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Agency as 'smart economics': neoliberalism, gender and development

Wilson, Kalpana (2013) Agency as 'smart economics': neoliberalism, gender and development. In: Madhok, Sumi, Philips, Anne and Wilson, Kalpana, (eds.) Gender, Agency and Coercion. Thinking gender in transnational times. Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK, pp. 84-101. ISBN 9780230300323

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Abstract

This collection aims to think critically about agency and explore the relationship between agency and coercion in greater depth. In academic, activist, and policy circles alike, feminist work has re-focused attention onto women as agents rather than as passive victims of overwhelming structures of male institutional power, or less capable of exercising agency by virtue of their class, race, gender or culture. These broadly positive moves are not without risks. Most notably, they can encourage a triumphalist disregard for constraints through an exclusive emphasis on 'discovering' agency even in the least favourable situations, thereby obscuring domination, inequality, and subordination. So how does bringing agency and coercion into closer interplay impact our understanding of the two? How might the stories of feminist agency change if we locate agency and coercion on the same intellectual frame? What would it mean to disrupt the existing constellation of ideas accompanying agency so as to include coercion, subordination and oppression alongside ideas of freedom, autonomy, and independence? How do we theoretically negotiate agency and coercion in conditions of deep inequality? This collection thinks through these questions in a range of regional, intellectual, ethical and political contexts.

Item Type: Book Section
Official URL: http://www.palgrave.com/home/index.asp
Additional Information: © 2013 The Author
Divisions: Gender Studies
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
J Political Science > JC Political theory
Date Deposited: 11 Feb 2013 14:07
Last Modified: 09 Apr 2024 21:57
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/48530

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