selves; temper commitments to generalisability with recognition of the inherent value of the particular; and pay more attention to the unintended outcomes of research, and especially its production of waste. Les politiques du savoir constituent une base fondamentale de la recherche pour le développement. Cela implique de remettre en question les processus de production du savoir, ainsi que les termes des « partenariats » ou des « collaborations » qui sont impliqués. De telles analyses ont tendance à mettre l’accent sur les différences structurelles et peuvent reproduire tous les tropes bien connus d’un Nord dominant et d’un Sud déficitaire. Cet article adopte plutôt une perspective relationnelle pour étudier la façon dont ces notions sont produites, soutenues et peuvent être contestées par des interactions entre les personnes, et entre les personnes et leurs contextes. En ce qui concerne les données, l’article s’appuie sur les expériences et les observations liées à une série d’ateliers réalisés en 2018-19 sur les collaborations internationales dans la recherche sur le développement. Il fait valoir la nécessité: d’aller au-delà de l’accent mis sur le « mentorat » ou le « renforcement des capacités » pour explorer la création interactive du soi chercheur; de tempérer les engagements de généralisabilité en reconnaissant la valeur intrinsèque du particulier; et d’accorder plus d’attention aux résultats inattendus de la recherche, et en particulier à sa production de déchets.
The question of whether Islam empowers women arises in the context of a mainstream development di... more The question of whether Islam empowers women arises in the context of a mainstream development discourse that prioritizes gender equality and a resurgence of academic interest in religion. Given the longstanding use of gender as a key signifier of both modernity and Islam, it is a complex question. Here, it is addressed in the context of contemporary Bangladesh where, while conventional indicators of gender inequality are narrowing, Islam is increasingly visible in society and politics. In one set of narratives, religion/Islam appears in opposition to 'modernity', as 'tradition', an obstacle to progress. In contrast, it is also regarded as a potential resource for development or a source of an alternative vision. Yet another narrative sees Islam and modernity as selectively engaging with and influencing each other. In some of the development literature, any improvement in the position of women is labelled 'empowerment', although other sources recognize that empowerment depends on increased agency, choice and bargaining power. In the gender literature, religion is absent, has a masculine (and oppressive) presence, stresses women's (oppositional) agency, or sees women themselves as religious subjects. This paper draws on long term research in Bangladesh, including a larger project on Wellbeing in Developing Countries and additional in-depth work on culture and religion. Founded on secular principles in 1971, the state of Bangladesh has increasingly identified itself with Islam, which is also increasingly visible in society, as indicated by levels of religious observance and the expansion of madrasa education. Women's literacy, participation in income earning activities and engagement in politics has increased, while fertility has declined. However, reliance on external funding means that the state plays an equivocal role with respect to gender and Islam. It promotes women's participation in the economy, politics and society at the same time as bringing Islam into government. As well as their political manifestations, relationships between gender and Islam are also played out within family and community life and in the often hostile interactions between religious leaders and NGOs. Women can be caught in the crossfire, but are also active agents, resisting, subverting and selectively engaging with aspects of the religious forces that do battle with and over them.
While gender is highly visible in development theory and practice, race is rarely mentioned. This... more While gender is highly visible in development theory and practice, race is rarely mentioned. This paper asks why this is, and how far Gender and Development (GAD) itself is implicated in the lack of recognition of race. The paper begins by acknowledging the complexity of the question: that race, gender and development are all contested terms and represent continuing sites of struggle. It then explores various aspects of ‘race in GAD’. These include: the charge of cultural imperialism; the false simplicity in the labelling of ‘women’, which masks the very different terms on which ‘third’and ‘first’world women were ‘brought into’development; and the failure of core GAD frameworks to recognize black feminist thought, so critically limiting their analytical power. The paper then goes on to discuss the racial marking of expertise in development and the ambivalent ways in which value is assigned through this. The paper concludes by reflecting on the interplay of identities in development planning and what this reveals of the implication of development more broadly in the construction of social difference.
Oxfam's Gender and Development Unit (GADU) was started in especially Candy March, who worked on t... more Oxfam's Gender and Development Unit (GADU) was started in especially Candy March, who worked on this project with me for several months, Helen O'Connell, Anne Penny and other colleagues past and present. In closing it is important to stress that the views presented here are those of the authors, and not necessarily of GADU or Oxfam. This book is intended to provide a forum for open debate, and for exploring a wide range of complex issues.
7. Depoliticising development: the uses and abuses of participation
Participatory methods and the measurement of well-being
... forward. Guest editors: Robert Chambers, Nicole Kenton and Holly Ashley Participatory Learnin... more ... forward. Guest editors: Robert Chambers, Nicole Kenton and Holly Ashley Participatory Learning and Action (PLA, formerly PLA Notes) is the world's leading series on participatory learning and action approaches and methods. ...
Children's Rights and the Imagination of Community in Bangladesh
Childhood, Nov 1, 2007
This paper suggests that sharply divergent images of children in Bangladesh reflect different `im... more This paper suggests that sharply divergent images of children in Bangladesh reflect different `imagined communities' of society and polity, local and global. Universal concepts of `the rights of the child' contrast strongly with a local culture of `guardianship', as the key social institution that governs children's lives. How might bringing these together affect both analysis and action? Engaging with both the politics of development agency and the anthropology of Bangladesh, the paper asks if the boundaries of community might be `re-imagined' to mobilize more positive cultural and material resources for the children at the margins.
6 Gender and Development: Working with Difference
Lynne Rienner Publishers eBooks, Dec 31, 1999
Economics, relationality and the good life in Chiawa, Zambia
The chapter draws on fieldwork in Chiawa, Zambia, to ask what it means to talk of ‘the good life ... more The chapter draws on fieldwork in Chiawa, Zambia, to ask what it means to talk of ‘the good life beyond growth’ in contexts of marginality and economic hardship. The chapter begins with a brief summary of villagers’ own perspectives on what a good life (or ‘wellbeing’) means. These emphasise the centrality of material sufficiency but locate this in a relational context: the importance of ‘taking care’ of others. The following section describes how the poverty of local livelihoods is only one part of the economy of Chiawa. It exists alongside, and is deeply intertwined with, a ‘modern’ development sector of high inputs and high profits. The chapter closes by describing what can be learned from the Chiawa case. Theoretically, it suggests the need to make relationality central to understandings of wellbeing. Substantively, it shows that Chiawa villagers do consider economic development to be a vital component of ‘the good life’, but that this needs to take a form that puts people and the environment, not simply growth and profits, at the centre.
Love. A Question for Feminism in the Twenty-first Century
Gender & Development, Sep 2, 2014
the Middle East. The author’s call for a broadening of scholarly conceptualisation and understand... more the Middle East. The author’s call for a broadening of scholarly conceptualisation and understandings of violence, and for more careful listening to the ways in which women themselves narrate and make sense of the multiple, intersecting forms of violence that they face on a daily basis, is, without doubt, very much needed. It is through women’s own voices, as Maria Holt herself states, that ‘a more complete picture of the lives of “ordinary” individuals, the ones that history – in its grand and heroic sense – often ignores’ (p. 18), can be gained.
If you come to this area and say you want to set up a supermarket, the men will welcome you. When... more If you come to this area and say you want to set up a supermarket, the men will welcome you. When you call a meeting, more women will come, but the men will sit on the chairs. The women will receive the idea, and think how they can manage it. The men will struggle amongst themselves to work out an angle of personal advantage, and even come up to you after the meeting secretly to propose this. Men will sit on the committee, while the work will be done by the women. Then the men will become the managers. (NGO worker, Genesis, Kenya)
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