Troubling Empowerment

ISBN-13: 9783639168198 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 484 str.

June Lennie

Opis

Participatory research methodologies and interactivecommunication technologies (ICTs) are increasinglyseen as offering ways of enhancing womensempowerment and rural community development. However,some researchers suggest the need for caution aboutsuch claims. This book details findings from anevaluation of a feminist action research project thatexplored the impacts of ICTs for rural women inQueensland, Australia, in terms of personal, businessand community development. Using praxis andpoststructuralist feminist theories andmethodologies, this innovative study presents arigorous analysis and critique of womens empowermentand participation. This study demonstrates the valueof adopting a critical yet pragmatic approach thattakes diversity and difference, power-knowledgerelations, and the contradictory effects ofparticipation into account. This is argued to enablethe development of more effective strategies forwomens empowerment, participation and inclusion.This book should be of particular interest toresearchers, postgraduate students, and othersworking in the fields of communication, gender, andrural development, and feminist evaluation andethnography.

O autorze

Dr June Lennie is a Senior Research Associate at Queensland
University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. She has
significant expertise in conducting action research and
evaluation projects and evaluation capacity building, and has
published widely in her field. She is the co-author of Action
Research and New Media (Hampton Press, 2009).