Issue #0

Eye to eye

women practising development across cultures

Plot

This book foregrounds the double role of culture in the develeopment process. First, it locates development practices within changing cultural contexts; second, it moves beyond the North/South dichotomy by focusing on the lived experience of development. The contributors present multiple perspectives on crucial debates within the field of gender and development, such as female genital mutilation, global capitalism and women's labour, and resistance to education and development policies by women at the grass-roots. The collection paints a vivid picture of development in practice: in parliaments, factories, courts, banks, classrooms, roadside stalls, guilds, athletic fields, publishing houses, hospitals, cinemas, novels and homes. The women desribed have exploited the interstices of the cultures they inhabit to articulate new possibilities for sustainable personal and community development. This book demonstrates why development policy must respond to cultural difference and illustrates the rewards of doing so.