This collection places gender at the center of the examination of global and local changes and interconnections that come under the conceptual rubric of the term "globalization." The editors (both of the Centre for International Development Issues, Radboud U. Nijmegan, the Netherlands) present 13 essays in three sections (not counting the introduction and conclusion). The first looks at local lived realities and discusses the gendered reconstruction of the Argentine auto components industry; professionalization, sexualization, and the working identities of secretaries in Lima, Peru; and young masculinities and safe sex in Dakar, Senegal. Globalization and the production of difference is the theme of the next contributions, discussing the "global localization" of feminist knowledge represented by translations of Our Bodies, Ourselves, the feminization of peace-building in southern Sudan, single mothers' travel experiences at the "global/local interface," and a comparison of reproductive rights violations connected to export-oriented industries in Mexico and Morocco. The final section, titled "Glocalized Gender Identities: Tradition and Modernity Deconstructed," contains essays on dowry in India, Muslim masculinity and the urban middle-class family in Islamist Sudan, political representation and the ambiguity of Mexican motherhood, and layered meanings of community among Iranian women exiles in Los Angeles. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
