Comparative Education and Research on The Intersectionality of Poverty, Gender Inequalities, Spatiality and Education in Brazil and South Africa
2010-2011
National Research Foundation
Investigators: Jenni Karlsson, University of KwaZulu Natal, Relebohile Moletsane, University of KwaZulu Natal. Luis Gandin, Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande do Sol Claudia Mitchell, McGill University, April Mandrona, Concordia-McGill, Tabitha Mukeredzi, Phumi Lanaga, Thami Dladla, University of KwaZulu Natal,
In order to create an enabling environment for the achievement of the millennium development goals (MDGs) and gender equality in particular, it is necessary to ensure people’s (men and women, and girls and boys) access to secure livelihoods (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 2006). In turn, as has been suggested in gender and development literature (e.g., Moletsane, 2009; Moletsane, Mitchell, and Lewin, 2010), access to quality education is one of the prerequisites both to securing such livelihoods and to addressing gender inequalities more generally. This in turn “depends on the macro-economic policies and development strategies on which their livelihoods and ways of life, and those of their families and communities, ultimately depend” (UNRISD, 2006: 16). This project analyses perspectives from two countries: Brazil and South Africa. In particular, the project examines the extent to, and ways in which two countries’ macro-economic policies and development strategies reflect an understanding and commitment to gender equality and social justice for all, including women and girls. From this perspective, the project addresses three inter-related questions:
- How does the intersection of poverty, gender inequalities and geographic locale (space) play out in different cultural, geographic and spatial (urban/rural) contexts?
- How doestersectionality provide a framework for understanding education in different contexts?
- How do the policies and poverty alleviation strategies adopted by the two countries facilitate or impede gender equitable development?