Page 141 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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112 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

Moreover, current feminist research on devel- According to Sen, programmes that
opment covers issues such as the debates empower people have to focus on micro-
about the environment and about sustainable credits, literacy or land reforms. In his book
development. Feminists have underlined Development as Freedom, Sen (1999) under-
the fallacy of using numerical measures of lines the conception that freedoms include
economic growth to assess the attainment political freedom, economic facilities, social
of goals. In this connection, one of the main opportunities and security. He reiterates the
problems is the public–private dichotomy, advantages of capabilities (‘substantive
which maintains that women can gain equality human freedoms’) over narrower measures
by participating more in the formal economy, of human development. In Sen’s opinion, the
without assigning any economic value to idea of human capital fails to capture the
women’s reproductive work. Unequal gender contributions of human capabilities to well-
relations became a central concern of devel- being and their influences on social change.
opment in the 1990s. Some feminists insist New concepts are thus incorporated in the
that development policies have to be ‘engen- development discourse: empowerment and
dered’ and women have to be empowered so participation.
that development will be beneficial to them. In sum, up until the 1970s, development
Neo-classical development theories that con- theory and practice were dominated by the
sider indigenous attitudes and institutions as idea of economic growth and economic indi-
barriers to development tend to place cators. This understanding reflected a lack of
women’s understandings of life outside their knowledge about the low level of investment
concepts of development. Recent feminist in human and social capital, and the weak-
scholarship has contributed to an examination ness of markets. The further assumption, that
of the ways women’s labour is used in facto- growth would trickle down from the rich to
ries and in export-processing zones. These the poor, reflected ignorance about rather
scholars have documented how women different social structures. Distributional
receive lower wages than men for comparable issues began to emerge in the 1970s with a
work (Chow, 2003). focus on topics such as poverty and inequal-
Using a gender perspective means asking ity in the South American centre-periphery
what kinds of development can promote the approach. The dependencia school high-
interests of women in the South. This may be lighted the constraints imposed on the devel-
the necessary link between human develop- opment processes in the periphery by an
ment and economic development in a world unequal international economic system.
characterized by the neo-liberal globalization In the 1980s, world system theorists inter-
credo. preted interdependence in dynamic terms in
Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel laureate in order to prepare the ground for studies of the
economics added a further dimension to impact of globalization on poor people and
recent discussions on cooperation: he under- poor countries in the 1990s. North–South
lined that globalization needs to be backed by cooperation thus remains complex, with its
national social policies, a sort of social safety slowly changing focus.
net like the one which was created in Western We can conclude this part on cooperation
European states at the beginning of the twen- by underlining the fact that, despite cooperation
tieth century. In France, the 2005–2006 urban measures for over 50 years, the elementary
riots and youth protests suggest that not needs of more than one billion of people are
only developing countries are concerned not satisfied. Furthermore, the possibility of
with these effects of globalization when satisfying them in the future is questionable.
economies open widely to international capi- Thus, we confront a double global crisis:
tal inflows so that people find it difficult to a crisis in the distribution of income and a
survive in highly competitive environments. crisis in growth. The only convergent