Working Feminism

Working Feminism looks at key concepts and debates within feminist theory and puts them to work concretely in relation to the real problems faced by Filipina domestic workers and Asian youth in Canada. It draws to the fore the metaphorical and concrete geographies that lie implicit and underdeveloped within much feminist theory and suggests that a geographical imagination offers a means of reframing debates beyond polarised theoretical and political positions. Alternating between theoretical and empirical chapters, substantial and wide-ranging discussions of human rights, multiculturalism, transnationalism and feminist politics are brought to earth and -- by putting them into the context of individual predicaments -- to life. The empirical chapters build from a decade-long collaboration with an activist group -- the Philippine Women Centre -- in Vancouver, Canada. They demonstrate the fruits of a close and innovative engagement between poststructuralist feminist theory and participatory action research. The book demonstrates the immediate practicality of abstract debate, and works away at divisions between culturalist and materialist, theoretical and practical feminisms.

A wonderful illustration of how to do good critical social science research in which significant theoretical and political debates are brought together and into productive tension through the lens of a concrete case study ! I wholeheartedly recommend this book ! It is an excellent contribution to a critical human geography committed to combating inequality and injustice. Provides rich detail and soul to the bald story told by labour market statistics! this book powerfully reinforces evidence of a global chain of exploitation! the book's energy and passion owe much to [Geraldine Pratt's] collaboration with an activist group, the Philippine Women's Center. A wonderful illustration of how to do good critical social science research in which significant theoretical and political debates are brought together and into productive tension through the lens of a concrete case study ! I wholeheartedly recommend this book ! It is an excellent contribution to a critical human geography committed to combating inequality and injustice. Provides rich detail and soul to the bald story told by labour market statistics! this book powerfully reinforces evidence of a global chain of exploitation! the book's energy and passion owe much to [Geraldine Pratt's] collaboration with an activist group, the Philippine Women's Center.

Geraldine Pratt is Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia. She is editor of Society and Space, co-editor of The Dictionary of Human Geography 4th edition (Blackwell, 2000), and has published extensively in feminist and cultural geography and theory.