Collective Action, Gender and Ethnicity in Peru: a case study of the People鈥檚 Kitchens.
Abstract
This paper reports on a case study of women鈥檚 collective action, as a means of exploring the intertwining of gender, ethnicity and poverty in the phenomenon of collective action among marginalised groups. Collective action among indigenous and 鈥榗hola鈥� women is studied through the phenomenon of the 鈥楥omedores Populares鈥�, or People鈥檚 Kitchens. The study was undertaken as part of a wider project examining the role of collective action 鈥� or its absence or weakness 鈥� as a possible partial explanation of the persistence of inequality, particularly inequality between groups, or 鈥榟orizontal鈥� inequalities (HI). Its principal focus was not gender; however, gender is an important dimension of inequality, and comes intertwined with other aspects of inequality, in particular ethnicity and poverty. I first explain a little of the nature of the issue of ethnicity in Peru. I next explain the framework of the collective action studies and the meaning I give to 鈥榮uccess鈥� (Section 2). In the third section I present our case study, as an instance of collective action within that framework. The fourth section concludes, suggesting some preliminary ideas on the relevance of multiple exclusions to the persistence of HIs and the rigidities of a hierarchical society, as a stimulus to further research.
Citation
CRISE Working Paper No. 67, 20 pp.
Links