Attempts to manage natural resources through collaboration rather than competition, by agreements rather than conflict, have become the touchstone for many who see these efforts as the harbinger of global sustainable development. The received wisdom suggests that participatory natural resource management projects work because traditional knowledge of the resources and existing social structures can be utilised to develop more effective strategies for resource use. Participation is a flexible and adaptable concept, which can reflect local circumstances and priorities. The contributors to this...

Over the past 100 years, there has been a steady process by which natural resources have been increasingly managed by centralized institutions. Governments and other national agencies have argued that this promotes efficiency and equity. Recently this orthodoxy has been challenged by experiments that show how centralized management tends to fail. Global, national and local goals are more likely to be met, at lower cost and with other benefits (such as promoting better democratic institutions) by involving local populations in collaborative management agreements. This volume, based on detailed...

In this book, a study of the population processes of two castes in north India, the authors ask why fertility levels are higher among the Muslim Sheikhs than the Hindu Jats. They conclude that explanations can only partly be attributed to gender and religion, and that economic and political status is a defining factor. The book has implications for the understanding of population and politics in India generally, and will be invaluable to students of the region and anyone interested in the demography of developing countries.

Popular Western images of Indian women range from submissive brides behind their veils to the powerful, active women of Indian politics. In this lively and unique book, Patricia and Roger Jeffery present a different perspective on women's lives. Focusing on the mundane rather than the exotic, they explore the complex interplay between the power of social structures to constrain individuals and the ways women negotiate these constraints to carve out places for themselves.Based on information collected by the authors during their research in villages in Bijnor District, western Uttar Pradesh,...

Degrees Without Freedom? re-evaluates debates on education, modernity, and social change in contemporary development studies and anthropology. Education is widely imputed with the capacity to transform the prospects of the poor. But in the context of widespread unemployment in rural north India, it is better understood as a contradictory resource, providing marginalized youth with certain freedoms but also drawing them more tightly into systems of inequality. The book advances this argument through detailed case studies of educated but unemployed or underemployed young men in rural...