Leela Fernandes – författare

Intensifying droughts and competing pressures on water resources foreground water scarcity as an urgent concern of the global climate change crisis. In India, individual, industrial, and agricultural water demands exacerbate inequities of access and expose the failures of state governance to regulate use. State policies and institutions influenced by global models of reform produce and magnify socio-economic injustice in this "water bureaucracy."Drawing on historical records, an analysis of post-liberalization developments, and fieldwork in the city of Chennai, Leela Fernandes traces the configuration of colonial historical legacies, developmental-state policies, and economic reforms that strain water resources and intensify inequality. While reforms of water governance promote privatization and decentralization, they strengthen the state centralized control over water through city-based development models. Understanding the political economy of water thus illuminates the consequent failures of the state within countries of the Global South.Open access edition DOI 10.6069/9780295750446

Intensifying droughts and competing pressures on water resources foreground water scarcity as an urgent concern of the global climate change crisis. In India, individual, industrial, and agricultural water demands exacerbate inequities of access and expose the failures of state governance to regulate use. State policies and institutions influenced by global models of reform produce and magnify socio-economic injustice in this "water bureaucracy."Drawing on historical records, an analysis of post-liberalization developments, and fieldwork in the city of Chennai, Leela Fernandes traces the configuration of colonial historical legacies, developmental-state policies, and economic reforms that strain water resources and intensify inequality. While reforms of water governance promote privatization and decentralization, they strengthen the state centralized control over water through city-based development models. Understanding the political economy of water thus illuminates the consequent failures of the state within countries of the Global South.Open access edition DOI 10.6069/9780295750446

This new edition of the Routledge Handbook of Gender in South Asia provides a comprehensive overview of the study of gender in South Asia. The Handbook covers the central contributions that have defi ned this area and captures innovative and emerging paradigms that are shaping the future of the field. It offers a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives spanning both the humanities and social sciences, focusing on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This revised edition has been thoroughly updated and includes new chapters, thus adding new areas of scholarship. The Handbook is organized thematically into five major parts: • Historical formations and theoretical framings • Law, citizenship and the nation • Representations of culture, place, identity • Labor and the economy • Inequality, activism and the state The Handbook illustrates the ways in which scholarship on gender has contributed to a rethink of theoretical concepts and empirical understandings of contemporary South Asia. Finally, it focuses on new areas of inquiry that have been opened up through a focus on gender and the intersections between gender and categories, such as caste, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion. This timely study is essential reading for scholars who research and teach on South Asia as well as for scholars in related interdisciplinary fields that focus on women and gender from comparative and transnational perspectives.

As the politicization of cultural identities-based on religion, ethnicity, gender, race-has come to play a central role in shaping relations between and among peoples, issues of difference raise unsettling questions about how identities overlap and group interests are represented. Using the jute mills of Calcutta as a case study, Leela Fernandes reveals that these interconnections play a fundamental role in shaping both the political actions of workers and the representation of their interests.

The acceleration of economic globalization and the rapidglobal flows of people, culture, and information have intensified theimportance of developing transnational understandings of contemporary issues.Transnational feminist perspectives have provided a unique outlook on women'slives and have deepened our understanding of the gendered nature of globalprocesses. Transnational Feminism in theUnited States examines how transnational perspectives shape the ways inwhich we create and disseminate knowledge about the world within the UnitedStates, and how the paradigm of transnational feminism is affected by nationalnarratives and public discourses within the country itself. An innovative theoreticalproject that is both deconstructive and constructive, this bookinterrogates the limits of feministthought, primarily through casestudies that illustrate its power to create new fields of research out oftraditionally interdisciplinary lines of inquiry. Leela Fernandes discussesways to approach, analyze, and capture processes that exceed and unsettle thenation-state within the transnational feminist paradigm. Examining the linksbetween power and knowledge that bind interdisciplinary theory and research, she shines new light on issues suchas human rights as well as academic debates about transnational feministperspectives on global issues. A thought-provoking analysis, Transnational Feminism in the United States powerfullycontributes to the field of Women'sStudies and related cross-disciplinary scholarship on feminist theory andgender from a global perspective.

The acceleration of economic globalization and the rapidglobal flows of people, culture, and information have intensified theimportance of developing transnational understandings of contemporary issues.Transnational feminist perspectives have provided a unique outlook on women'slives and have deepened our understanding of the gendered nature of globalprocesses. Transnational Feminism in theUnited States examines how transnational perspectives shape the ways inwhich we create and disseminate knowledge about the world within the UnitedStates, and how the paradigm of transnational feminism is affected by nationalnarratives and public discourses within the country itself. An innovative theoreticalproject that is both deconstructive and constructive, this bookinterrogates the limits of feministthought, primarily through casestudies that illustrate its power to create new fields of research out oftraditionally interdisciplinary lines of inquiry. Leela Fernandes discussesways to approach, analyze, and capture processes that exceed and unsettle thenation-state within the transnational feminist paradigm. Examining the linksbetween power and knowledge that bind interdisciplinary theory and research, she shines new light on issues suchas human rights as well as academic debates about transnational feministperspectives on global issues. A thought-provoking analysis, Transnational Feminism in the United States powerfullycontributes to the field of Women'sStudies and related cross-disciplinary scholarship on feminist theory andgender from a global perspective.

Today India's middle class numbers more than 250 million people and is growing rapidly. Public reports have focused mainly on the emerging group's consumer potential, while global views of India's new economy range from excitement about market prospects to anxieties over outsourcing of service sector jobs. Yet the consequences of India's economic liberalization and the expansion of the middle class have transformed Indian culture and politics. In India's New Middle Class, Leela Fernandes digs into the implications of this growth and uncovers—in the media, in electoral politics, and on the streets of urban neighborhoods—the complex politics of caste, religion, and gender that shape this rising population. Using rich ethnographic data, she reveals how the middle class represents the political construction of a social group and how it operates as a proponent of economic democratization. Delineating the tension between consumer culture and outsourcing, Fernandes also examines the roots of India's middle class and its employment patterns, including shifting skill sets and labor market restructuring. Through this close look at the country's recent history and reforms, Fernandes develops an original theoretical approach to the nature of politics and class formation in an era of globalization.In this sophisticated analysis of the dynamics of an economic and political group in the making, Fernandes moves beyond reductionist images of India's new middle class to bring to light the group's social complexity and profound influence on politics in India and beyond.Leela Fernandes is associate professor of political science at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

This new edition of the Routledge Handbook of Gender in South Asia provides a comprehensive overview of the study of gender in South Asia. The Handbook covers the central contributions that have defi ned this area and captures innovative and emerging paradigms that are shaping the future of the field. It offers a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives spanning both the humanities and social sciences, focusing on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This revised edition has been thoroughly updated and includes new chapters, thus adding new areas of scholarship. The Handbook is organized thematically into five major parts: • Historical formations and theoretical framings • Law, citizenship and the nation • Representations of culture, place, identity • Labor and the economy • Inequality, activism and the state The Handbook illustrates the ways in which scholarship on gender has contributed to a rethink of theoretical concepts and empirical understandings of contemporary South Asia. Finally, it focuses on new areas of inquiry that have been opened up through a focus on gender and the intersections between gender and categories, such as caste, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion. This timely study is essential reading for scholars who research and teach on South Asia as well as for scholars in related interdisciplinary fields that focus on women and gender from comparative and transnational perspectives.

A rich set of feminist perspectives on the varied and often contradictory nature of state practices, structures, and ideologies Growing socio-economic inequality and exclusion are defining features of the twenty-first century. While debates on globalization, free trade, and economic development have been linked to the paradigm of "neo-liberalism," it does not explain all the forms of social change that have been unfolding in comparative contexts. Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State provides a timely intervention into discussions about the boundaries, practices, and nature of the post-liberalization state, suggesting that an understanding of economic policies, the corresponding rise of socio-economic inequality, and the possibilities for change requires an in-depth reconceptualization.Drawing on original field research both globally and within the United States, this volume brings together a rich set of perspectives on the varied and often contradictory nature of state practices, structures and ideologies in the post-liberalization era. The essays develop an interdisciplinary approach that treats an understanding of historically-specific forms of inequality—such as gender, race, caste, sexuality and class—as integral to, rather than as after-effects of, the policies and ideologies associated with the "neoliberal project." The volume also tackles central questions on the restructuring of the state, the state's power operations, the relationship between capital and the state, and its interactions with the institutions and organizational forms of civil society in the post-liberalization era. As such, Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State examines both what is distinctive about this post-liberalization state and what must be contextualized as long-standing features of modern state power. A truly international and interdisciplinary volume, Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State deepens our understanding of how policies of economic liberalization shape and produce various forms of inequality.

A rich set of feminist perspectives on the varied and often contradictory nature of state practices, structures, and ideologies Growing socio-economic inequality and exclusion are defining features of the twenty-first century. While debates on globalization, free trade, and economic development have been linked to the paradigm of "neo-liberalism," it does not explain all the forms of social change that have been unfolding in comparative contexts. Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State provides a timely intervention into discussions about the boundaries, practices, and nature of the post-liberalization state, suggesting that an understanding of economic policies, the corresponding rise of socio-economic inequality, and the possibilities for change requires an in-depth reconceptualization.Drawing on original field research both globally and within the United States, this volume brings together a rich set of perspectives on the varied and often contradictory nature of state practices, structures and ideologies in the post-liberalization era. The essays develop an interdisciplinary approach that treats an understanding of historically-specific forms of inequality—such as gender, race, caste, sexuality and class—as integral to, rather than as after-effects of, the policies and ideologies associated with the "neoliberal project." The volume also tackles central questions on the restructuring of the state, the state's power operations, the relationship between capital and the state, and its interactions with the institutions and organizational forms of civil society in the post-liberalization era. As such, Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State examines both what is distinctive about this post-liberalization state and what must be contextualized as long-standing features of modern state power. A truly international and interdisciplinary volume, Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State deepens our understanding of how policies of economic liberalization shape and produce various forms of inequality.