In Changing the Subject Srila Roy maps the rapidly transforming terrain of gender and sexual politics in India under conditions of global neoliberalism. The consequences of India's liberalization were paradoxical: the influx of global funds for social development and NGOs signalled the co-option and depoliticization of struggles for women's rights, even as they amplified the visibility and vitalization of queer activism. Roy reveals the specificity of activist and NGO work around issues of gender and sexuality through a decade-long ethnography of two West Bengal organizations, one working on lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues and the other on rural women's empowerment. Tracing changes in feminist governmentality that were entangled in transnational neoliberalism, Roy shows how historical and highly local feminist currents shaped contemporary queer and non-queer neoliberal feminisms. The interplay between historic techniques of activist governance and queer feminist governmentality's focus on changing the self offers a new way of knowing feminism-both as always already co-opted and as a transformative force in the world.

Book Information
ISBN 9781478016243
Author Srila Roy
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 152g