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.

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...

The acceleration of economic globalization and the rapid global flows of people, culture, and information have intensified the importance of developing transnational understandings of contemporary issues. Transnational feminist perspectives have provided a unique outlook on women's lives and have deepened our understanding of the gendered nature of global processes. Transnational Feminism in the United States examines how transnational perspectives shape the ways in which we create and disseminate knowledge about the world within the United States, and how the paradigm of...