Feminist Post-Development Thought

"Feminist Post-Development Thought addresses the crucial question of what development means for women. Is it still their best hope of social progress and equality, or does it simply raise false expectations for the future? In this groundbreaking collection with its diverse perspectives, feminist thinkers explore whether Third World women ought to continue along the path of development or abandon full-scale modernization and seek post-development alternatives instead. It represents the first attempt to ascertain the possibilities, and limitations, of the post-development path for women. The broad field of women, gender and development is covered with particular attention to the following areas: 1. Mainstream Development, Alternative Development and the Post-development Challenge; 2. Gender, Globalization, Political Identity, Resistance and the Struggle to Survive; 3. Feminist Theory and Practice and the Significance of Difference; 4. Western Science, Local Knowledge and Environmental Sustainability; 5. Fieldwork, Ethnography and Participatory Approaches; and 6. Reproduction, Population and the Gendered Self. This range of themes allows for a much broader interrogation of development than the post-development critique of its general failure over the past 50 years, and contributes to the process of feminist perspectives shaping intellectual thinking on the subject."--Publisher description.