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Questioning synergism: Win‐win with women in population and environment policies?
Author(s) -
Jackson Cecile
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.3380050607
Subject(s) - empowerment , attractiveness , position (finance) , environmentalism , population , convergence (economics) , set (abstract data type) , economic growth , political science , sociology , development economics , public economics , economics , psychology , law , politics , demography , finance , computer science , psychoanalysis , programming language
This paper takes issue with the convergence of opinion, exhibited in a range of development discourses, which suggests that a synergistic set of policy instruments can be used to achieve population, environment and development objectives in developing countries. Gender analysis is the vehicle for the critique of three synergistic policies—clarification of land rights, increased education for women and the empowerment of women. In all of these areas gender analysis reveals trade‐offs and policy conflicts rather than any necessary positive synergy. The reasons for the attractiveness of the synergy position are seen to lie partially in the legacy of systems thinking and the atmosphere of urgency in western environmentalism as well as in the sociology of development agencies.