FROM THE PUBLISHER

Tracing global shifts in development thinking through to national level policy-making in India and its local scale implications, Sarah Jewitt investigates the practical value of radical populist and eco-feminist alternatives to more mainstream forms of development. Using detailed empirical data on forests and agriculture from two adivasi (tribal) villages in India, she takes a micro political ecology approach to examine inter- and intra-community (especially gender) variations in environmental knowledge, resource management strategies and development aspirations.

Critiquing the adoption of romanticized eco-feminist discourse in policy making, Jewitt studies the Jharkhand region of Bihar, India, to determine women's contribution to environmental degradation and how the implementation of environmentally oriented development initiatives affects their daily lives. She also examines the populist concern about the displacement of traditional agro-ecological practices by modern techniques, and illustrates the need to understand local people's socio-cultural beliefs and aspirations as well as their technical knowledge when seeking to promote more appropriate development.

"Women's role in nurturing local knowledge about farming and forests and the connections between 'traditional' and 'modern' technology, have both become crucial themes in studies of development and globalization. What Sarah Jewitt does in this path breaking study is to put flesh on to the bones of this debate. In so doing she dispels much of the myth and sentimentality which has clouded our academic views about gender and the environment." Tim Bayliss-Smit, Senior Lecturer, University of Cambridge, U.K.

Author Biography: Sarah Jewitt, School of Geography, University of Nottingham, UK.

SYNOPSIS

Drawing from empirical data primarily from forest but also agriculture development in two tribal-dominated villages in Jharkhand, Jewitt (U. of Nottingham) contributes to the theoretical literature on common property resource management, political ecology, and development thinking generally. In particular, she investigates the practical value of radical populist and eco-feminist alternatives to more mainstream forms of development. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

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