Evaluating Global Crisis: The Feminist Way
Sona Mitra
HARVESTING FEMINIST KNOWLEDGE FOR PUBLIC POLICY: REBUILDING PROGRESS by Devaki Jain Sage Publications, 2013, 347 pp., 795
May 2013, volume 37, No 5

Harvesting Feminist Knowledge for Public Policy: Rebuilding Progress edited by Jain and Elson is a collection of fourteen essays by feminist thinkers across the world putting forward a critique of the current development pattern that has led to the global spate of ‘triple crisis’ of food, fuel and finance. The book reflects on the deep-seated problems of the developing country economies related to ‘growth fundamentalism’ and a consequent underlying crisis of employment, growing poverty and inequality placing it within the feminist-economics framework. The book however does not merely answer the question ‘What Went Wrong?’ Rather it also tries to provide answer to the more difficult question of ‘Where Do We Go Next?’ The essays in the collection in fact emerge as an attempt at filling the gap between the two questions. It presents an inclusive and comprehensive narrative of feminist voices arguing ‘Which Way Forward?’ While it does not provide concrete panaceas it does effectively highlight the many possibilities and attempts to find solutions in creating opportunities for women, provisioning for women in public policies and consequently working towards the empowerment of women.

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