The Politics of Gender in a Time of Change

Gender and development projects ultimately aim to
change the lives of men and women in a particular
society. Yet often these projects are so deeply
rooted in underlying gender normativity that they
reinscribe gender hierarchies rather than challenge
them. This book explores the nature of change
ideational, insitutional, and embodied focusing on
the gender policies of the Indonesian state,
substantiated with a case study of UNFPA programmes
in West Java. Through a multi-level, multi-vocal
framework, the work analyses how discourses circulate
to construct the Indonesian woman (ideas), how
discourses are translated into programmes
(institutions), and how discourses enter the home and
the body (identities). Critically, this book argues
for renewed emphasis on a politics of the body , as
the site of structural and symbolic power. It is
relevant for all those interested in analysing the
relationship between discourse and practice, the
question of power, and the way men and women embody
social structures and experience social transformation.

Autorentext

Kaleen E. Love, MPhil, DPhil. Studied International Development
at the University of Oxford, while Junior Dean at Pembroke
College and Retained Lecturer at Hertford College.

Klappentext

Gender and development projects ultimately aim to
change the lives of men and women in a particular
society. Yet often these projects are so deeply
rooted in underlying gender normativity that they
reinscribe gender hierarchies rather than challenge
them. This book explores the nature of change -
ideational, insitutional, and embodied - focusing on
the gender policies of the Indonesian state,
substantiated with a case study of UNFPA programmes
in West Java. Through a multi-level, multi-vocal
framework, the work analyses how discourses circulate
to construct the Indonesian woman (ideas), how
discourses are translated into programmes
(institutions), and how discourses enter the home and
the body (identities). Critically, this book argues
for renewed emphasis on a 'politics of the body', as
the site of structural and symbolic power. It is
relevant for all those interested in analysing the
relationship between discourse and practice, the
question of power, and the way men and women embody
social structures and experience social transformation.