Menu Expand
Men and Development

Men and Development

Andrea Cornwall | Jerker Edström | Alan Greig | Chris Dolan | Chimaraoke Izugbara | Akshay Khanna | Margrethe Silberschmidt | Doctor Robert Morrell | Penny Morrell | Radhika Chopra | Marcos Nascimento | Christine Ricardo | Marianna Olinger | Marcio Segundo | Fang Gang | He Xiaopei | Susie Jolly | Patrick Welsh | Cheryl Overs | Raewyn Connell | Jeff Hearn | Gary Barker | Cath Sluggett | Jerry Okal

(2011)

Additional Information

Book Details

Abstract

A wide-ranging volume featuring contributions from some of today's leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of men, masculinities and development. Together, contributors challenge the neglect of the structural dimensions of patriarchal power relations in current development policy and practice, and the failure to adequately engage with the effects of inequitable sex and gender orders on both men's and women's lives. The book calls for renewed engagement in efforts to challenge and change stereotypes of men, to dismantle the structural barriers to gender equality, and to mobilize men to build new alliances with women's movements and other movements for social and gender justice.
Andrea Cornwall is Professor of Anthropology and Development in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. She has worked on participation as a researcher and practitioner for many years, and is author of a number of books. Jerker Edström is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies. Alan Greig has worked for over ten years as a consultant with community-based organizations and activist formations in sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-East Asia and the USA on the links between personal and political violence.
'This is an exciting and innovative collection. Through a series of case-studies, the contributors explore the links between constructions of masculinities, men's lives and the political and economic circumstances in which they live them. Its geographical reach, theoretical scope and engagement with policies for change is impressive: this book will prove to be a hugely significant addition to the expanding literature about masculinities.' Linda McDowell, University of Oxford 'The useful volume casts the widest net to capture the range of men's political engagement around the world. From transgressive bodies to institutional obstacles to engagement and finally to the dynamics of engagement themselves, the authors offer a deft interplay between structure and agency, between context and motivation. Thus, they point the way towards deepening that engagement in this globalizing century.' Michael Kimmel author of 'Manhood in America', Professor of Sociology, Stony Brook, USA 'Development practioners have become very aware of the importance of gender, but in practice this means an almost exclusive emphasis on the disadvantages faced by most women. This book is important, not because it denies the realities of women's oppression, but because it points to the equal importance of understanding that even those men who seem to benefit from gender hierarchies are also limited and penalised by them. Drawing equally on theory and field experience, the contributors to Men & Development have written a book that should be mandatory reading for everyone in the development world who says we need to bring gender into our work.' Dennis Altman, Director Institute for Human Security, LaTrobe University and author of 'Global Sex'. 'Men and Development provides a much-needed shift in masculinity studies scholarship away from the hegemony of the North towards men in the global South. Most importantly, however, the essays in this volume locate men's lives in the context of colonialism, globalization, heteronormativity, poverty, class-based exploitation and institutionalized racism. If we are to create a more gender equal world, we will have to address privilege and oppression at the systemic level of many intersecting axes of power. This book makes a very important contribution to that transformative project.' Bob Pease, Deakin University, author of 'Undoing Privilege: Unearned Advantage in a Divided World' 'Using case studies from around the world, Men and Development: Politicizing Masculinities makes gender visible in groundbreaking ways, and asks us, in no uncertain terms, to keep structural inequalities at the center of our praxis. An impressive array of scholars and activists from geopolitically diverse contexts bring our understanding of the theory and practice of masculinity to a new cutting edge. Provoking us to think beyond the limiting frames of current approaches, these authors rigorously challenge the binary approach to gender and the "heteronormativity" that continues to dominate the field. They invite us to understand "the radical promise" of the growing attention to men and masculinities as an opportunity for forging alliances for gender justice among people of all gender identities , pointing to new avenues for activism and action. Men and Development: Politicizing Masculinities is a critical guidebook for the next steps in our movement for gender equality.' Steven Botkin, Executive Director Men's Resources International

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
About the editors i
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations viii
Contributors x
1 | Introduction: Politicizing Masculinities in Development\r 1
Of masculinities and men 2
Politicizing masculinities 6
Narratives and bodies 7
Masculinities and structures of oppression 10
Dissident masculinities in action 12
Conclusion 15
Notes 17
References 17
Part One: Embodiments and Transgressions 19
2 | Performing Heterosexuality: Male Youth, Vulnerability and HIV in Malawi 21
The colonial and post-colonial context 22
Practices of heterosexual masculinity 26
HIV, heterosexuality and masculinity 28
Concluding thoughts 30
Acknowledgements 31
References 31
3 | Is s/He More of a Man? Constructing Masculinity as a Female to Male Transsexual in India 33
Masculinities and maleness 33
Ideas of maleness and expressions of masculinity 36
Conclusions 44
Acknowledgements 45
Notes 45
References 46
4 | Meyeli Chhele Becomes MSM: Transformations of Idioms of Sexualness into Epidemiological Forms in India 47
Yes, men hold hands in India . . . 47
Idioms of gender and sexualness in India 48
The persistence of the kothi 50
The epidemiological kothi and heris global form 51
The meyeli-ness of Bengali chhele 53
Two-Bit 56
References 57
5 | The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Constructions of Masculinity and Contemporary Understandings of Sex Work 58
The client 60
The sex worker 63
The pimp 64
Conclusions 67
Notes 69
References 70
6 | Masculinity and HIV: Di-visions of Bodies, Sex and Structural Context 71
‘Engaging men’ in gender and HIV: progress and limitations 72
Gender ‘di-vision’: a binary divide obscuring a complex and diverse reality 74
Vulnerabilities, threats, masculinities and risk 76
Getting rights right in politicizing masculinities in HIV work 77
Conclusion 79
Notes 80
References 80
Part Two: Structures – Inequities, Violence, Power 83
7 | Organized Powers: Masculinities, Managers and Violence 85
Corporate masculinity and the epidemic 87
Managerial masculinity: a case study 89
Violence and change 93
Acknowledgements 96
References 96
8 | What Would Make Men Interested in Gender Equality? Reflections from East Africa 98
Reflections on men, masculinities and gender in colonial and post-colonial Africa 100
The geopolitical step 100
Theories of masculinities 102
Gender in contemporary Africa 103
Conclusion: How to break with ‘business as usual’? 106
References 108
9 | Men in/and Gender Equality: A Conversation from South Africa 111
Masculinities in Southern Africa 113
Changing masculinities in Southern Africa 116
A place for men in gender equality work? 122
References 124
10 | Militarized, Religious and Neo-Colonial: The Triple Bind Confronting Men in Contemporary Uganda 126
Reaching the status quo in Uganda 127
State and Church: an unholy alliance 128
Bringing in the neo-colonialists 132
Discussion and conclusions 135
Notes 136
References 138
11 | Local Lives, Global Dialogues: Shifting Discourses of Masculinity in India 139
Historicizing support 141
Servitude, sacrifice and support 145
Conclusion 150
Acknowledgements 151
Notes 151
References 152
Part Three: Engagements – Changing Masculinities 153
12 | Gender Regimes Changing Men or Men Changing Gender Regimes? Challenges for National and Transnational Social Policy, Gender Equality and Organizing with Men 155
Gender regimes changing men: national and transnational 155
Men changing gender regimes: national and transnational 159
Conclusion: strategies for changing men 165
Notes 167
References 167
13 | Masculinities, Social Exclusion and Prospects for Change: Reflections from Promundo’s Work in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 170
Masculinities, gender equality and violence in the Cidade Maravilhosa 170
The policy environment 172
Promundo’s strategies – Part 1: mapping, understanding and building on voices of resistance 173
Promundo’s strategies – Part 2: from interventions to community and national-level activism 180
Promundo’s strategies – Part 3: policy analysis and specific policy advocacy 181
Some final reflections on change and limitations 182
Notes 183
References 184
14 | Masculinities and Men’s Groups in China: A Conversation between Activists 185
Contextualizing masculinities and feminism in China 186
A conversation between Fang Gang and He Xiaopei 189
References 195
15 | Women’s Empowerment: What Do Men Have to Do with It? 196
16 | ‘Swimming Against the Tide is Easier as a Shoal’: Changing Masculinities in Nicaragua – a Community-Based Approach 205
The emergence of ‘men against violence’ in Managua 206
Nicaraguan civil society, gender and masculinities 208
Puntos de Encuentro, masculinities and public awareness-raising 209
Getting organized: the emergence of the Association of Menagainst Violence 211
Popular education: a methodology for unlearning machismo 213
From the personal to the political: reflections and concerns 216
Notes 218
17 | Anxious States and Directions for Masculinities Work with Men 219
Changing gender orders 219
Anxious states of masculinity 220
Neo-liberalism and the uses of masculinity 222
Domesticating violence 224
Masculinities at the intersections 227
Unsettling heteronormativity 233
References 234
Index 236
About Zed Books 248