Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Increasingly, international development discourses are moving away
from welfare approaches that focus on 'needs', to rights-based approaches
that recognize the entitlements of different social groups to express
their views about matters affecting them and actively participate in
decision-making processes - from the micro-level of the household to
the macro-level of international policy arenas. Although many chal-
lenges remain in achieving meaningful participation in practice, each
of the chapters in this section provides an overview of changing
approaches to women, children, youth, disabled people, sexual minori-
ties and older people within international development and human
rights discourses in recent decades.
Starting from the micro-scale and people's everyday lives also ena-
bles us to explore questions of 'the body', or rather 'bodies' (reflecting
the diversity of embodied experiences). Development policymakers and
practitioners, to date, have been reluctant to engage explicitly with
embodied experiences, such as disability, chronic illness, sexuality and
ageing. However, a growing body of work by geographers and other
social theorists has explored the cultural politics of bodies and places
and the interconnections between these. We live our lives and experi-
ence places through our bodies, which are 'read' and positioned in dif-
ferent ways by broader sociocultural, economic and political processes.
As Nast and Pile (1998: 4) argue: '(b)odies and places are woven
together through intricate webs of social and spatial relations that are
made by, and make, embodied subjects'. This section seeks to provide
insight into the connections between embodied social identities and
development, such as the marginalization of disabled people and sexual
minorities in a range of cultural contexts.
These overarching themes are explored throughout the five chapters
in this section. Chapter 4.1 discusses changing approaches to gender
within development policy and planning over time and provides
insights into key concepts used to analyse gendered power relations.
These include social reproduction, the gendered division of labour and
intra- and inter-household relations. Such analyses of power relations
are also helpful in understanding the socio-economic position of chil-
dren and youth, which forms the focus of Chapter 4.2. Although chil-
dren and youth receive a great deal of attention within international
development goals, they are often constructed as 'passive' and their
contributions to their families and societies are overlooked. Chapter 4.2
discusses children's rights and global constructions of childhood and
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