Lyla Mehta's Books

The Limits to Scarcity

Contesting the Politics of Allocation

By: Lyla Mehta

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The Limits to Scarcity

Contesting the Politics of Allocation

By: Lyla Mehta

Scarcity is considered a ubiquitous feature of the human condition. It underpins much of modern economics and is widely used as an explanation for social organisation, social conflict and the resource crunch confronting humanity's survival on the planet. It is made out to be an all-pervasive fact of our lives - be it of housing, food, water or oil. But has the conception of scarcity been politicized, naturalized, and universalized in academic and policy debates? Has overhasty recourse to scarcity evoked a standard set of market, institutional and technological solutions which have blocked out political contestations, overlooking access as a legitimate focus for academic debates as well as policies and interventions? Theoretical and empirical chapters by leading academics and scholar-activists grapple with these issues by questioning scarcity's taken-for-granted nature. They examine scarcity debates across three of the most important resources - food, water and energy - and their implications for theory, institutional arrangements, policy responses and innovation systems. The book looks at how scarcity has emerged as a totalizing discourse in both the North and South. The 'scare' of scarcity has led to scarcity emerging as a political strategy for powerful groups. Aggregate numbers and physical quantities are trusted, while local knowledges and experiences of scarcity that identify problems more accurately and specifically are ignored. Science and technology are expected to provide 'solutions', but such expectations embody a multitude of unexamined assumptions about the nature of the 'problem', about the technologies and about the institutional arrangements put forward as a 'fix.' Through this examination the authors demonstrate that scarcity is not a natural condition: the problem lies in how we see scarcity and the ways in which it is socially generated.

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Page Count

287

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1136538941

ISBN 13

9781136538940

Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice

By: Lyla Mehta,Theib Oweis,Claudia Ringler,Barbara Schreiner,Shiney Varghese

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Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice

By: Lyla Mehta,Theib Oweis,Claudia Ringler,Barbara Schreiner,Shiney Varghese

This book is the first comprehensive effort to bring together Water, Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) in a way that goes beyond the traditional focus on irrigated agriculture. Apart from looking at the role of water and sanitation for human well-being, it proposes alternative and more locally appropriate ways to address complex water management and governance challenges from the local to global levels against a backdrop of growing uncertainties. The authors challenge mainstream supply-oriented and neo-Malthusian visions that argue for the need to increase the land area under irrigation in order to feed the world’s growing population. Instead, they argue for a reframing of the debate concerning production processes, waste, food consumption and dietary patterns whilst proposing alternative strategies to improve water and land productivity, putting the interests of marginalized and disenfranchized groups upfront. The book highlights how accessing water for FSN can be challenging for small-holders, vulnerable and marginalized women and men, and how water allocation systems and reform processes can negatively affect local people’s informal rights. The book argues for the need to improve policy coherence across water, land and food and is original in making a case for strengthening the relationship between the human rights to water and food, especially for marginalized women and men. It will be of great interest to practitioners, students and researchers working on water and food issues.

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Page Count

193

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351747614

ISBN 13

9781351747615

The Politics and Poetics of Water

The Naturalisation of Scarcity in Western India

By: Lyla Mehta

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The Politics and Poetics of Water

The Naturalisation of Scarcity in Western India

By: Lyla Mehta

The book studies the relationship between large dams and water scarcity in Kutch. It argues that water scarcity is not merely natural, but is embedded in the social and power relations shaping water access, use and practices. Scarcity is portrayed as natural rather than human induced and this naturalisation of scarcity is beneficial to those who are powerful. This is a significant book in the light of the growing water crisis in India, and the world.

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Page Count

436

Publisher

Orient Blackswan

Published Date

ISBN 10

8125028692

ISBN 13

9788125028697

Displaced by Development

Confronting Marginalisation and Gender Injustice

By: Lyla Mehta

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Displaced by Development

Confronting Marginalisation and Gender Injustice

By: Lyla Mehta

This compilation is a rare attempt to apply gender analysis to development-induced-displacement and resettlement in the Indian context. It brings together leading scholar-activists, researchers and contributors from people’s movements to critique and draw attention to the injustices perpetrated during such processes. Facing up to the need to focus specifically on how displacement and resettlement affect social groups differently with regard to axes such as gender, class, caste and tribe, the articles show that disenfranchised groups are deemed dispensable and tend to be affected the most, and that women and children among them suffer disproportionately. Displaced by Development: Confronting Marginalisation and Gender Injustice argues that without differentiated analyses and programmes, displacement and resettlement will continue to intensify and perpetuate gender and social injustice. This work will hold the interest of a wide readership and will be a crucial source of information for those working in the areas of Gender and Social Policy, Economics and Development Studies, Sociology of Gender, Environment and Development, Migration Studies, Anthropology, and South Asian studies. It will also interest policy makers in development agencies, activists and non-governmental organisations concerned with forced displacement and migration issues.

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Page Count

354

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Published Date

ISBN 10

8178299003

ISBN 13

9788178299006

The Politics and Poetics of Water

The Naturalisation of Scarcity in Western India

By: Lyla Mehta

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The Politics and Poetics of Water

The Naturalisation of Scarcity in Western India

By: Lyla Mehta

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436

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Orient Blackswan

Published Date

ISBN 10

8125028692

ISBN 13

9788125028697

The Limits to Scarcity

Contesting the Politics of Allocation

By: Lyla Mehta

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The Limits to Scarcity

Contesting the Politics of Allocation

By: Lyla Mehta

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

287

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1136538941

ISBN 13

9781136538940

Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice

By: Lyla Mehta,Theib Oweis,Claudia Ringler,Barbara Schreiner,Shiney Varghese

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Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice

By: Lyla Mehta,Theib Oweis,Claudia Ringler,Barbara Schreiner,Shiney Varghese

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Page Count

193

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351747614

ISBN 13

9781351747615

Citizenship and Social Movements

Perspectives from the Global South

By: Lisa Thompson,Professor Chris Tapscott

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Citizenship and Social Movements

Perspectives from the Global South

By: Lisa Thompson,Professor Chris Tapscott

Debates over social movements have suffered from a predominate focus on North America and western Europe, often neglecting the significance of collective action in the global South. Citizenship and Social Movements seeks to partially redress this imbalance with case studies from Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, South Africa and Nigeria. This volume points to the complex relationships that influence mobilization and social movements in the South, suggesting that previous theories have underplayed the influence of state power and elite dominance in the government and in NGOs. As the contributors to this book clearly show, understanding the role of the state in relation to social movements is critical to determining when collective action can fulfil the promise of bringing the rights of the marginalized to the fore.

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Page Count

478

Publisher

Zed Books Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1848136269

ISBN 13

9781848136267

Water, Difference and Power

Kutch and the Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) Project

By: Lyla Mehta

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Water, Difference and Power

Kutch and the Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) Project

By: Lyla Mehta

Kutch, a semi-arid district in the state of Gujarat in western India, is known for its water scarcity. This report examines the relationship between the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), a controversial dam under construction in western India, and Kutch, which is supposed to benefit from the dam. It highlights that contrary to decades of promise, Kutch does not stand to benefit significantly from the project and shows how the state has "manufactured" the dominant view that there is no alternative to this project for Kutch. This has two consequences: one, locally appropriate alternatives are not adequately explored; two, crucial aspects concerning social difference are obscured. The case study gives a picture of the social, caste and power dynamics in a village supposed to benefit from the project and shows how these are intrinsically tied to the water question. The analysis of the arrangements governing land and water use indicates that access to and control over water resources was always differentiated and this differentiation is likely to increase with the advent of canal irrigation. Hence, notions of the "user" and "community" need to be de-homogenised to accommodate variations arising due to historical legacies, class, caste, gender and occupation. The study argues that both macro and micro-level water interventions are blind to questions concerning social difference. In doing so water schemes build on or reinforce already skewed social and power relations. It contends that unless social difference is taken seriously, even ecologically sustainable options such as watershed development may end up being "old wine in new bottles." In order for issues such as equity and social justice to be addressed in water interventions, the study argues for the need on the part of implementing agencies to be aggressively partisan in targeting the marginalised and socially excluded groups.

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ISBN 10

1858641209

ISBN 13

9781858641201

Book's by Lyla Mehta

The Limits to Scarcity

The Limits to Scarcity

Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice

Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice

The Politics and Poetics of Water

The Politics and Poetics of Water

Displaced by Development

Displaced by Development

The Politics and Poetics of Water

The Politics and Poetics of Water

The Limits to Scarcity

The Limits to Scarcity

Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice

Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice

Citizenship and Social Movements

Citizenship and Social Movements

Water, Difference and Power

Water, Difference and Power

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