Input on final project for class?

[Lisa0825]

Hey! I have to come up with an idea for my final project for Political Economy. I have some ideas, but I thought that since there are so many smart people here with knowledge of different subjects, places, etc, I'd run it by y'all before I start.

I am supposed to pick a place in the world or a group that can span countries. This should be anything other than a westernized, 1st world type country. It can be anything from a polynesian island to the Middle East or a Latin American country. There must be something interesting economically speaking about it. It could be a history of the gift economy, an underground economy, a group trying to bring the underclass into the economy, etc.

Some ideas I have thought of so far include:
The Fair Trade Coffee issue, and the countries and groups that are involved in that.
A group which helps Afghan women sell crafts underground to raise their own money.
Any kind of indigenous movement in Latin America (I have an interest in Latin American countries)

So, I will be researching these, but if anyone would like to point me in any other interesting directions before I make my decision, I'd love to hear about other topics.

Thank you!

[bettyellen]

1. there's a group trying to help women in india organize their work

and raise the level of skills/ bring up their quality level for the apparel industry. part of it is it's a benefit, socially to remain in smaller towns because it's very hard for uneducated womwn to just go to the big city. they can be forced into prostitution or end up as slaves because the unskilled opportunities go to men first.
so they are trying to make them more competative while being able to stay within their communities. there's a professor at FIT in ny who works with the group in india. maybe i could find her name, pm me if you'd like me to look.
there's been a great deal happening with compliance issues in the garment industry- standards of wage/ hours and keeping child labor out of the mix. but it is really complicated because a lot of moms in povety do need to work at home while the kids are around. alternantive systems like china where people can't have kids and live in dorms working 6 days a week aren't much more humane in a lot of ways.

[Lisa0825]

2. That sound interesting!

Do you have any names of groups involved, aside fromt the professor? I need to have multiple sources, so if I could do some googling to see how much is out there, that would be a start. In Tuesday's class, we should have narrowed our options to two or three, discuss them with the prof and decide which to pursue.

There is a network of groups in India called the Alliance, which we read an article about. They are all activists working to improve the living conditions in the slums of India. There is some very interesting work going on there.

Appadurai on Deep Democracy:
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:fmDui7b3lcgJ:www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/drivers_urb_change/urb_governance/pdf_democ_empower/IIED_appadurai_demo.pdf++%22deep+democracy%22+India+appadurai&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5

I'll PM you:-)

[skygazer]

3. No ideas, I'm afraid

But I wonder if that group that helps Afghan women is the one my sister purchased gifts from for me a couple of Christmases ago. She was stationed in Pakistan and bought some beautiful crafts from refugee Afghani women - I wish I had photos.

[Lisa0825]

4. I don't even remember their name...

but the crafts I saw in pics were really beautiful. I'm going to do some searches tonight and tomorrow to see how much info I can find on each subject. Sometimes absences or abundance of info is the decidinig factor in what project to pick!

[bettyellen]

5. i know Oxfam in Ireland or the UK does some international crafts

small business development and distribution for 3rd world nations. i believe they are classified as as an NGO.
they are actually probably big enough for you to dig up lots on.

[Alleycat]

6. You can check this site out

http://www.rainforestrescue.com/

There are a lot of groups who are selling handmade items from South America.

Good luck on your project.

[Lisa0825]

7. Cool thanks!:-)

:pals:

[Lisa0825]

8. Here is info on two of my ideas...

Fair Trade Coffee in Chiapas, Mexico
http://www.americas.org/item_119
http://www.javaforjustice.com/visit_coop.asp

Women in the economy of Afghanistan,
http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=47227&query=women#query
http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=45852&query=women#query

or perhaps disregarding borders, the projects of SEWA:
http://www.sewa.org

Thanks for the input so far!