Abstract
This chapter discusses one of the widely accepted instances of successful development, China, within the context of changing property rights. Economist Hernando De Soto (2010) has argued that transparent and transferable property rights are, if not a pre-condition, an important enabler of economic growth. Economic growth is itself conventionally regarded as either a pre-condition of development or an aspect thereof. This chapter examines how unequal and, in some cases, reduced, property rights for women have contributed to something more fundamental than a lack of development, but rather an assault on life itself. In short, it considers the twin problems of gendered exclusion, still inadequately addressed in the development field, and the population issue that, rather than equitably addressing an existing issue, in a profound example of the so-called ‘law of unintended consequences’, has been primarily successful only in introducing a new set of problems.
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© 2013 Laurel Bossen
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Bossen, L. (2013). Reproduction and Property in Rural China: Development and Discrimination. In: Kingsbury, D. (eds) Critical Reflections on Development. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230389052_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230389052_12
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