The Socio-Spatial Dynamics of Identity Construction in a Gender and Development Communication Initiative

Abstract

Concurrent historical shifts in feminist and development theory reflect calls to include men more fully in gender and development work. In this article, we explore the participation of men and women in Taru, a multilayered and participatory entertainment–education based gender and development (GAD) communication initiative in the Indian state of Bihar. The Taru project, co-designed and implemented by one of the present authors with on-the-ground partners, embodied the specific intent of including both females and males in an initiative that would promote better reproductive health, foster more gender equality and spur literacy. By analyzing ethnographic data collected through participatory photography, in-depth and focus interviews and participatory theatre, we work to understand how gendered identities of men and women shift in tandem amidst particular socio-historical, economic and material contexts. As we listened to participants, the politics of space emerged as central to understanding how participants both reproduce and resist hegemonic gendered identities. Adopting a postcolonial feminist stance, we work to understand the gendered politics of space, including tensions between freedom and restriction in movement, and fluid and fixed boundaries.