Author: Cybelle H. McFadden File Type: pdf Gendered Frames, Embodied Cameras Varda, Akerman, Cabrera, Calle, and Maiwenn is the first book to link these five filmmakers together through an analysis of the relationship between filming ones own body and the creative body. Through engaged artistic practices, these female filmmakers turn the camera to their bodies as a way to show the process of artistic creation and to produce themselves as filmmakers and artists in their work from 19872009. By making visible their bodies, they offer a wider range of representation of women in French film. Through avant-garde form, in which tangible corporeal elements are made image, they transform representational content and produce new cinematic bodies with the power to influence signifying practices in contemporary French culture. By rendering visible their artistic practice and praxis and their camera in their workreflexive practices that also unite these filmmakersthese women also visually claim the role of filmmaker and creative subject. Thus they establish their authority in a film industry in which womens participation and recognition of their achievements have historically been lower than that of their male counterparts.

Author: Merilee S. Grindle File Type: pdf Originally Published in 2004Despite the Odds poses an important question How can we account for successful policy reform initiatives when the political cards are stacked against change? Theories of politics usually predict that reform initiatives will be unsuccessful when powerful groups are opposed to change and institutions are biased against it. This book, however, shows how the strategic choices of reform proponents alter the destinies of policy reforms by reshaping power equations and undermining institutional biases that impede change. In many countries, the political path to reform can be daunting. Antireform interests are powerful and support for change is, at best, lukewarm. Centrally important institutions strongly defend the policy status quo. Despite these political odds, reformers have seized the initiative in promoting reform, weakening and marginalizing opposition groups, and marshaling political patrons and networks to advance their initiatives. Despite the Odds opens the black box of decision making in five initiatives designed to enhance the quality of education services in Latin America. The book addresses the strategies used by reformers to manage the political process of change and those adopted by opposition groups and institutions resisting their efforts. Individual chapters consider how leaders set national policy agendas for education, how policy design teams created the content of reform initiatives, how they dealt with the messy and public confrontations that greeted reform proposals when they were announced, and the carryover of political conflict when they were implemented. **Review A welcome and sorely needed addition to the literature on social sector reform. The book has important implications for developing countries as well as for the literature on political leadership, the role of international financial institutions, and even the dynamics of international policy diffusion.Wendy Hunter, University of Texas The book is valuable for political scientists and political economists interested in unpacking the policy process. Grindles conceptual scheme applies beyond the education sector. It is helpful in addressing broader debates and generalizations about the politics of institutional reforms in general.Joan M. Nelson, Senior Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, Smithsonian Institution Scholar-in-Residence, School of International Service, American University From the Inside Flap A welcome and sorely needed addition to the literature on social sector reform. The book has important implications for developing countries as well as for the literature on political leadership, the role of international financial institutions, and even the dynamics of international policy diffusion.--Wendy Hunter, University of Texas The book is valuable for political scientists and political economists interested in unpacking the policy process. Grindles conceptual scheme applies beyond the education sector. It is helpful in addressing broader debates and generalizations about the politics of institutional reforms in general.--Joan M. Nelson, Senior Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, Smithsonian Institution Scholar-in-Residence, School of International Service, American University