Search

The report is the result of a research among women's organisations in the civil society of South-Kivu.

The report is the result of a research among women's organisations in the civil society of South-Kivu.

In 'The arena of everyday life' nine authors look back and forward at developments in the sociology of consumers and households. Nine chapters show variety in the employed methods, from multivariate analyses of survey data to classical essays. The contributions are organised around four themes. In the first theme, two chapters entail a critical discussion of the concepts livelihood and household. The second part deals with health, in particular food security, hygiene and aids/HIV. The third theme focuses on female opportunities to foster income procurement of household by respectively microfinance and entrepreneurship. The fourth theme concentrates on two topical societal developments in a Western society, the first chapter dealing with the issue of creating opportunities for tailor-made services to older people, the second one focussing on the home-work balance of telecommuters.

In 'The arena of everyday life' nine authors look back and forward at developments in the sociology of consumers and households. Nine chapters show variety in the employed methods, from multivariate analyses of survey data to classical essays. The contributions are organised around four themes. In the first theme, two chapters entail a critical discussion of the concepts livelihood and household. The second part deals with health, in particular food security, hygiene and aids/HIV. The third theme focuses on female opportunities to foster income procurement of household by respectively microfinance and entrepreneurship. The fourth theme concentrates on two topical societal developments in a Western society, the first chapter dealing with the issue of creating opportunities for tailor-made services to older people, the second one focussing on the home-work balance of telecommuters.

A literature list on gender and women in Central and Eastern Europe is compiled. This is followed by some additional literature and a list of relevant organisations and addresses

Het verhaal van 25 jaar Landelijke Boerinnen Belangen (LBB) geeft in een notendop weer hoe kritische boerinnen hun maatschappelijke betrokkenheid vormgaven. Gestimuleerd door de vrouwenbeweging merkten zij in de zeventig jaren van de vorige eeuw dat zij een andere positie hadden dan de meeste vrouwen. Zij waren niet alleen getrouwd met een man die boer van beroep was, maar ook met zijn bedrijf. Niet alleen economisch, maar ook sociaal waren gezin, huishouden en bedrijf zo met elkaar verweven, dat zij hun positie wel in samenhang moesten bekijken. De geschiedenis van LBB toont hun zoektocht naar de tot dan toe onderbelichte positie van vrouwen in de agrarische sector. Deze boerinnen lieten ook zien hoe het landbouwbeleid en de besluitvorming daarover samenhingen met de knelpunten en problemen die zij in de dagelijkse praktijk tegenkwamen. Zij experimenteerden in hun eigen praktijk, vertaalden hun visies naar beleidsalternatieven en brachten die onder de aandacht bij de landbouworganisaties en ministeries. Voor het eerst lieten boerinnen hun stem horen over landbouwzaken waar zij zich toentertijd verre van dienden te houden.

Het verhaal van 25 jaar Landelijke Boerinnen Belangen (LBB) geeft in een notendop weer hoe kritische boerinnen hun maatschappelijke betrokkenheid vormgaven. Gestimuleerd door de vrouwenbeweging merkten zij in de zeventig jaren van de vorige eeuw dat zij een andere positie hadden dan de meeste vrouwen. Zij waren niet alleen getrouwd met een man die boer van beroep was, maar ook met zijn bedrijf. Niet alleen economisch, maar ook sociaal waren gezin, huishouden en bedrijf zo met elkaar verweven, dat zij hun positie wel in samenhang moesten bekijken. De geschiedenis van LBB toont hun zoektocht naar de tot dan toe onderbelichte positie van vrouwen in de agrarische sector. Deze boerinnen lieten ook zien hoe het landbouwbeleid en de besluitvorming daarover samenhingen met de knelpunten en problemen die zij in de dagelijkse praktijk tegenkwamen. Zij experimenteerden in hun eigen praktijk, vertaalden hun visies naar beleidsalternatieven en brachten die onder de aandacht bij de landbouworganisaties en ministeries. Voor het eerst lieten boerinnen hun stem horen over landbouwzaken waar zij zich toentertijd verre van dienden te houden.

This research investigated the complex relationship between population and environment with a focus on women’s role in fertility and the food resource environment. The research was carried out in a Gurung community in Lamjung district, in mid-hill Nepal. The household was taken as the unit of analysis. The study is embedded in demographic theory about population growth and in gender theory. The concept of women’s agency was used to link marriage and fertility patterns with household food provision and management of natural resources. Women’s role in population and the environment is placed in a changing socio-cultural and environmental context. An extensive review of the literature relating to population, environment, gender, household, livelihood and food security was done, after which a field study was carried out. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in empirical data collection. The research problem addressed concerned the impact on the relationship between population and environment of women’s reproductive and productive roles at the household level. The methods used for generating empirical data were: participatory rural appraisal, household food and fertility survey, participant observation, key informants interviews, focus group discussions, and life histories. The household survey was conducted among 350 households, the fertility survey among 343 women aged 15-49. Among forty households food surveys were conducted. A 24-hours food intake recall was done in 31 households. In addition, two PRAs (Participatory Rural Appraisal), ten key informants’ interviews (six males and four females), six case studies and six focus groups discussions, including male and female mixed groups and separate female groups, were conducted. Chi-square tests and regression analysis were applied to elicit significant relationships among the variables. The analysis of the qualitative data was done manually. Agricultural production is the basis for the livelihoods in the area under study. Rice, maize and millet are the main crops produced. Most people are able to survive on their own agricultural production and the resources in their natural surroundings. Jobs in the services sector provide an important source of income, but mainly for men. Most households, however, do not produce enough food to feed them for the whole year. For the majority of the households the agricultural land available for food production is little and fragmented. There is food deficiency in most households prior to harvesting time. People try to safeguard their food security in various ways. They acquire food by growing food crops in the fields, cultivating vegetables in kitchen gardens, buying food, gleaning, collecting food from the forest, and food exchange, in which rice plays the role of ‘currency’. In these activities women play a crucial role. The majority of the people in the area are hard-pressed to meet their food and livelihood needs. Most of the children do not have an adequate calorie intake. Women are the main food producers in the Gurung villages. Gurung women play an important role in agricultural production and other farm activities, forestry, and livestock production and management. When they need additional income to buy food, they may engage in liquor making, running teahouses or other income-generating activities. The heavy workload of Gurung women involves food procurement, production, storage, processing and preparation. Women in the village often lack the social and economic power they need for improving their household’s economic condition. Property rights of women are still a major issue, also at the national level. Women who receive parental property (pewa) are relatively more comfortable compared to those who do not. It can make a difference in their daily life, especially when they have to support their children by themselves because the husband does not fulfil his household duties or has left the first wife with children to marry another wife. The case studies show that women are facing many challenges, especially because of their limited access to land. If the husband is working in the army and receives good pay his wife may feel more secure, because if he dies she is entitled to a pension. If the household income is not enough women engage in income-generating activities to supplement it. When the husband has left her to marry another wife a woman focuses her activities on the future of her children. Divorced and widowed women were found reluctant to remarry for fear of losing their children or jeopardizing their children’s future. The Mid-Marsyangdi Hydro-electric Power Project has had mixed impacts on the local people, causing increasing population pressure and environmental degradation but also enlarging economic opportunities and bringing development in the area. The changes in the area opened up new opportunities for women. In social life women are more respected and through women’s organizations their voice has increased. They can also make use of economic opportunities to improve their livelihood and control their fertility by family planning. The farming environment has changed and improved. Currently, both environmentally and economically sustainable farming systems are being adopted that may not only increase household income but also enrich the diet of the people. At the same time, the development project is creating social, cultural and ecological problems. A lot of new settlements at the road side and other constructions are built on former agricultural land. The level of environmental pollution is rising, as is the incidence of prostitution and public health problems. Migrants from other areas, who were attracted by the project, add to the population pressure. Because of increased population pressure, the limited natural forest resources have declined and degraded. These days, people are more concerned about how to make money than about farming. The cash economy is growing. Rising age at marriage, long spells of separation from the husband in the reproductive period, and increasing use of family planning methods result in fertility levels among the Gurung women in the sample that are lower than the national averages. Child marriage no longer occurs these days and age at marriage among the Gurung women is on the rise. The use of contraception is increasing. Induced abortion has always taken place but is a decreasing trend now. Education proved to be strongly significantly negatively related to fertility. Household income also proved to be significantly related to fertility, though less strongly and positively. Age at first marriage and use of family planning proved to be both significantly negatively related to number of children ever born. A remarkable feature of Gurung culture is the equal value attached to having sons and daughters, particularly given the prevailing preference for sons in Nepal. The mothers groups (Amasamuha) in the villages have started to raise a collective voice against the exploitation of women. They point out that women should not be used only for men’s benefit but be treated as responsible citizens and be respected by the husband’s family for giving birth to children who can inherit the property. Programs and projects that are meant to empower women should be implemented effectively and efficiently. So far, many policies and plans formulated for women’s empowerment by the government exist only on paper. Women’s ownership of land remains a problematic issue, as is the case with women’s access to legal and safe abortion. In this study, women’s agency has been identified as an important factor in controlling population growth, safeguarding household livelihood and food security, and managing natural resources. Women’s agency is the significant link between fertility choices, the food resource environment, and household livelihood and food security. Gurung women’s agency plays a direct role in the timing of marriage, fertility choices, raising children, household formation and management, as well as in alleviating family food shortages. Apart from carrying out their productive and reproductive roles, women also participate in community activities and in efforts to protect the ecological environment. Women’s agency helps to balance population growth and food resources. However, in exercising their agency Gurung women face many practical problems and constraints. They are dependent on the availability of resources and economic conditions and often lack the necessary entitlements and empowerment. Though Gurung women can be shown to be “the pillar” of their household and family, and are active in economic production and social reproduction, their skills and contributions to family and community welfare are still poorly recognized.

This research investigated the complex relationship between population and environment with a focus on women’s role in fertility and the food resource environment. The research was carried out in a Gurung community in Lamjung district, in mid-hill Nepal. The household was taken as the unit of analysis. The study is embedded in demographic theory about population growth and in gender theory. The concept of women’s agency was used to link marriage and fertility patterns with household food provision and management of natural resources. Women’s role in population and the environment is placed in a changing socio-cultural and environmental context. An extensive review of the literature relating to population, environment, gender, household, livelihood and food security was done, after which a field study was carried out. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in empirical data collection. The research problem addressed concerned the impact on the relationship between population and environment of women’s reproductive and productive roles at the household level. The methods used for generating empirical data were: participatory rural appraisal, household food and fertility survey, participant observation, key informants interviews, focus group discussions, and life histories. The household survey was conducted among 350 households, the fertility survey among 343 women aged 15-49. Among forty households food surveys were conducted. A 24-hours food intake recall was done in 31 households. In addition, two PRAs (Participatory Rural Appraisal), ten key informants’ interviews (six males and four females), six case studies and six focus groups discussions, including male and female mixed groups and separate female groups, were conducted. Chi-square tests and regression analysis were applied to elicit significant relationships among the variables. The analysis of the qualitative data was done manually. Agricultural production is the basis for the livelihoods in the area under study. Rice, maize and millet are the main crops produced. Most people are able to survive on their own agricultural production and the resources in their natural surroundings. Jobs in the services sector provide an important source of income, but mainly for men. Most households, however, do not produce enough food to feed them for the whole year. For the majority of the households the agricultural land available for food production is little and fragmented. There is food deficiency in most households prior to harvesting time. People try to safeguard their food security in various ways. They acquire food by growing food crops in the fields, cultivating vegetables in kitchen gardens, buying food, gleaning, collecting food from the forest, and food exchange, in which rice plays the role of ‘currency’. In these activities women play a crucial role. The majority of the people in the area are hard-pressed to meet their food and livelihood needs. Most of the children do not have an adequate calorie intake. Women are the main food producers in the Gurung villages. Gurung women play an important role in agricultural production and other farm activities, forestry, and livestock production and management. When they need additional income to buy food, they may engage in liquor making, running teahouses or other income-generating activities. The heavy workload of Gurung women involves food procurement, production, storage, processing and preparation. Women in the village often lack the social and economic power they need for improving their household’s economic condition. Property rights of women are still a major issue, also at the national level. Women who receive parental property (pewa) are relatively more comfortable compared to those who do not. It can make a difference in their daily life, especially when they have to support their children by themselves because the husband does not fulfil his household duties or has left the first wife with children to marry another wife. The case studies show that women are facing many challenges, especially because of their limited access to land. If the husband is working in the army and receives good pay his wife may feel more secure, because if he dies she is entitled to a pension. If the household income is not enough women engage in income-generating activities to supplement it. When the husband has left her to marry another wife a woman focuses her activities on the future of her children. Divorced and widowed women were found reluctant to remarry for fear of losing their children or jeopardizing their children’s future. The Mid-Marsyangdi Hydro-electric Power Project has had mixed impacts on the local people, causing increasing population pressure and environmental degradation but also enlarging economic opportunities and bringing development in the area. The changes in the area opened up new opportunities for women. In social life women are more respected and through women’s organizations their voice has increased. They can also make use of economic opportunities to improve their livelihood and control their fertility by family planning. The farming environment has changed and improved. Currently, both environmentally and economically sustainable farming systems are being adopted that may not only increase household income but also enrich the diet of the people. At the same time, the development project is creating social, cultural and ecological problems. A lot of new settlements at the road side and other constructions are built on former agricultural land. The level of environmental pollution is rising, as is the incidence of prostitution and public health problems. Migrants from other areas, who were attracted by the project, add to the population pressure. Because of increased population pressure, the limited natural forest resources have declined and degraded. These days, people are more concerned about how to make money than about farming. The cash economy is growing. Rising age at marriage, long spells of separation from the husband in the reproductive period, and increasing use of family planning methods result in fertility levels among the Gurung women in the sample that are lower than the national averages. Child marriage no longer occurs these days and age at marriage among the Gurung women is on the rise. The use of contraception is increasing. Induced abortion has always taken place but is a decreasing trend now. Education proved to be strongly significantly negatively related to fertility. Household income also proved to be significantly related to fertility, though less strongly and positively. Age at first marriage and use of family planning proved to be both significantly negatively related to number of children ever born. A remarkable feature of Gurung culture is the equal value attached to having sons and daughters, particularly given the prevailing preference for sons in Nepal. The mothers groups (Amasamuha) in the villages have started to raise a collective voice against the exploitation of women. They point out that women should not be used only for men’s benefit but be treated as responsible citizens and be respected by the husband’s family for giving birth to children who can inherit the property. Programs and projects that are meant to empower women should be implemented effectively and efficiently. So far, many policies and plans formulated for women’s empowerment by the government exist only on paper. Women’s ownership of land remains a problematic issue, as is the case with women’s access to legal and safe abortion. In this study, women’s agency has been identified as an important factor in controlling population growth, safeguarding household livelihood and food security, and managing natural resources. Women’s agency is the significant link between fertility choices, the food resource environment, and household livelihood and food security. Gurung women’s agency plays a direct role in the timing of marriage, fertility choices, raising children, household formation and management, as well as in alleviating family food shortages. Apart from carrying out their productive and reproductive roles, women also participate in community activities and in efforts to protect the ecological environment. Women’s agency helps to balance population growth and food resources. However, in exercising their agency Gurung women face many practical problems and constraints. They are dependent on the availability of resources and economic conditions and often lack the necessary entitlements and empowerment. Though Gurung women can be shown to be “the pillar” of their household and family, and are active in economic production and social reproduction, their skills and contributions to family and community welfare are still poorly recognized.

This thesis describes the role of social capital of households and individuals in achieving livelihood and food security. In the research the temporal dimension and gender were cross-cutting perspectives. IFPRI panel data collected during 1996-1997 (pre-flood) and 1999-2000 (post-flood) were analyzed. To complement the IFPRI data an additional survey and the qualitative data was collected during 2001-2003. Panel data analysis shows that gender of the household head does not make a difference in achieving food security at the household level. However, gender of the household member is crucial for attaining individual level food security. Social capital plays an important role in averting vulnerability and sustaining livelihood, and is influenced by the landholding status of the house hold, which seems to function as collateral. The qualitative data revealed that women's social capital, when defined in a broader way, does play a crucial role in achieving household food security and averting vulnerability.

This thesis describes the role of social capital of households and individuals in achieving livelihood and food security. In the research the temporal dimension and gender were cross-cutting perspectives. IFPRI panel data collected during 1996-1997 (pre-flood) and 1999-2000 (post-flood) were analyzed. To complement the IFPRI data an additional survey and the qualitative data was collected during 2001-2003. Panel data analysis shows that gender of the household head does not make a difference in achieving food security at the household level. However, gender of the household member is crucial for attaining individual level food security. Social capital plays an important role in averting vulnerability and sustaining livelihood, and is influenced by the landholding status of the house hold, which seems to function as collateral. The qualitative data revealed that women's social capital, when defined in a broader way, does play a crucial role in achieving household food security and averting vulnerability.

This book is a thorough study about the upcoming of elite women in Eritrea, encompassing the time of the armed struggle for liberation as well as its aftermath up to the tenth anniversary of Eritrean independence in 2001 and beyond. It is a multi-disciplinary study, combining a comprehensive analysis of Eritrean history, society and political developments with extensive case study research into the lives of different groups of elite women. Modernisation processes created by the Eritrean revolution fostered an environment in which women are regarded as equal and encouraged to occupy positions of leadership. At the same time, the revolution's hegemonic ideology does not envisage women opting out of its version of modernity, thus new avenues open up only for those who subscribe to the revolution's narrative of progress. Furthermore, it is argued that while the Eritrean revolution played a decisive role in opening up possibilities for women's emancipation, a failure to implement democratic structures of governance puts the revolution's societal achievements at risk - its legacy might well rest with possibilities of personal liberation in individual lives.

This study is about opportunities, constraints and strategies regarding access to land of peasant women who live in the changing Toba-Batak patrilineal community of North Sumatra. Their access to land is seen in the wider context of the ongoing pressure of land scarcity due to individualization, statization and privatization of communal land. The study challenges the adequacy of ongoing research on peasant women's access rights to land in developing countries. It challenges first, the adequacy of feminist theories in handling cross-cultural aspects of power and gender relation; secondly, the adequacy of peasantry theories to deal with peasant women; and thirdly, the adequacy of legal theories in understanding the complexity of plural normative orderings in developing countries.All in all, the study challenges the assumption that individual private property and control over land under the state legal framework is the ultimate way to secure the well being and empowerment of women. The objectives of the study are threefold. First, to show how different normative and institutional frameworks order the allocation of land resources. Secondly, to understand how colonial, religious, state, economic and political frameworks affect women, by underpinning local patterns of inequality. Thirdly, to assess the possibilities for differential access rights to land by peasant women and men.The study attempts to answer two sets of questions. The first sets of questions relates to changing familial and inter-lineage relation to land and its impact on women. How have the Toba-Batak conceptualised access rights to land over time? What changes have been brought about by the German missionaries, Dutch colonial administration and post-colonial state? Do women benefit from the plural normative orderings in acquiring access rights to land? The second set of questions relates to the pressure on communal land and its impact on women. What is the importance and function of communal land in Toba-Batak society? How does control over communal land shift to the state and private investors? What are the implications of the diminishing of communal land to local villagers? What kind of overt and covert resistance do they reveal? How do they strategize their access to land in relations to the state's increasing control over land?Following chapter one which provides the overall background of the study, chapter two introduces the situation of the Toba-Batak changing society in colonial times where the inception of legal pluralism has started to occur. The first western influence, Protestant Christianity, introduced quot;a process of individualization and secularization" to the Toba-Batak society . The christianization of the Toba-Batak had, to a great extent, smoothed the path for the Dutch to gain a strong foothold. Both the Germans and the Dutch had, in different ways, introduced the idea of incorporating leadership beyond the traditional spatial-lineage areas, characterized by a rigid hierarchical power structure. But it was the power of the state (in this case colonial rule) that was becoming more and more central to the further process of change, even though this power had been under continuous attack both by the (German) missionaries and the Toba-Batak themselves.The western colonial influence affected all areas of life, including those related to land and the position of women. Land tenure was selectively detached from its relation to the sacred nature of adat and from the essence of the adat community as "an association of worship whose members every once in a while strengthened the union among themselves or the union with the ancestors through celebrations". The efforts to ideologically detach land matters from the sacred nature of the adat created room to re-negotiate new relations to land, both internally within lineage relations and externally with outside actors. The changing internal relations may concern gender, as was the case with the education of female students and various more gender-neutral colonial jurisprudence. The promotion of the principle of gender equality into the Toba-Batak rigid, patrilineal society is, therefore, to be seen in the wider process of the "de-sacralization of adat". Likewise, the changing external land relations may be concerned with the emerging of (new) outside actors in accessing, managing and allocating the local land, a process in which the (colonial)state, individual Bataks and non-Bataks and private companies come into the picture.Chapter three demonstrates how contemporary Toba-Batak society is affected by the increasing power of the (post-colonial) state, especially during the New Order period. The Toba-Batak has become one local part of the wider Indonesian state that tries to develop its national economy. A major attempt to pursue the unification and centralisation project of the state is through the expansion of state modern bureaucracy and administration down to village level while neutralizing the adat principles and authorities which are often considered inconsistent with (universal) national ideals of justice (cf., Wignjosoebroto 1994 and 1997). Contrary to the patrilineal and highly patriarchal Toba-Batak adat , the Indonesian Constitution incorporates the principle of gender equality for all citizens. With the strengthening of state power, there are competing rights and rules pertaining to land, deriving from different sets of authority: the state and the adat . This multiplicity of rights and rules governing the land is not situated in a vacuum, but in the context of a dynamic process of land concentration vis-a-vis land scarcity. State intervention in the process of statization and privatization has been driven by contradictory forces between national economic ambition on the one hand, and the urgency for a more sustainable local resource management on the other.Chapter four and five result from the field-work in North Sumatra. Chapter four deals with the issue of access rights to land in a relatively normal daily life situation of internal village and lineage relations, based on a village study conducted in Siraja Hutagalung. Because of the pressure of land scarcity, the basic traditional practice of acquiring land through clearing an empty land or forest no longer occurs. This results in the two categories of acquiring access rights to land, namely the "generational and affinal transactions" which are heavily gender-biased and "reciprocal and economic transactions" which are geared towards fulfilling the function of an equitable distribution of basic livelihood, augmenting economic benefits and confirming each other's political position within the kinship and residential unit. Gender-based arrangement in accessing rights to land is the foremost and the only traditional way to keep the land within the restricted boundaries of the patrilineage.Chapter five provides an analysis of the ongoing conflicts on communal land that presently mark the relationships between the local people, the state authorities and private enterprise. The chapter demonstrates how the different notions of Toba-Batak's and women's access rights to (communal)land from different levels of normative orders and institutions are challenged, contested, conceded and reconfirmed. The discussion is located in the wider context of the changing political-economy because of the incorporation into the national economy. Three cases presented, namely Dolok Martalitali, Sugapa and Parbuluan, indicate how peasant men and women are affected by, and at the same time react to, the ongoing statization and privatization process of land under the state legal framework.In chapter six I return to conclude the various factors of change among the Toba-Batak which affect the "layered structure of property regimes" (Benda-Beckmann, forthcoming). The multifold function attributed to land proves to be the most important factor in explaining the attitude of Toba-Batak peasant women towards the rule of patrilineality in accessing rights to land within inter-lineage and familial relations. The current shift of allocation rights over communal land from the adat community to the state has noticeably marginalised the residing local people and the adat community both in the initial process of land transfer and in the subsequent process of deciding its use and exploitation. The findings of the study support the argument that the state development policy and practice often place more emphasis on the economic function of land while neglecting other functions a communal land might have for the local people. For women, it is the temporal dimension of the socio-economic security aspect of communal land affecting their reproductive task which is at stake in the process of land expropriation.I discuss some theoretical implications of the study. Rather than looking at kinship as a clear-cut and self-evident factor of hindering gender-equality or enabling it, the empirical study on Toba-Batak society has suggested that kinship simultaneously functions as both enabling and hindering factor for women's access rights to land under different circumstances. I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as gender solidarity among Toba-Batak women because their identity is shaped more by their kinship affiliation and position of seniority within kinship ranks rather than simply by gender. On the other hand, it is the resistance of peasant women against any outside intervention that makes the Toba-Batak struggle over communal land into a basic struggle over both resources and meanings as well as a struggle that shapes the borderline between the local groups' interests and that of the private investors vis-a-vis the state.The study also indicates that legal pluralism is a fact while the claim that state law is the only law is rather mythical. Based on this, the study concludes that gender-equality claim that state legal structures and norms directly cause and determine action for the betterment of women is highly questionable. The introduction of state law into matters related to land tends to detach land rights from wider social relationships, thereby neutralizing the restriction to endow land to women as well as the alienation of land to outsiders. These are seen in principal as opposing their Toba-Batak adat of patrilineality. On the other hand, in the cases relating to the expropriation of communal, the state law and judiciary system are seen as threatening rather than defending the interests of peasant women and the local community against the interests of private investors.

This study is about opportunities, constraints and strategies regarding access to land of peasant women who live in the changing Toba-Batak patrilineal community of North Sumatra. Their access to land is seen in the wider context of the ongoing pressure of land scarcity due to individualization, statization and privatization of communal land. The study challenges the adequacy of ongoing research on peasant women's access rights to land in developing countries. It challenges first, the adequacy of feminist theories in handling cross-cultural aspects of power and gender relation; secondly, the adequacy of peasantry theories to deal with peasant women; and thirdly, the adequacy of legal theories in understanding the complexity of plural normative orderings in developing countries.All in all, the study challenges the assumption that individual private property and control over land under the state legal framework is the ultimate way to secure the well being and empowerment of women. The objectives of the study are threefold. First, to show how different normative and institutional frameworks order the allocation of land resources. Secondly, to understand how colonial, religious, state, economic and political frameworks affect women, by underpinning local patterns of inequality. Thirdly, to assess the possibilities for differential access rights to land by peasant women and men.The study attempts to answer two sets of questions. The first sets of questions relates to changing familial and inter-lineage relation to land and its impact on women. How have the Toba-Batak conceptualised access rights to land over time? What changes have been brought about by the German missionaries, Dutch colonial administration and post-colonial state? Do women benefit from the plural normative orderings in acquiring access rights to land? The second set of questions relates to the pressure on communal land and its impact on women. What is the importance and function of communal land in Toba-Batak society? How does control over communal land shift to the state and private investors? What are the implications of the diminishing of communal land to local villagers? What kind of overt and covert resistance do they reveal? How do they strategize their access to land in relations to the state's increasing control over land?Following chapter one which provides the overall background of the study, chapter two introduces the situation of the Toba-Batak changing society in colonial times where the inception of legal pluralism has started to occur. The first western influence, Protestant Christianity, introduced quot;a process of individualization and secularization" to the Toba-Batak society . The christianization of the Toba-Batak had, to a great extent, smoothed the path for the Dutch to gain a strong foothold. Both the Germans and the Dutch had, in different ways, introduced the idea of incorporating leadership beyond the traditional spatial-lineage areas, characterized by a rigid hierarchical power structure. But it was the power of the state (in this case colonial rule) that was becoming more and more central to the further process of change, even though this power had been under continuous attack both by the (German) missionaries and the Toba-Batak themselves.The western colonial influence affected all areas of life, including those related to land and the position of women. Land tenure was selectively detached from its relation to the sacred nature of adat and from the essence of the adat community as "an association of worship whose members every once in a while strengthened the union among themselves or the union with the ancestors through celebrations". The efforts to ideologically detach land matters from the sacred nature of the adat created room to re-negotiate new relations to land, both internally within lineage relations and externally with outside actors. The changing internal relations may concern gender, as was the case with the education of female students and various more gender-neutral colonial jurisprudence. The promotion of the principle of gender equality into the Toba-Batak rigid, patrilineal society is, therefore, to be seen in the wider process of the "de-sacralization of adat". Likewise, the changing external land relations may be concerned with the emerging of (new) outside actors in accessing, managing and allocating the local land, a process in which the (colonial)state, individual Bataks and non-Bataks and private companies come into the picture.Chapter three demonstrates how contemporary Toba-Batak society is affected by the increasing power of the (post-colonial) state, especially during the New Order period. The Toba-Batak has become one local part of the wider Indonesian state that tries to develop its national economy. A major attempt to pursue the unification and centralisation project of the state is through the expansion of state modern bureaucracy and administration down to village level while neutralizing the adat principles and authorities which are often considered inconsistent with (universal) national ideals of justice (cf., Wignjosoebroto 1994 and 1997). Contrary to the patrilineal and highly patriarchal Toba-Batak adat , the Indonesian Constitution incorporates the principle of gender equality for all citizens. With the strengthening of state power, there are competing rights and rules pertaining to land, deriving from different sets of authority: the state and the adat . This multiplicity of rights and rules governing the land is not situated in a vacuum, but in the context of a dynamic process of land concentration vis-a-vis land scarcity. State intervention in the process of statization and privatization has been driven by contradictory forces between national economic ambition on the one hand, and the urgency for a more sustainable local resource management on the other.Chapter four and five result from the field-work in North Sumatra. Chapter four deals with the issue of access rights to land in a relatively normal daily life situation of internal village and lineage relations, based on a village study conducted in Siraja Hutagalung. Because of the pressure of land scarcity, the basic traditional practice of acquiring land through clearing an empty land or forest no longer occurs. This results in the two categories of acquiring access rights to land, namely the "generational and affinal transactions" which are heavily gender-biased and "reciprocal and economic transactions" which are geared towards fulfilling the function of an equitable distribution of basic livelihood, augmenting economic benefits and confirming each other's political position within the kinship and residential unit. Gender-based arrangement in accessing rights to land is the foremost and the only traditional way to keep the land within the restricted boundaries of the patrilineage.Chapter five provides an analysis of the ongoing conflicts on communal land that presently mark the relationships between the local people, the state authorities and private enterprise. The chapter demonstrates how the different notions of Toba-Batak's and women's access rights to (communal)land from different levels of normative orders and institutions are challenged, contested, conceded and reconfirmed. The discussion is located in the wider context of the changing political-economy because of the incorporation into the national economy. Three cases presented, namely Dolok Martalitali, Sugapa and Parbuluan, indicate how peasant men and women are affected by, and at the same time react to, the ongoing statization and privatization process of land under the state legal framework.In chapter six I return to conclude the various factors of change among the Toba-Batak which affect the "layered structure of property regimes" (Benda-Beckmann, forthcoming). The multifold function attributed to land proves to be the most important factor in explaining the attitude of Toba-Batak peasant women towards the rule of patrilineality in accessing rights to land within inter-lineage and familial relations. The current shift of allocation rights over communal land from the adat community to the state has noticeably marginalised the residing local people and the adat community both in the initial process of land transfer and in the subsequent process of deciding its use and exploitation. The findings of the study support the argument that the state development policy and practice often place more emphasis on the economic function of land while neglecting other functions a communal land might have for the local people. For women, it is the temporal dimension of the socio-economic security aspect of communal land affecting their reproductive task which is at stake in the process of land expropriation.I discuss some theoretical implications of the study. Rather than looking at kinship as a clear-cut and self-evident factor of hindering gender-equality or enabling it, the empirical study on Toba-Batak society has suggested that kinship simultaneously functions as both enabling and hindering factor for women's access rights to land under different circumstances. I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as gender solidarity among Toba-Batak women because their identity is shaped more by their kinship affiliation and position of seniority within kinship ranks rather than simply by gender. On the other hand, it is the resistance of peasant women against any outside intervention that makes the Toba-Batak struggle over communal land into a basic struggle over both resources and meanings as well as a struggle that shapes the borderline between the local groups' interests and that of the private investors vis-a-vis the state.The study also indicates that legal pluralism is a fact while the claim that state law is the only law is rather mythical. Based on this, the study concludes that gender-equality claim that state legal structures and norms directly cause and determine action for the betterment of women is highly questionable. The introduction of state law into matters related to land tends to detach land rights from wider social relationships, thereby neutralizing the restriction to endow land to women as well as the alienation of land to outsiders. These are seen in principal as opposing their Toba-Batak adat of patrilineality. On the other hand, in the cases relating to the expropriation of communal, the state law and judiciary system are seen as threatening rather than defending the interests of peasant women and the local community against the interests of private investors.

In this article the authors argue that the increase in labour force participation of married women in the Netherlands is not to be seen as indicating married women's increased emancipation but rather as an outcome of socio-structural, socio-cultural and socio-economic changes within society that severly restrict wives' freedom of choice in their decisions to allocate their time

In this article the authors argue that the increase in labour force participation of married women in the Netherlands is not to be seen as indicating married women's increased emancipation but rather as an outcome of socio-structural, socio-cultural and socio-economic changes within society that severly restrict wives' freedom of choice in their decisions to allocate their time

A literature list on gender and women in Central and Eastern Europe is compiled. This is followed by some additional literature and a list of relevant organisations and addresses

Three lines of inquiry can be found in the present study. The first is of an empirical nature. It is a story of a group of women and a development project, based upon field research I carried out in 1987-88 concerning a group of female beekeepers who were organized as an UAIM (Unidad Agrícola e Industrial de la Mujer Campesina, Agrarian and Industrial Unit of Peasant Women) in Ayuquila, a small rural community in western Mexico. The initiative was backed by the Federal Law of Agrarian Reform, which stipulated that groups of women should be encouraged to participate in economic activities by allotting them plots of agricultural land and supporting them with credit from official institutions to set up small enterprises. It was expected that the organization of women would thus be stimulated and that they would be incorporated into the 'production process'. In some cases, government rhetoric went on to suggest that this would eventually lead to the reduction of gender inequalities.Second, it is an exploration into issues of power: How does power work? Can one point to secret mechanisms by which it is triggered and held, resolutely oppressing, permeating the most hidden niches of society, controlling actions, thoughts and desires? How is it constituted, identified and recreated or crushed, transformed and channelled? How do changes in power come about? How can we come to grips with the ways in which power is constructed in everyday situations? How can we understand it in its relation to more macro phenomena? I explore these issues through my ethnographic material, discussing theoretical approaches to power such as those advanced by Foucault, Latour, Callon, and Barnes and drawing upon more general theoretical insights proposed by Long, Giddens, Strathern, Moore, Habermas, Bourdieu and other social scientists. The aim is to arrive at the construction of theory through the analysis of field data. Hence, I examine theoretical perspectives throughout the chapters in terms of their usefulness for addressing the issues I encounter and the questions I want to deal with.Third, it is a methodological venture in which I use diverse techniques to explore theoretical and empirical concerns from an actor-oriented perspective. Thus, I draw upon a survey of the village, discourse analysis, situational analysis, network analysis and actor-network analysis (or the sociology of translation) to highlight the ways in which actors construct their lifeworlds and deal with constraints in their everyday lives. From this perspective, propelling agents are not outside forces but actors and their interpretations. Actions are not predefined in terms of their functional significance to self-regulating systems, but are constantly redefined and given meaning in dynamic interrelations between people and the natural and social environment.My challenge is to reach a better understanding of the processes of change taking place in the 'development interface', that is, in the spaces opened up by the interaction between different social groups engaged in development practices where discontinuities in terms of power are recreated and transformed. Grounded upon critical observation and analysis of detailed ethnographic data, I hope to contribute to a sounder theoretical perspective on issues of power and social difference.Analyzing my empirical material, it became clear that subordination was central to an understanding of power, and so relations of subordination constitute the main issue explored throughout the chapters. These are the elements that give life to power, that make it possible. The wielding of power presupposes the exercise of yielding to it, of recognizing the other as powerful. Furthermore, power must often be yielded in order to wield it. Hence, to open the discussion on power, I take as a starting point, not a blatant description of domination or a striking set of statistics to prove its strength, but the trivial everyday manifestations of power, which lives to the degree to which it is exercised upon others, and hence to the degree that there are countervailing forces which must be controlled. Otherwise it would be fruitless to conceive of such a notion. In fact, it is impossible to envisage power without an image of those affected by it, without notions of subservience, inferiority, subjugation and control, but also without some kinds of counter forces, of negotiation, resistance, conflict and opposition.However, what one might identify as points of resistance, of defiance and challenge, are intertwined with elements that may be described as compliance, conformity and submission. Hence, when speaking of subordination, one implies both an action imposed from 'outside' and a self-inflicted condition. It is this interweaving of processes that I explore, specifically with respect to gender relations.To this endeavour, I start, in Chapter 1, by introducing the reader to Ayuquila with brief descriptions of three women and the ways in which they deal with subordination in their everyday lives. The three women are involved in different kinds of enterprise and dissimilar relations and attitudes towards 'capital' and entrepreneurs, and hence work under distinct perspectives and motivations to access specific networks, to build diverse relations with men, with authorities and with other women. However, subordination and self-subordination is a common theme, whether imposed or assumed, used to soften blows, to create personal space or to consolidate power.Ayuquila is a small town of 161 households located within an important irrigation district along the main road linking the Municipal capital of El Grullo to the State capital of Guadalajara, in Jalisco, western Mexico. Village economic life is built basically upon agriculture and the commercialization of agricultural products. In describing the world of Ayuquila as it was presented to me in 1988, the webs of relations which include bonds to different environments, organizational forms embedded in the villagers' use of land and their work procedures, their economic strategies, household patterns and solidarity networks - which I document in Chapter 2 - I came to realize the significance of specific domains or interaction for understanding how social asymmetries are reproduced, how linkages to wider social and economic scenarios are created and resignified, and how the project is woven into village I life.Such domains do not only entail undertakings pertaining to distinct levels of articulation of power, nor do they demarcate specific fields of social analysis - such as the economic, political or family-kinship. Activities within domains involve a heterogeneity of relationships - that could be labelled political, economic, religious or emotional - and they intertwine power relations that draw upon diverse normative frames. In specific domains, 'rules of the game' are negotiated and defined, authorities are recognized, and relations to institutions, to other villagers and with the environment, are 'fixed'. Interaction within a domain entails distinct organizing practices, criteria with which to evaluate and shape others' behaviour and ways of securing resources.The beekeeping project came to constitute a specific domain of interaction. In Chapter 3 1 provide a brief history of the project as it was described by the different actors involved. This enables me to discuss the ways in which the women saw themselves and the ways in which they were labelled and how this shaped the project and its perspectives. The identities adopted by the women at different stages of the project were very much coloured by social expectations, by images of hierarchies and by the identification of boundaries for action. I thus examine the boundaries the women set to their undertakings and ambitions, as well as the struggles they have to undergo in the defense of their own space when interacting with the state, but also with the ejido - commonly regarded a 'men's world' in the village, exploring critical social interface situations where members of the group are exposed to encounters with people from 'the outside' and to definitions, ideas, representations and interpretations. I analyze the ways in which discursive practices reproduce and change, exploring the intertwining of actions, strategies, understandings and self-perceptions where knowledge and power are created, negotiated and transformed. I highlight the significance that labelling had in terms of their activities and their relations to others, and how the names which the women attributed to themselves became modified. This pointed to the relevance of knowledge in the process by which social relations are constructed.The domain of the family is described in Chapter 4, where I map out the kin networks and social webs that shape the interactions taking place. I examine how the beekeepers were clustered into particular networks - often linked to other village domains - where issues were discussed, commitments and non- verbalized agreements shouldered and emotions, loyalties and opinions shared. In this chapter, four kinds of network configurations are presented and contrasted: 1) a genealogical map of the network of kin and affinal ties encompassing the members of the women's group; 2) a series of net diagrams representing specific types of transactions and commitments among the members; 3) an aggregated net diagram depicting the multiplexity and density of ties; and 4) a tree diagram which contrasts the patterns formed by the various sub-group clusters and illustrates their social distance vis-à-vis other members of the beekeeping group. I describe the ways in which kin networks feature within the beekeeping group, showing how they are not motionless, nor present as an external structure, but are brought to life and resignified by the different actors in their interrelations within specific networks. This also entails an analysis of the fissures within the group, and of how these were dealt with, or supplanted by other linkages. As it is, these splits and the beekeepers' attempts to fill the gaps between them, provided valuable information about the process of 'gluing together'.The ways in which different ties are combined and resignified, however, is largely defined through the lifeworlds of the different women, or rather through the intersection of lifeworlds that takes place within the project. This is evident in the three profiles of women beekeepers which I also describe in this chapter. I have chosen three beekeepers, drawn from different social clusters in the group, to explore aspects of their everyday lives, and their experiences, motivations and interests within the project. I highlight the significance of the group, its encounters and activities, for shaping the lifeworlds of these women. The individual women used the project and its sense of 'belongingness' to reconceptualize their own life circumstances and expectations, and to sustain them in their efforts to change their social relationships and strategies. They thus create space for themselves and reconstruct their lifeworlds.The women's commitment to specific networks shapes their practices and influences their views on the UAIM and its perspectives. But networks also open up spaces for them, that is, they put people in touch with different sets of relations. Whilst networks provide coordinating mechanisms for the allocation of resources and the circulation of meaning, they are not totalizing systems, and whilst they entail some kind of governing coalitions that regulate behaviour, as such they do not control. Actors draw upon networks and rework them in response to their immediate needs, resignifying them through personal experiences, and using them whenever possible to achieve control. Hence, networks have no life but through the organizing practices of the lifeworlds of their members.This points to the crucial importance of agency within social relations, and to the action of keepers and power brokers within networks and domains. Through the analysis of a social situation - a meeting in which the women as a group interact face-to-face with a 'dominant' group in the village, typically considered a male organization - Chapter 5 delves into the intricacies and subtleties of authority and command in the everyday wielding of power. During the meeting, experiences, views and discursive elements were transposed from the domain of the state to the domain of the ejido, from the ejido to the project, etc. The interaction between the group of beekeepers and the ejidatarios shows how agency works to bring such elements to the fore. We can also see how, in a particular moment in time and space, boundaries pertaining to 'formal maps of power' are differentially interpreted and negotiated, how expectations are forged and issues veiled. Power is constructed with respect to access to resources, to the identification and defense of particular interests and the control of means of action. In the struggle for access to resources and control, power brokers emerge and authorities are redefined.These processes also entail maps of knowledge, negotiation of interests, loyalties and formal identification of powers, as well as particular skills and techniques of control. Although not physically present in the event, the state wields power through the interpretations of the different actors, who surrender to what they consider are its designs.The state is typically a 'power wielder', that is, it is commonly recognized as a powerful actor. In Chapter 6 1 describe how this 'macro power' is constructed, and identify the mechanisms by which it is recognized as such in the case of the UAIM projects in Mexico. I discuss the vicissitudes of different UAIMs in various parts of the country, focusing on the ways in which the state manages to snare different actors into its own network of interests, thus providing opportunities for women to engage in economic enterprises, but by so doing, sets frameworks that regulate aspects of women's lives. I concentrate on the UAIM itself as a juridical model and a form of control, exploring how people, emotions, beliefs, money, technology, gender images, legal forms, documents, and social networks are associated and dissociated - physically and symbolically - to generate power or inhibit its development. I discuss Callon and Latour's (1981, 1986) approach to the analysis of power, which I believe to have made great strides in its conceptualization and study. However, as our case shows, their analyses leave out critical aspects which can be tackled more adequately through an actor-oriented approach. An important premise is that power is not a pre-determined attribute which is possessed or not, but a fluid resource which is negotiated and used at all levels.Chapter 7 draws the threads together and compares my findings with current theories on power. I discuss how conceptualizing power as embedded in multi-directional relations, in processes, linkages, disjunctions and strategies, allows us to see its diverse faces as well as the compromises, negotiations and struggles. Power relations are recreated in the interaction and not totally imposed from one side. Power is not inherent to a position, a space or a person; it is not possessed by any of the actors, and it is not a zero-sum process whereby its exercise by one of the actors leaves the others lacking. Interests are not necessarily the propelling force behind power, but are fixed and defined in the process.It is necessary to explore the social construction of meaning, which then reveals the messiness of power processes. A power wielder - be it a collective or individual actor - is also influenced by myths, language and symbols. Hence, those wielding power carry out at the same time more and less than their own wills. Less, because they must negotiate with the wills of others; they must allow others' wills to be carried out if they are to succeed - so discretion is limited by the force of those in subordinate positions. And more, because power is more than getting one's own will across. Generally speaking, those considered powerful incline dispositions and influence processes which are in no way part of their strategies. It would therefore be too simple to regard power as an unidirectional process whereby defined objectives are in the end reached. The complexity of power relations resides in its largely unintended consequences, in the web of routines which are triggered or channelled in specific directions, not only by the power wielder, but by the social constituency that attributes identities and roles to him/her and responds to these very same attributions by locating themselves in a somewhat inferior plane, in a subordinate condition.In this way, we often attribute agency and power to social categories such as class, ethnicity and gender; to resources such as capital and land and to institutions like the state. Thus, we credit this abstract constituency we call the state with power and respond accordingly. This might have little to do with the actual intelligence, knowledgeability or capacity to act of the particular subject of agency, but it is important in delimiting the effects it can have on others. Banks, corporations, kings and priests are attributed qualities that 'bounce back' on the actions of people. This speaks of a mode of socially attributed agency, a capacity to act which is granted by others, in contrast to the agency of individuals in dealing with the world around them. Hence, the agency of an actor can be 'stretched' out to incorporate the agentive or patientive actions of others, enroling people, objects or symbols into networks or domains. Domains can wield power within a macro perspective, but they themselves will be shifting terrains for power because of the social relations acting within them. Discourses and interpretations can thus become 'dominant' when they are enroled in a specific strategy and are instrumental in constraining or defining the behaviour of a large number of people or social groups. Hence power relations are strengthened by multiple translations. The quality of certain power relations as 'macro' then., can only be seen as an effect, and not as a cause. This leaves us with a more 'vulnerable' version of macro relations, albeit a more dynamic one.The power wielder has to rely on the actions of others who acknowledge its power. These actions generally entail subordination, compliance or resistance. The concept of resistance, however, already implies an identification of a weaker force which is counteracting a stronger one and which is unwilling to yield. But I argue that power wielders should not be defined as such in a priori terms, and hence resistance cannot be identified as such beforehand. Compliance generally entails an acceptance to become the vehicle of others' agency, thus strengthening the network of power, but one can, of course, be an unknowing vehicle of power by forming part of such a network without resisting or subordinating, or by agreeing to certain representations which are enroled in its exercise, thus granting credibility and effectiveness to the associations which constitute it. Compliance contributes crucial support for power networks and is often indirectly provided.Compliance, as well as subordination, not only sustains the wielding of power, but also the capacity to wield power. Such capacity is not a storage of power as social scientists frequently describe it, but is underpinned by a social recognition of ranks, authority and superiority, where the action falls on those who acknowledge an actor as 'powerful' or who are willing (or obliged by the social circumstances, the intersection of domains, etc.) to submit to what they consider are its designs. Hence, the yielding of power resides in the social acknowledgement of it; it does not necessarily entail subordination and can be independent of the will or intentions of the potential wielder.Subordination, on the one hand, indicates the action of 'patients', of being the vehicle of others' agency. It allows power to be wielded by yielding, by acceding to the wishes of the other, relinquishing a possible social capacity or status to acknowledge a stronger, better or more appropriate bearer. On the other hand, such yielding can emanate, not from the wishes of others, but from the 'subordinate' actors' own agency. Subordination, then, does not imply a zero- sum process whereby those who yield are necessarily left powerless. If power is fluid and constantly negotiated, those wielding power also need to subordinate themselves to discourses, social beliefs and wills of others. Thus, subordination cannot be exclusively attributed to the lower strata of society, to marginalized groups, or to the 'losers'. Power relations also necessitate the yielding of power by the power wielder.In the final chapter 1 discuss the notions of power and empowerment underpinning development thinking and practice. 1 suggest that power is often misconstrued and that many issues remain unresolved in the notions of empowerment and participation, especially where gender is concerned. Thus, there is a need to question ourselves what is understood by participation, how to define the interests of the beneficiaries in order to assist them in helping themselves, and who 'the object of empowerment' is as compared to who it is intended to be. The new associations formed through projects, participatory training sessions and other activities oriented towards the empowerment of local population constitute domains of interaction which also require the action of keepers and brokers to sustain them, people who understand schedules and plans, who have organizational awareness, strategic visions, a drive to persuade and motivate others, a sense of enterprise, and the urge to analyze problems that arise in order to expand their 'project' through processes of enrolment, and to avoid diversion from set goals. This often ends up in the empowerment of the development agency itself.Women are in many ways resisting impositions and striving to increase their claim-making capacity, but this is intertwined with short-term interests., emotions and loyalties. As keepers of a gender-oriented development endeavour, facilitators often try to delink women from such conceptions of their interests and loyalties. Their own conception of alternatives for women is frequently simplistic, stemming from questions such as who owns the land, who spends the cash and who makes the relevant decisions. But an analysis of 'development' endeavours cannot avoid an examination of the complex power processes and battles over images, definition of interests and interpretations that take place at the interface between 'outsiders' and 'local groups'. These interface struggles shape the arena of intervention situations where power is wielded and yielded.

Three lines of inquiry can be found in the present study. The first is of an empirical nature. It is a story of a group of women and a development project, based upon field research I carried out in 1987-88 concerning a group of female beekeepers who were organized as an UAIM (Unidad Agrícola e Industrial de la Mujer Campesina, Agrarian and Industrial Unit of Peasant Women) in Ayuquila, a small rural community in western Mexico. The initiative was backed by the Federal Law of Agrarian Reform, which stipulated that groups of women should be encouraged to participate in economic activities by allotting them plots of agricultural land and supporting them with credit from official institutions to set up small enterprises. It was expected that the organization of women would thus be stimulated and that they would be incorporated into the 'production process'. In some cases, government rhetoric went on to suggest that this would eventually lead to the reduction of gender inequalities.Second, it is an exploration into issues of power: How does power work? Can one point to secret mechanisms by which it is triggered and held, resolutely oppressing, permeating the most hidden niches of society, controlling actions, thoughts and desires? How is it constituted, identified and recreated or crushed, transformed and channelled? How do changes in power come about? How can we come to grips with the ways in which power is constructed in everyday situations? How can we understand it in its relation to more macro phenomena? I explore these issues through my ethnographic material, discussing theoretical approaches to power such as those advanced by Foucault, Latour, Callon, and Barnes and drawing upon more general theoretical insights proposed by Long, Giddens, Strathern, Moore, Habermas, Bourdieu and other social scientists. The aim is to arrive at the construction of theory through the analysis of field data. Hence, I examine theoretical perspectives throughout the chapters in terms of their usefulness for addressing the issues I encounter and the questions I want to deal with.Third, it is a methodological venture in which I use diverse techniques to explore theoretical and empirical concerns from an actor-oriented perspective. Thus, I draw upon a survey of the village, discourse analysis, situational analysis, network analysis and actor-network analysis (or the sociology of translation) to highlight the ways in which actors construct their lifeworlds and deal with constraints in their everyday lives. From this perspective, propelling agents are not outside forces but actors and their interpretations. Actions are not predefined in terms of their functional significance to self-regulating systems, but are constantly redefined and given meaning in dynamic interrelations between people and the natural and social environment.My challenge is to reach a better understanding of the processes of change taking place in the 'development interface', that is, in the spaces opened up by the interaction between different social groups engaged in development practices where discontinuities in terms of power are recreated and transformed. Grounded upon critical observation and analysis of detailed ethnographic data, I hope to contribute to a sounder theoretical perspective on issues of power and social difference.Analyzing my empirical material, it became clear that subordination was central to an understanding of power, and so relations of subordination constitute the main issue explored throughout the chapters. These are the elements that give life to power, that make it possible. The wielding of power presupposes the exercise of yielding to it, of recognizing the other as powerful. Furthermore, power must often be yielded in order to wield it. Hence, to open the discussion on power, I take as a starting point, not a blatant description of domination or a striking set of statistics to prove its strength, but the trivial everyday manifestations of power, which lives to the degree to which it is exercised upon others, and hence to the degree that there are countervailing forces which must be controlled. Otherwise it would be fruitless to conceive of such a notion. In fact, it is impossible to envisage power without an image of those affected by it, without notions of subservience, inferiority, subjugation and control, but also without some kinds of counter forces, of negotiation, resistance, conflict and opposition.However, what one might identify as points of resistance, of defiance and challenge, are intertwined with elements that may be described as compliance, conformity and submission. Hence, when speaking of subordination, one implies both an action imposed from 'outside' and a self-inflicted condition. It is this interweaving of processes that I explore, specifically with respect to gender relations.To this endeavour, I start, in Chapter 1, by introducing the reader to Ayuquila with brief descriptions of three women and the ways in which they deal with subordination in their everyday lives. The three women are involved in different kinds of enterprise and dissimilar relations and attitudes towards 'capital' and entrepreneurs, and hence work under distinct perspectives and motivations to access specific networks, to build diverse relations with men, with authorities and with other women. However, subordination and self-subordination is a common theme, whether imposed or assumed, used to soften blows, to create personal space or to consolidate power.Ayuquila is a small town of 161 households located within an important irrigation district along the main road linking the Municipal capital of El Grullo to the State capital of Guadalajara, in Jalisco, western Mexico. Village economic life is built basically upon agriculture and the commercialization of agricultural products. In describing the world of Ayuquila as it was presented to me in 1988, the webs of relations which include bonds to different environments, organizational forms embedded in the villagers' use of land and their work procedures, their economic strategies, household patterns and solidarity networks - which I document in Chapter 2 - I came to realize the significance of specific domains or interaction for understanding how social asymmetries are reproduced, how linkages to wider social and economic scenarios are created and resignified, and how the project is woven into village I life.Such domains do not only entail undertakings pertaining to distinct levels of articulation of power, nor do they demarcate specific fields of social analysis - such as the economic, political or family-kinship. Activities within domains involve a heterogeneity of relationships - that could be labelled political, economic, religious or emotional - and they intertwine power relations that draw upon diverse normative frames. In specific domains, 'rules of the game' are negotiated and defined, authorities are recognized, and relations to institutions, to other villagers and with the environment, are 'fixed'. Interaction within a domain entails distinct organizing practices, criteria with which to evaluate and shape others' behaviour and ways of securing resources.The beekeeping project came to constitute a specific domain of interaction. In Chapter 3 1 provide a brief history of the project as it was described by the different actors involved. This enables me to discuss the ways in which the women saw themselves and the ways in which they were labelled and how this shaped the project and its perspectives. The identities adopted by the women at different stages of the project were very much coloured by social expectations, by images of hierarchies and by the identification of boundaries for action. I thus examine the boundaries the women set to their undertakings and ambitions, as well as the struggles they have to undergo in the defense of their own space when interacting with the state, but also with the ejido - commonly regarded a 'men's world' in the village, exploring critical social interface situations where members of the group are exposed to encounters with people from 'the outside' and to definitions, ideas, representations and interpretations. I analyze the ways in which discursive practices reproduce and change, exploring the intertwining of actions, strategies, understandings and self-perceptions where knowledge and power are created, negotiated and transformed. I highlight the significance that labelling had in terms of their activities and their relations to others, and how the names which the women attributed to themselves became modified. This pointed to the relevance of knowledge in the process by which social relations are constructed.The domain of the family is described in Chapter 4, where I map out the kin networks and social webs that shape the interactions taking place. I examine how the beekeepers were clustered into particular networks - often linked to other village domains - where issues were discussed, commitments and non- verbalized agreements shouldered and emotions, loyalties and opinions shared. In this chapter, four kinds of network configurations are presented and contrasted: 1) a genealogical map of the network of kin and affinal ties encompassing the members of the women's group; 2) a series of net diagrams representing specific types of transactions and commitments among the members; 3) an aggregated net diagram depicting the multiplexity and density of ties; and 4) a tree diagram which contrasts the patterns formed by the various sub-group clusters and illustrates their social distance vis-à-vis other members of the beekeeping group. I describe the ways in which kin networks feature within the beekeeping group, showing how they are not motionless, nor present as an external structure, but are brought to life and resignified by the different actors in their interrelations within specific networks. This also entails an analysis of the fissures within the group, and of how these were dealt with, or supplanted by other linkages. As it is, these splits and the beekeepers' attempts to fill the gaps between them, provided valuable information about the process of 'gluing together'.The ways in which different ties are combined and resignified, however, is largely defined through the lifeworlds of the different women, or rather through the intersection of lifeworlds that takes place within the project. This is evident in the three profiles of women beekeepers which I also describe in this chapter. I have chosen three beekeepers, drawn from different social clusters in the group, to explore aspects of their everyday lives, and their experiences, motivations and interests within the project. I highlight the significance of the group, its encounters and activities, for shaping the lifeworlds of these women. The individual women used the project and its sense of 'belongingness' to reconceptualize their own life circumstances and expectations, and to sustain them in their efforts to change their social relationships and strategies. They thus create space for themselves and reconstruct their lifeworlds.The women's commitment to specific networks shapes their practices and influences their views on the UAIM and its perspectives. But networks also open up spaces for them, that is, they put people in touch with different sets of relations. Whilst networks provide coordinating mechanisms for the allocation of resources and the circulation of meaning, they are not totalizing systems, and whilst they entail some kind of governing coalitions that regulate behaviour, as such they do not control. Actors draw upon networks and rework them in response to their immediate needs, resignifying them through personal experiences, and using them whenever possible to achieve control. Hence, networks have no life but through the organizing practices of the lifeworlds of their members.This points to the crucial importance of agency within social relations, and to the action of keepers and power brokers within networks and domains. Through the analysis of a social situation - a meeting in which the women as a group interact face-to-face with a 'dominant' group in the village, typically considered a male organization - Chapter 5 delves into the intricacies and subtleties of authority and command in the everyday wielding of power. During the meeting, experiences, views and discursive elements were transposed from the domain of the state to the domain of the ejido, from the ejido to the project, etc. The interaction between the group of beekeepers and the ejidatarios shows how agency works to bring such elements to the fore. We can also see how, in a particular moment in time and space, boundaries pertaining to 'formal maps of power' are differentially interpreted and negotiated, how expectations are forged and issues veiled. Power is constructed with respect to access to resources, to the identification and defense of particular interests and the control of means of action. In the struggle for access to resources and control, power brokers emerge and authorities are redefined.These processes also entail maps of knowledge, negotiation of interests, loyalties and formal identification of powers, as well as particular skills and techniques of control. Although not physically present in the event, the state wields power through the interpretations of the different actors, who surrender to what they consider are its designs.The state is typically a 'power wielder', that is, it is commonly recognized as a powerful actor. In Chapter 6 1 describe how this 'macro power' is constructed, and identify the mechanisms by which it is recognized as such in the case of the UAIM projects in Mexico. I discuss the vicissitudes of different UAIMs in various parts of the country, focusing on the ways in which the state manages to snare different actors into its own network of interests, thus providing opportunities for women to engage in economic enterprises, but by so doing, sets frameworks that regulate aspects of women's lives. I concentrate on the UAIM itself as a juridical model and a form of control, exploring how people, emotions, beliefs, money, technology, gender images, legal forms, documents, and social networks are associated and dissociated - physically and symbolically - to generate power or inhibit its development. I discuss Callon and Latour's (1981, 1986) approach to the analysis of power, which I believe to have made great strides in its conceptualization and study. However, as our case shows, their analyses leave out critical aspects which can be tackled more adequately through an actor-oriented approach. An important premise is that power is not a pre-determined attribute which is possessed or not, but a fluid resource which is negotiated and used at all levels.Chapter 7 draws the threads together and compares my findings with current theories on power. I discuss how conceptualizing power as embedded in multi-directional relations, in processes, linkages, disjunctions and strategies, allows us to see its diverse faces as well as the compromises, negotiations and struggles. Power relations are recreated in the interaction and not totally imposed from one side. Power is not inherent to a position, a space or a person; it is not possessed by any of the actors, and it is not a zero-sum process whereby its exercise by one of the actors leaves the others lacking. Interests are not necessarily the propelling force behind power, but are fixed and defined in the process.It is necessary to explore the social construction of meaning, which then reveals the messiness of power processes. A power wielder - be it a collective or individual actor - is also influenced by myths, language and symbols. Hence, those wielding power carry out at the same time more and less than their own wills. Less, because they must negotiate with the wills of others; they must allow others' wills to be carried out if they are to succeed - so discretion is limited by the force of those in subordinate positions. And more, because power is more than getting one's own will across. Generally speaking, those considered powerful incline dispositions and influence processes which are in no way part of their strategies. It would therefore be too simple to regard power as an unidirectional process whereby defined objectives are in the end reached. The complexity of power relations resides in its largely unintended consequences, in the web of routines which are triggered or channelled in specific directions, not only by the power wielder, but by the social constituency that attributes identities and roles to him/her and responds to these very same attributions by locating themselves in a somewhat inferior plane, in a subordinate condition.In this way, we often attribute agency and power to social categories such as class, ethnicity and gender; to resources such as capital and land and to institutions like the state. Thus, we credit this abstract constituency we call the state with power and respond accordingly. This might have little to do with the actual intelligence, knowledgeability or capacity to act of the particular subject of agency, but it is important in delimiting the effects it can have on others. Banks, corporations, kings and priests are attributed qualities that 'bounce back' on the actions of people. This speaks of a mode of socially attributed agency, a capacity to act which is granted by others, in contrast to the agency of individuals in dealing with the world around them. Hence, the agency of an actor can be 'stretched' out to incorporate the agentive or patientive actions of others, enroling people, objects or symbols into networks or domains. Domains can wield power within a macro perspective, but they themselves will be shifting terrains for power because of the social relations acting within them. Discourses and interpretations can thus become 'dominant' when they are enroled in a specific strategy and are instrumental in constraining or defining the behaviour of a large number of people or social groups. Hence power relations are strengthened by multiple translations. The quality of certain power relations as 'macro' then., can only be seen as an effect, and not as a cause. This leaves us with a more 'vulnerable' version of macro relations, albeit a more dynamic one.The power wielder has to rely on the actions of others who acknowledge its power. These actions generally entail subordination, compliance or resistance. The concept of resistance, however, already implies an identification of a weaker force which is counteracting a stronger one and which is unwilling to yield. But I argue that power wielders should not be defined as such in a priori terms, and hence resistance cannot be identified as such beforehand. Compliance generally entails an acceptance to become the vehicle of others' agency, thus strengthening the network of power, but one can, of course, be an unknowing vehicle of power by forming part of such a network without resisting or subordinating, or by agreeing to certain representations which are enroled in its exercise, thus granting credibility and effectiveness to the associations which constitute it. Compliance contributes crucial support for power networks and is often indirectly provided.Compliance, as well as subordination, not only sustains the wielding of power, but also the capacity to wield power. Such capacity is not a storage of power as social scientists frequently describe it, but is underpinned by a social recognition of ranks, authority and superiority, where the action falls on those who acknowledge an actor as 'powerful' or who are willing (or obliged by the social circumstances, the intersection of domains, etc.) to submit to what they consider are its designs. Hence, the yielding of power resides in the social acknowledgement of it; it does not necessarily entail subordination and can be independent of the will or intentions of the potential wielder.Subordination, on the one hand, indicates the action of 'patients', of being the vehicle of others' agency. It allows power to be wielded by yielding, by acceding to the wishes of the other, relinquishing a possible social capacity or status to acknowledge a stronger, better or more appropriate bearer. On the other hand, such yielding can emanate, not from the wishes of others, but from the 'subordinate' actors' own agency. Subordination, then, does not imply a zero- sum process whereby those who yield are necessarily left powerless. If power is fluid and constantly negotiated, those wielding power also need to subordinate themselves to discourses, social beliefs and wills of others. Thus, subordination cannot be exclusively attributed to the lower strata of society, to marginalized groups, or to the 'losers'. Power relations also necessitate the yielding of power by the power wielder.In the final chapter 1 discuss the notions of power and empowerment underpinning development thinking and practice. 1 suggest that power is often misconstrued and that many issues remain unresolved in the notions of empowerment and participation, especially where gender is concerned. Thus, there is a need to question ourselves what is understood by participation, how to define the interests of the beneficiaries in order to assist them in helping themselves, and who 'the object of empowerment' is as compared to who it is intended to be. The new associations formed through projects, participatory training sessions and other activities oriented towards the empowerment of local population constitute domains of interaction which also require the action of keepers and brokers to sustain them, people who understand schedules and plans, who have organizational awareness, strategic visions, a drive to persuade and motivate others, a sense of enterprise, and the urge to analyze problems that arise in order to expand their 'project' through processes of enrolment, and to avoid diversion from set goals. This often ends up in the empowerment of the development agency itself.Women are in many ways resisting impositions and striving to increase their claim-making capacity, but this is intertwined with short-term interests., emotions and loyalties. As keepers of a gender-oriented development endeavour, facilitators often try to delink women from such conceptions of their interests and loyalties. Their own conception of alternatives for women is frequently simplistic, stemming from questions such as who owns the land, who spends the cash and who makes the relevant decisions. But an analysis of 'development' endeavours cannot avoid an examination of the complex power processes and battles over images, definition of interests and interpretations that take place at the interface between 'outsiders' and 'local groups'. These interface struggles shape the arena of intervention situations where power is wielded and yielded.

Sociologists use to describe social work as a typical example of a immature or semi-profession. The emergence of social work in social history is part and parcel of 'forces of organized virtue', whilst in womenstudies early social work is usually considered as a consequence of the doctrine of separate spheres and the nineteenth century cult of domesticity.In this research into the articulation of social work as a feminine professional domain, critical observations are made about this three different ways of looking at the history of social work- It is argued that both functionalist and marxists concepts of professionalism do not offer very fruitful starting points for research, because of their presuming an opposition between altruism and selfinterest. Instead the present study of the history of social work explores the complex of social and scientific forces in the context of which social work developed around the turn of the century and examines the purport that altruism and selfinterest got in this context.The origin of social work is related to the growing scientific critique of precepts and habits of care in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, which cleared the road for a new public body for care and prevention. Following doctors and engineers who succeeded in mobilizing public support for the eradication of infectious diseases and the clearing of slums, social scientists attracted attention to the relationship between social well-being and the environment. With the help of certain sociological and philosophical notions concerning the origins of social inequality and the need for social regulation of society, social work pioneers defined a professional domain in which science, ethics and gender went well together. In their sociological vision, men and women, rich and poor, were the product of social conditions, whilst social conditions in their turn were the consequence of human intervention. The interplay between man and society and the changeableness of social relations offered important starting points for the development of a own form of feminine expertise in the social field.According to social workers professional altruism could be neither inborn nor based on personal sentiments. Self-love and social feeling were supposed to be brought into balance by introspection and serious study of social relations. Women were not social beings by nature and did not know by intuition how to find their way in the complicated and diffuse complex of social policy and social pedagogy. Education for social responsibility was not only concerned with the poor, but was also considered a necessity for the bourgeois circles from which social workers themselves usually originated. The propensity for scientific philanthropy amongst social work pioneers and their critique of 'idleness' and 'family egoism' in bourgeois circles, which were often neglected in Dutch research, form the key-points of the formation of a new professional identity of women. ]heir perspective lay in all kinds of social work, whether paid or unpaid.The emergence of social work fitted in with a tradition in which the scientific management of society had primacy over politics and in which individual development had to be brought into balance with public spirit. Social work pioneers thought to find the solution for the woman question and the social question in a 'socialism-without-class-struggle' and a 'feminism-without-a- battle-between-the-sexes', in which gradual social transformation took place under the guidance of social experts.By investigating the meaning of altruism and self-interest from a historical perspective, it becomes clear that a number of well-known theses concerning 'civilized' feminine professions need to be reconsidered. Thus the discussions regarding the organization of the school for social work and about the approach to the different sorts of work, show that social work can no longer be considered as traditional charity in a new disguise. The articulation of altruism and feminine talent for the ethical dimensions of social work seems to be more complex and contradictory than used to be supposed till now.

Sociologists use to describe social work as a typical example of a immature or semi-profession. The emergence of social work in social history is part and parcel of 'forces of organized virtue', whilst in womenstudies early social work is usually considered as a consequence of the doctrine of separate spheres and the nineteenth century cult of domesticity.In this research into the articulation of social work as a feminine professional domain, critical observations are made about this three different ways of looking at the history of social work- It is argued that both functionalist and marxists concepts of professionalism do not offer very fruitful starting points for research, because of their presuming an opposition between altruism and selfinterest. Instead the present study of the history of social work explores the complex of social and scientific forces in the context of which social work developed around the turn of the century and examines the purport that altruism and selfinterest got in this context.The origin of social work is related to the growing scientific critique of precepts and habits of care in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, which cleared the road for a new public body for care and prevention. Following doctors and engineers who succeeded in mobilizing public support for the eradication of infectious diseases and the clearing of slums, social scientists attracted attention to the relationship between social well-being and the environment. With the help of certain sociological and philosophical notions concerning the origins of social inequality and the need for social regulation of society, social work pioneers defined a professional domain in which science, ethics and gender went well together. In their sociological vision, men and women, rich and poor, were the product of social conditions, whilst social conditions in their turn were the consequence of human intervention. The interplay between man and society and the changeableness of social relations offered important starting points for the development of a own form of feminine expertise in the social field.According to social workers professional altruism could be neither inborn nor based on personal sentiments. Self-love and social feeling were supposed to be brought into balance by introspection and serious study of social relations. Women were not social beings by nature and did not know by intuition how to find their way in the complicated and diffuse complex of social policy and social pedagogy. Education for social responsibility was not only concerned with the poor, but was also considered a necessity for the bourgeois circles from which social workers themselves usually originated. The propensity for scientific philanthropy amongst social work pioneers and their critique of 'idleness' and 'family egoism' in bourgeois circles, which were often neglected in Dutch research, form the key-points of the formation of a new professional identity of women. ]heir perspective lay in all kinds of social work, whether paid or unpaid.The emergence of social work fitted in with a tradition in which the scientific management of society had primacy over politics and in which individual development had to be brought into balance with public spirit. Social work pioneers thought to find the solution for the woman question and the social question in a 'socialism-without-class-struggle' and a 'feminism-without-a- battle-between-the-sexes', in which gradual social transformation took place under the guidance of social experts.By investigating the meaning of altruism and self-interest from a historical perspective, it becomes clear that a number of well-known theses concerning 'civilized' feminine professions need to be reconsidered. Thus the discussions regarding the organization of the school for social work and about the approach to the different sorts of work, show that social work can no longer be considered as traditional charity in a new disguise. The articulation of altruism and feminine talent for the ethical dimensions of social work seems to be more complex and contradictory than used to be supposed till now.