Abstract
Asia is one of most dynamic and rapidly changing regions of the world, yet it continues to experience a high level of gender inequality, which makes inclusive development well neigh impossible. But bringing parity among genders is neither easy nor straightforward as these inequalities are a series of complexities rooted in a cross section of sectors that are in turn entangled in various power structures. These complexities make it vital to reexamine the concept of gender in the context of development issues within the region. Gendered Entanglements: Revisiting Gender in Rapidly Changing Asia attempts to shed light on these inequalities with the help of empirical research by Asian and European gender scholars. By applying the currently used gender and development lens to research, this book reveals how this approach is remiss in responding to the complexities of gendered lives. The objective of the book is to illustrate how gender is fluid and entangled within multiple processes of producing identities, power structures, and inequalities; and how it is important to search for new tools to address these realities. Ultimately, the collection of chapters is a self-reflective exercise in addressing these complex inequalities, which is at the heart of gender and development studies.
Gendered Entanglements: Revisiting Gender in Rapidly Changing Asia is divided into 12 chapters that are empirically based case studies providing a new understanding of gender in the development context within a rapidly changing Asia. The individual cases studies presented in the chapters reflect the book’s clearly articulated objectives to show gender as a process, situated in a changing time and multiple spaces through various discourses and interpretations ultimately entangled within power structures that are the “lived realities” (Rigg, 2007) in gender and social change. The chapters are presented through four “entangled” themes. While Chapters 2 and 3 address gender over time, Chapters 4–7 unpack power policy and practices; environment and resources are the focus of Chapters 8–10, while Chapters 11 and 12 expound on gender justice and rights.
The objective of the book is to illustrate that gender is a fluid concept being negotiated and renegotiated over time within gender relations (both horizontally and vertically) and within different socially constructed spaces, and in nature (in some cases). Gender is also about understanding how it is produced and reproduced—reinforcing, reshaping, and creating new gender relations and roles, whether intentional or not. It is hoped that this recognition of gender as a complex phenomenon in flux will benefit the efforts to address the emancipatory and transformative agendas of regional development.
With the objective of rethinking the process of change and continuity that influences gender in both global and local context, Chapter 2 studies the role of Malaysian women in a globalized industry through the relocation of a Norwegian production facility to newly industrialized countries from 1988 to 2012. The study, which was originally conducted from 1988 to 2006, reflects on the change of time and space through discourse and analytical tools by revising its research in 2011–2012. Interestingly, while the original research was conducted by Norwegian scholars (foreigners), the revised research was conducted by a Malaysian scholar (local). The historical narrative of the respondents and researchers is extremely interesting, and successfully unpacks generational and cultural values and norms in private and public spaces. This reveals the need for a dynamic, process-orientated, flexible approach to gender and social change over time, further contributing to the revisiting of theoretical and analytical perspective that is central to this book’s objective.
Likewise in Chapter 3, Asian and European scholars, from fundamentally different fields of studies in two different time periods (research conducted 20 years apart) revisit the process of change by using the analysis of marriage in the northeastern part of West Malaysia. Marriage, as the authors note, is a microcosm of the larger community, where productive and reproductive labor crosses. And the multidimensional aspects of marriage expose the process of social reproduction that is largely missing in development analysis. The authors conclude that “much is yet to be understood of the interplay of social power, its role in the empowerment of women and how this is linked to development.” The two chapters also attempt to unpack power policies and practices, environmental resources, and gender justice and rights, clearly illustrating the complexity and fluidity of gender and development, the overriding theme of the book.
Increasingly, empowerment has become a catchphrase in the gender components of development projects, which tend to ignore the structural forces at play that produce and reproduce gender inequalities. This is amply illustrated in Chapter 4 “Lost in Translation? Gender and Empowerment in the Greater Mekong Sub-region” which shows how there appears a gap between the architects and beneficiaries as the concept of empowerment is “lost in translation.” The study focuses on economic empowerment projects for women in the Greater Mekong Subregion, and assesses similarities both vertically (international to local) and horizontally (beneficiaries, practitioners, and policymakers from four countries). The findings of the ambitious and comprehensive chapter clearly illustrate that empowerment is a much needed element of development projects with clear benefits, but planners should also look at new areas of inquiry into gender, development, and women empowerment. Empowerment should be viewed as a frame for capturing the complexity and process of change and agency reflected in development.
The institutionalization of gender in development projects is also the subject of research in Chapter 5. The chapter employs a feminist approach to provide an insight into the interplay between Chinese NGOs and United States’ organizations in framing of capacity building operations to address inequalities. Giving voice to the NGO members, supported by relevant theoretical debate as a conceptual framework, the chapter concludes that while gender is critical for rethinking the practices and working methods employed by projects, gender itself is illustrative of power struggle, a reality that must be revisited.
It is once again the exposed “lived realities,” which are the central focus of Chapters 6 and 7. In Chapter 6, “Women Fish Border Traders in Cambodia: Intersectionality and Gender Analysis,” the authors attempt to understand the lives of fish traders working on the Thai-Cambodian border in terms of the complexity and materiality of gender relations. Although the research does not employ a new way of studying gender, the authors move away from the oversimplistic or one-dimensional perspective of gender, and highlight how intersectionality can be employed for a nuanced gender analysis. In an attempt to unpack the lives of women activists, as individuals and as part of the collective (including men) within complex power relations, Chapter 7 “Struggles Bodies and Spaces of Resistance—Adivasi Women Activist in Odisha, India” reevaluates gender in the context of constant cultural, political, and economic change. The findings of the research, which employs the analytical concepts of body space and spaces of resistance, exposes how the process of oppression and empowerment shapes (through negotiations) gender relations, and sheds light on the processes involved in transformative power (and exclusion) in both the public and private sphere.
Gendered mobility and livelihood strategies in relation to the environment and resources are explored in Chapters 8–10. In Chapter 8, “Material Feminism and Multi-local Political Ecologies,” the gender dynamic of agrarian transformation is addressed by rethinking gender in natural resource-based multilocal livelihoods of two villages in the Lampung province of Indonesia. The authors expose the stark differences between villages embedded in interlocking gendered dimension of access and control to resources, labor processes, social relations of production and reproduction, and nature’s agency by employing a combined perspective of “material feminism” and “feminist political ecology.” This perspective fills up the gaps caused by sidestepping the gendered realities of the processes involved. Furthermore, the chapter rethinks gender by “bringing nature back in” to consider the way in which different kinds of engagements with nature produce a particular constellation of gender, and from this, contrasting livelihood pathways” (p. 183).
Set in the post-disaster Quezon Province of the Philippines, Chapter 9, “Gender, Floods and Mobile Subjects: A Post-disaster View,” examines the role of gendered mobility and immobility, and its impact on people’s post-disaster efforts at resilience building through livelihood engagement with state and development institutions. The authors employ a feminist political ecology perspective to their study of the spatial practice that constitutes gender and social differences. Just one of the conclusions drawn from the chapter illustrates the oversimplification of a disaster’s impact and its victimization of the actors involved; such overlooks have policy implications in the field of gender and responsive disaster risk management. This chapter, as did Chapter 8, contributes to the feminist political ecology perspective through its research on the play of power in disaster situations and risky environments, a perspective which is much needed in today’s changing climate.
Chapter 10 turns the spotlight on the spatial practices that constitute the diversification of livelihood activities of the Bhuket (hunter–gatherer society of Sarawak, Indonesia) women and men under changing social and environmental circumstances. The chapter problematizes how gender is viewed in terms of changing livelihoods—and that a fixed notion of gender roles and relations cannot adequately explain the complex mobile local social practices that exist in such communities. Although much attention has been paid to hunter–gatherer societies in terms of livelihood strategies in change, this chapter contributes to the less researched subject of internal practices within such societies. In contrast to current related studies, the findings of the chapter demonstrate how livelihoods constitute gender.
Chapters 11 and 12 dwell on legal pluralism that hinders the pursuit of equality. As illustrated in both the chapters, gendered norms, relations, and practices are embedded in the legal system. As laws continually interact with social practices and relations, there is a potential for transformation or discrimination. Both case studies explore the complexity of legal pluralism in which colonial legacies, religion, and secular standards play a role in the process of law. In Chapter 11, Sharia law in the Malaysian context illustrates how gender is acted out in the courts and the lived experiences of women’s gendered experience within the supposedly “gender-neutral” legal framework. In the Bangladeshi context, Chapter 12 “Rethinking Personal Laws and Gender Justice from a Bangladesh Perspective” shows how gender justice and rights slip through the cracks of the judicial system that is reflective of legal coding, which promotes equality but ignores the gendered realities oppressing women within the system. Both chapters call for a rethink of gender justice and revision of laws in light of human rights, social values, and the concept of gender justice within a plural legal system that ultimately undermines the principle of equality.
With its unique focus on Asia, the book’s contribution lies not only in the challenge that it poses to the current thought of gender and development, but also in its expose of the gendered entanglements through its chapters. The book’s authors importantly “begin a conversation on what can possibly be done and how our actions toward the empowerment project can be better framed” (p. 320). Another important discussion in the book is on the role of men “beyond enabling patriarchy” and the “inclusion of privilege” in the framework of analysis of gender and development. The roles of privilege also bring attention to the socially constructed hierarchies not only as a binary but also within marginalized groups and/or differences amongst women. These factors play an important role in shaping gender norms, roles, and relations that point to a more complex and divergent role of gender than suggested by previous literature. Gender should not be viewed as a singular lens where set gender binaries do more harm than good. The editors illustrate that a “one-size-fits-all” approach disadvantages the marginalized groups in development projects.
Not leaving the debate to the academic sector only, the editors underline the practical benefits of a nuanced “transformative approach” to gender and development, which as they state “helps us understand that the production of gender is entangled with the production of power.” Furthermore, a gender-and development-policy regime will benefit more from flexible readings of embodied life on the ground, or in short a stronger gender analysis of the complexity of changing institutions, resources, family life, power and people that informs holistic yet contextualized response and action for gender justice. (p. 326)
A brilliant book, Gendered Entanglements: Revisiting Gender in Rapidly Changing Asia is highly recommended for advanced practitioners and scholars with an already comprehensive understanding of gender and development studies. The book’s chapters speak to an audience with a preexisting knowledge of the gender agenda in the development context, which may not resonate with a general audience. The basic concepts of gender and development agenda are not visited, and the theoretical and analytical tools revisited in complex debates are only touched upon gently.
In conclusion, Gendered Entanglements: Revisiting Gender in Rapidly Changing Asia is a highly ambitious work that presents very original research, and successfully takes on a complex subject matter to address inequalities, and reframe, reanalyze gender and development studies and practices in a rapidly changing Asia, which is in a dire need of inclusive development.