Abstract

This essay evaluates the present and future state of world development from the perspective of Third World women, finding that globalization, alongside US foreign policy, is leading to a future of increased poverty, environmental damage, and conditions where peace and human security are not served. Yet, powerful new ways of organizing for change have been created by the actions and visions of the Zapatista communities of Chiapas, the rubber-tappers in the Amazon rainforest, the Self-Employed Women's Association in India, the movement against female genital mutilation in Senegal, and the Israeli peace activists of Women in Black. Their emphasis on principles of social justice and the love of life they embody offer a vision of a possible future eutopia—a better, not a perfect, society—that is within reach if enough people take them up and shape them further. Using the new paradigm of “women, culture, and development”, and the practices of future studies we analyze the ways in which women in a variety of settings are moving against the current of a dystopic future and are realizing visions of a more life-affirming form of development.

Article Outline

1. The current moment: dystopic harbinger of the future?

2. Women, culture, and development: a paradigm for the future

3. Resistances: can a future eutopia come out of the present dystopia?

3.1. SEWA

3.2. Navdanya

3.3. The Amazon

3.4. Women in Black

3.5. Senegal

4. A concluding vision and an eutopian scenario

References