Comparative Practices and Perspectives: Gender, Development, and Empowerment in Uttarakhand, India and Northern Virginia - Softcover

Duke, Sara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3639116593 ISBN 13: 9783639116595

Publisher: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009

Synopsis

This is a qualitative comparative case study which investigated the values, practices, perspectives, and strategies of Indian and American community organizers (practitioners and volunteers of non- profits and non-governmental organizations) who use microfinance, including savings schemes, as an instrument within the social intermediation process of developing disadvantaged women's capacities for self-sufficiency/empowerment. The focused inquiry was conducted through in-depth interviews of directors, staff members and volunteers/community- based organizers of a women’s business center in Northern Virginia, a large US metropolitan area, and a women’s federation in the rural Himalayas. Katz’s framework for constructing analytical topographies, contour lines and countertopographies was used to structure the various levels of analysis. Differences were explained by situating each organization in Mayoux’s theoretical paradigms of “Women’s Empowerment through Microfinance.” Analyses concluded with the construction of countertopographies on practices and strategies aimed towards collectively empowering women in disparate places around the world.

About this title

About the Author

Sara Duke earned a Master¿s of Urban and Regional Planning, a Post-baccalaureate in Applied Social Science Research and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University. She was awarded the 2008 Presidential Award for Community Multicultural Enrichment from Virginia Commonwealth University for community leadership.

Edition details

• Publisher: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3639116593
• ISBN 13: 9783639116595
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176