
Dilemmas of Difference
Indigenous Women and the Limits of Postcolonial Development Policy
Sarah A. Radcliffe(Author)
Duke University Press
Published on 30. October 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-8223-6010-0 (ISBN)
Description
In Dilemmas of Difference Sarah A. Radcliffe explores the relationship of rural indigenous women in Ecuador to the development policies and actors that are ostensibly there to help ameliorate social and economic inequality. Radcliffe finds that development policies's inability to recognize and reckon with the legacies of colonialism reinforces long-standing social hierarchies, thereby reproducing the very poverty and disempowerment they are there to solve. This ineffectiveness results from failures to acknowledge the local population's diversity and a lack of accounting for the complex intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and geography. As a result, projects often fail to match beneficiaries' needs, certain groups are made invisible, and indigenous women become excluded from positions of authority. Drawing from a mix of ethnographic fieldwork and postcolonial and social theory, Radcliffe centers the perspectives of indigenous women to show how they craft practices and epistemologies that critique ineffective development methods, inform their political agendas, and shape their strategic interventions in public policy debates.
Reviews / Votes
"Radcliffe's book, well grounded in theory and research, is an important read for scholars of Latin American development and gender. Highly recommended." - E. E. O'Connor (Choice) "Sarah Radcliffe's recent book offers a rich ethnography of indigenous women in Ecuador which specifically addresses how they encounter and experience development interventions." - Jessica Hope (Journal of Development Studies) "Dilemmas of Difference represents a timely contribution to the critical literature on indigenous women and development and to the debate of neoliberal instrumentalization of difference.... Overall, with a genealogy of development frameworks contrasted with indigenous women's experience, Radcliffe demonstrates the persistence of postcolonial stereotypes and colonial assumptions of social difference that produce indigenous women's dissatisfaction with development." - Maria Moreno (American Anthropologist) "Radcliffe's book represents a powerful contribution to critical development studies and the discipline of geography." - Emily Billo (Journal of Latin American Geography)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
20 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
558 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8223-6010-0 (9780822360100)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Sarah A. Radcliffe
Dilemmas of Difference
Indigenous Women and the Limits of Postcolonial Development Policy
E-Book
10/2015
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€218.99
Available for download
Person
Sarah A. Radcliffe is Professor of Latin American Geography at the University of Cambridge and coauthor of Indigenous Development in the Andes: Culture, Power, and Transnationalism, also published by Duke University Press.
Content
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Development and Social Heterogeneity 1
1. Postcolonial Intersectionality and the Colonial Present 37
2. The Daily Grind: Ethnic Topographies of Labor, Racism, and Abandonment 75
Interlude I 121
3. Crumbs from the Table: Participation, Organization, and Indigenous Women 125
4. Politics, Statistics, and Affect: "Indigenous Women in Development" Policy 157
Interlude II 189
5. Women, Biopolitics, and Interculturalism: Ethnic Politics and Gendered Contradictions 193
6. From Development to Citizenship: Rights, Voice, and Citizenship Practices 225
7. Postcolonial Heterogeneity: Sumak Kawsay and Decolonizing Social Difference 257
Notes 291
Glossary 295
Bibliography 329
Index 359
Introduction. Development and Social Heterogeneity 1
1. Postcolonial Intersectionality and the Colonial Present 37
2. The Daily Grind: Ethnic Topographies of Labor, Racism, and Abandonment 75
Interlude I 121
3. Crumbs from the Table: Participation, Organization, and Indigenous Women 125
4. Politics, Statistics, and Affect: "Indigenous Women in Development" Policy 157
Interlude II 189
5. Women, Biopolitics, and Interculturalism: Ethnic Politics and Gendered Contradictions 193
6. From Development to Citizenship: Rights, Voice, and Citizenship Practices 225
7. Postcolonial Heterogeneity: Sumak Kawsay and Decolonizing Social Difference 257
Notes 291
Glossary 295
Bibliography 329
Index 359