The perils of trying to be objective without being reflexive: The Kerala-model revisited

Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 28-31

  Parayil, Govindan ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0040294785     PISSN: 00074810     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (21)

1. For an elaboration of these claims see, Govindan Parayil, "The 'Kerala Model' of Development: Development and Sustainability in the Third World," Third World Quarterly 17, no. 5 (1996): 941-57. For a very interesting analysis of a "new Kerala model that seeks reconciliation of social, productive, and environmental objectives" to achieve sustainable development by the active participation of community-based organizations, including NGOs, and the state, see René Veron, "The 'New' Kerala Model: Lessons for Sustainable Development," Department of Geography Seminar, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 17 March 1998.
2. For an elaboration of these claims see, Govindan Parayil, "The 'Kerala Model' of Development: Development and Sustainability in the Third World," Third World Quarterly 17, no. 5 (1996): 941-57. For a very interesting analysis of a "new Kerala model that seeks reconciliation of social, productive, and environmental objectives" to achieve sustainable development by the active participation of community-based organizations, including NGOs, and the state, see René Veron, "The 'New' Kerala Model: Lessons for Sustainable Development," Department of Geography Seminar, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 17 March 1998.
3. Samir Amin, "Four Comments on Kerala," Monthly Review 42, no. 8 (1991): 28.
4. My own anecdotal claim, not based on empirical research, is that the effect was mostly negative, like inducing inflation and consumerism without the benefit of this money being put to building a productive base, as Tharamangalam also pointed out.
5. Ironically, Malayalees who moved out of the state do well as enterprising businessmen and entrepreneurs, but tend to shun innovation and the starting of new businesses at home.
6. See T. M. Thomas Isaac, Richard Franke, and Pyaralal Raghavan, Democracy at Work in an Indian Industrial Cooperative: The Story of Kerala Dinesh Beedi (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998).
7. KSSP, the largest nongovernmental organization in Kerala, is active in science popularization, literacy promotion, and environmental awareness and protection campaigns. For more on the KSSP, see Govindan Parayil, "'Science for Social Revolution': Science and Culture in Kerala," Impact of Science on Society 39, no. 155 (1989): 233-40.
8. Under the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act of 1994, local bodies gained considerable power to design and implement development projects and programs by bypassing line departments.
9. René Veron, "The 'New' Kerala Model," shows that community-based participatory development is alive and well in Kerala. In fact, Veron argues that sustainable development is possible now because NGOs are engaged in bringing about widespread environmental awareness among the people of Kerala. Veron calls these participatory development activities the "New Kerala Model." Also, for more details on participatory programs see, Olle Törnquist and Michael Tharakan, "Democratization and Attempts to Renew the Radical Political Development Project," Economic and Political Weekly 31, nos. 28, 29, 30 (3 parts: 13 July 1996, 20 July 1996, and 27 July 1996); T. M. Thomas Isaac and K. N. Harilal, "Planning for Empowerment: People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning in Kerala," Economic and Political Weekly 32, nos. 1-2 (1997): 53-58; D. Bandyopadhyay, "People's Participation in Planning: Kerala Experiment," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 39 (1997): 2450-2454; and Richard Franke and Barbara Chasin, "Power to the Malayalee People," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 48 (1997): 3061-3068.
10. René Veron, "The 'New' Kerala Model," shows that community-based participatory development is alive and well in Kerala. In fact, Veron argues that sustainable development is possible now because NGOs are engaged in bringing about widespread environmental awareness among the people of Kerala. Veron calls these participatory development activities the "New Kerala Model." Also, for more details on participatory programs see, Olle Törnquist and Michael Tharakan, "Democratization and Attempts to Renew the Radical Political Development Project," Economic and Political Weekly 31, nos. 28, 29, 30 (3 parts: 13 July 1996, 20 July 1996, and 27 July 1996); T. M. Thomas Isaac and K. N. Harilal, "Planning for Empowerment: People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning in Kerala," Economic and Political Weekly 32, nos. 1-2 (1997): 53-58; D. Bandyopadhyay, "People's Participation in Planning: Kerala Experiment," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 39 (1997): 2450-2454; and Richard Franke and Barbara Chasin, "Power to the Malayalee People," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 48 (1997): 3061-3068.
11. René Veron, "The 'New' Kerala Model," shows that community-based participatory development is alive and well in Kerala. In fact, Veron argues that sustainable development is possible now because NGOs are engaged in bringing about widespread environmental awareness among the people of Kerala. Veron calls these participatory development activities the "New Kerala Model." Also, for more details on participatory programs see, Olle Törnquist and Michael Tharakan, "Democratization and Attempts to Renew the Radical Political Development Project," Economic and Political Weekly 31, nos. 28, 29, 30 (3 parts: 13 July 1996, 20 July 1996, and 27 July 1996); T. M. Thomas Isaac and K. N. Harilal, "Planning for Empowerment: People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning in Kerala," Economic and Political Weekly 32, nos. 1-2 (1997): 53-58; D. Bandyopadhyay, "People's Participation in Planning: Kerala Experiment," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 39 (1997): 2450-2454; and Richard Franke and Barbara Chasin, "Power to the Malayalee People," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 48 (1997): 3061-3068.
12. René Veron, "The 'New' Kerala Model," shows that community-based participatory development is alive and well in Kerala. In fact, Veron argues that sustainable development is possible now because NGOs are engaged in bringing about widespread environmental awareness among the people of Kerala. Veron calls these participatory development activities the "New Kerala Model." Also, for more details on participatory programs see, Olle Törnquist and Michael Tharakan, "Democratization and Attempts to Renew the Radical Political Development Project," Economic and Political Weekly 31, nos. 28, 29, 30 (3 parts: 13 July 1996, 20 July 1996, and 27 July 1996); T. M. Thomas Isaac and K. N. Harilal, "Planning for Empowerment: People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning in Kerala," Economic and Political Weekly 32, nos. 1-2 (1997): 53-58; D. Bandyopadhyay, "People's Participation in Planning: Kerala Experiment," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 39 (1997): 2450-2454; and Richard Franke and Barbara Chasin, "Power to the Malayalee People," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 48 (1997): 3061-3068.
13. René Veron, "The 'New' Kerala Model," shows that community-based participatory development is alive and well in Kerala. In fact, Veron argues that sustainable development is possible now because NGOs are engaged in bringing about widespread environmental awareness among the people of Kerala. Veron calls these participatory development activities the "New Kerala Model." Also, for more details on participatory programs see, Olle Törnquist and Michael Tharakan, "Democratization and Attempts to Renew the Radical Political Development Project," Economic and Political Weekly 31, nos. 28, 29, 30 (3 parts: 13 July 1996, 20 July 1996, and 27 July 1996); T. M. Thomas Isaac and K. N. Harilal, "Planning for Empowerment: People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning in Kerala," Economic and Political Weekly 32, nos. 1-2 (1997): 53-58; D. Bandyopadhyay, "People's Participation in Planning: Kerala Experiment," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 39 (1997): 2450-2454; and Richard Franke and Barbara Chasin, "Power to the Malayalee People," Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. 48 (1997): 3061-3068.
14. In Hong Kong recently I interviewed an American business executive whose company has a high-precision machine molding plant near Cochin (Kochy) in Kerala. He told me that the quality of the workers is excellent and his company is quite satisfied with the plant operation in Kerala. The plant has never experienced a strike nor had any labor problems.
15. Peter Evans, Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995), p. 238.
16. Frederic C. Deyo, Beneath the Miracle: Labor Subordination and the New Asian Industrialism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989).
17. Typically, the MNCs prefer young women who are less prone to unionization and relatively easy to manage. For a cogent analysis of gender and exploitation in the modem "homework" economies of transnational capitalism, see Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s," Socialist Review 80 (1985): 65-107. For a news story about how thousands of young rural women are housed in camps to "cut the soles, sew the seams and run the machines" to make athletic shoes for the multinational Nike, which employs nearly half a million workers in Asia, see Keith B. Richburg and Anne Swardson, "$2.28 a Day - On Track to Prosperity?" International Herald Tribune, Hong Kong, 29 July 1996.
18. Typically, the MNCs prefer young women who are less prone to unionization and relatively easy to manage. For a cogent analysis of gender and exploitation in the modem "homework" economies of transnational capitalism, see Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s," Socialist Review 80 (1985): 65-107. For a news story about how thousands of young rural women are housed in camps to "cut the soles, sew the seams and run the machines" to make athletic shoes for the multinational Nike, which employs nearly half a million workers in Asia, see Keith B. Richburg and Anne Swardson, "$2.28 a Day - On Track to Prosperity?" International Herald Tribune, Hong Kong, 29 July 1996.
19. Samir Amin, Capitalism in the Age of Globalization: The Management of Contemporary Society (London: Zed Books, 1997), p. 148.
20. Patrick Heller, "From Class Struggle to Class Compromise: Redistribution and Growth in a South Indian State," Journal of Development Studies 31, no. 5 (1995): 645-72.
21. Some of these issues and concerns were raised in Parayil, "The 'Kerala Model' of Development."