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Witch Hunts Targeted by Grassroots Women’s Groups

By Guest PostSeptember 5, 2012Culture, Economy, Generalalcoholism, anuradha chakravarty, basanti, chicken eggs, culture, disease, domestic abuse, economic, factor, gender equality, government, grassroots movement, India, jalpaiguri, livestock, loan, loan program, michigan, microcredit, microcredit group, native india, plantation worker, practice, self help, social movement, sociologist, soma chaudhuri, state university, stomach illness, tea plantation, tradition, tribal people, village, witch, witch hunts, witchcraft, women

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Witch hunts are common and sometimes deadly in the tea plantations of Jalpaiguri, India. But a surprising source – small groups of women who meet through a government loan program – has achieved some success in preventing the longstanding practice, a Michigan State University sociologist found.

Soma Chaudhuri spent seven months studying witch hunts in her native India and discovered that the economic self-help groups have made it part of their agenda to defend their fellow plantation workers against the hunts. (more…)

Why Russians Think Americans Don’t Own Their Homes

*UA sociologist Jane Zavisca says the two countries are polar opposites when it comes to mortgage financing.*

When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, one of the structural problems the new government and free-market economy had to deal with was housing. Most Russians lived in government-owned apartments that had been built beginning in the late 1950s. The question then became, who owned all of that Soviet-era housing?

In her new book, “Housing the New Russia,” due to be published by Cornell University Press, Jane Zavisca said the new Russian government dealt with it by announcing that this huge stock of apartments was, as of 1992, privately owned. (more…)

Tag Archives: sociologist

Witch Hunts Targeted by Grassroots Women’s Groups

Why Russians Think Americans Don’t Own Their Homes