Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: an international feminist challenge to theory / Vasilikie Demos, Marcia Texler Segal -- Women redefining politics: between new challenges and old illusions / Paola Melchiori -- Theory incorporated / Vicki Kirby -- Feminism of color challenges white sociological theory and color-blind eco-feminism / Laura Corradi -- The biomedical digitalization of women's bodies and women's body politics in the context of globalization: challenges to women-and-health research / Annemiek Richters -- The nature/culture dualism in the Indian context / Abha Chauhan -- Postmodern feminism challenges organization theory / Gladys L. Symons -- Much ado about gender: a conceptual travelogue / Barbara L. Marshall -- It's the 21st century - do you know what gender you are? / Judith Lorber -- The devolution of women as a category in development theorizing: is this an essential move? / I�eda Chapoval -- Rethinking development from a feminist perspective / Ann Denis -- Sisters' keepers: economic organizing among informally employed women in Turkey / Simel Esim -- In search of the good life: feminist correctives to modernization theory / Janet Zollinger Giele -- Feminist nebula: theoretical approaches on representations of feminism in Recife / Lady Selma Ferreira Albernaz -- Being a white Australian-Canadian feminist doing research with South Asian women of color in the diaspora: crossing borders and boundaries, creating spaces / Helen Ralston -- Can research, activism, and feminism converge? some notes on collaborative action-oriented inquiry / Deborah Harrison.

In this volume, 15 feminist scholars from five continents, who participated in the 1998 conference co-sponsored by Research Committee 32, Women in Society, of the International Sociological Association (WISISA) and the Centre for Research and Teaching on Women at McGill University, consider, critique and construct theories of society. Their papers examine four inter-related themes: an explicit or implicit acknowledgment and critique of the European Enlightenment as a basis for the modern production of knowledge; the use and utility of "gender" as a concept; problems and solutions in feminist theories of development; and the place of feminism in the production of knowledge and on-the-ground change. Each paper reflects the author's experience as a researcher, theorist or change agent, as well as the discussion and dialogue of the five-day conference.

Description based on print version record.