Contract Farming, Ecological Change and the Transformations of Reciprocal Gendered Social Relations in Eastern India

Debates on gender and the commodification of land highlight the loss of land rights, intensification of demands on women’s labour, and decline in their decision-making control. Supported by ‘extra-economic forces’ of religious nationalism (Hindutva), such neoliberal interventions are producing new gender ideologies involving a subtle shift from relations of reciprocity to those of subordination. Using data from fine grained fieldwork in Koraput district, Odisha, we analyse the tensions and transformations created jointly by corporate interventions (contract farming of eucalyptus by the paper industry) and religious nationalism in the local landscape. We examine how these phenomena are reshaping relations of asymmetric mutuality between nature and society, and between men and women

Scaling-up information services for development: a framework of increasing returns for telecentres

Telecentres are an important type of information and communication technology (ICT) system particularly assisting rural and urban communities in developing countries, but the focus is often put on social development, sometimes on static economic returns, and rarely on dynamic economic aspects. This paper develops a basis for understanding the factors behind financial success in a dynamic setting based on the concept of increasing returns. This is applied to telecentres according to the stage of maturity of their information services. The framework is illustrated with literature- and interview-based cases, and will help an understanding of ways in which telecentres can scale-up their operation and impact. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cyber kiosks and dilemmas of social inclusion in rural India

10.1177/0163443707081692Media, Culture and Society29