Authors:
- Uniquely presents the perspectives of crop cultivators, offering a distinctive approach to a divisive issue of global relevance
- Provides a balanced analysis of a highly controversial and topical area
- Highlights the broad social and economic issues involved in assessments of new technologies in poor countries
- Essential reading for students, academics and practitioners across a number of subject areas, as well as those with a more general interest in agrarian issues, including NGOs, and policy makers in India and worldwide
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book provides a sociological analysis of the controversy surrounding GM crops in Telangana, India. There is much debate as to whether GM technology holds the key to improving the welfare of poor farmers globally or serves primarily to increase the profits of multinational corporations while enhancing cultivator risk. Desmond’s study is located in the economically vulnerable and politically volatile district of Warangal in Telangana, a context associated with high numbers of farmer suicides. Uniquely foregrounding the perspectives of cultivators and the landless, Desmond explores how GM crops are variously legitimated and delegitimated in three Warangal villages by those whose livelihoods are at stake in the debate, but whose voices are rarely heard within it. This book will be significant for those with an interest in GM crops, power and knowledge and their relation to understandings of development, democracy and risk management worldwide.
Reviews
E. L. Desmond, brings to light the views of farmers on Bt cotton, the only genetically modified crop currently cultivated in India, in the context of legitimation of risk. … the author has produced a thoughtprovoking work that navigates this controversial topic with a new lens, by digging deep into politics and society in village India.” (Anitha Ramanna-Pathak, American Journalof Sociology, Vol. 124, May, 2019) “… Based on meticulous field work in India’s cotton belt; …Elaine Desmond has demonstrated remarkable scholarship in presenting the process of technology legitimation and delegitimation at different levels of politicisation. In doing so, the work is potentially seminal for an improved understanding of technology uncertainty, institutional realities, and vested interests that are central to the process of technology diffusion.” (Prof.Sarthak Gaurav)
“Explored through stakeholder analysis and village fieldwork in the crisis-ridden state of Telangana, this book exposes democratic flaws in mediating risk exposure, markets and social justice. It is an original contribution to scholarship on GM (genetically modified) seeds and builds a powerful case for the redistribution of resources and knowledge. It is very relevant to students of rural development and innovation, not only in India, but worldwide.” (Barbara Harriss-White, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, Oxford University)
“Drawing on field research in a key area of India's cotton belt, Desmond's insightful analysis of the GMO controversy focuses on the underlying struggles over how society manages risk as technologies change. This book is a timely and measured contribution and will be of interest to those concerned with the broader implications of the GMO debate for the global governance of risk.” (Glenn Davis Stone, Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies, Washington University)
Authors and Affiliations
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School of Sociology and Philosophy, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
E.L. Desmond
About the author
E.L. Desmond is a sociologist affiliated with the Centre for South Asian Studies at Cambridge University, UK and the Ireland-India Institute at Dublin City University, Ireland.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Legitimation in a World at Risk
Book Subtitle: The Case of Genetically Modified Crops in India
Authors: E.L. Desmond
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6065-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-10-6064-9Published: 08 November 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-5560-8Published: 28 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-981-10-6065-6Published: 24 October 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIX, 346
Number of Illustrations: 9 illustrations in colour
Topics: Science and Technology Studies, Environmental Sociology, Social Anthropology, Regional and Cultural Studies