The legitimation of risk and democracy: A case study of Bt cotton in Andhra Pradesh, India

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dc.contributor.advisorMullally, Gerarden
dc.contributor.advisorGlavanis-Grantham, Kathyen
dc.contributor.authorDesmond, Elaine
dc.contributor.funderIrish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciencesen
dc.contributor.funderUniversity College Corken
dc.date.accessioned2014-10-09T11:26:05Z
dc.date.available2014-10-09T11:26:05Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.date.submitted2013
dc.description.abstractThis thesis explores the inter-related attempts to secure the legitimation of risk and democracy with regard to Bt cotton, a genetically modified crop, in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The research included nine months of ethnographic fieldwork, extensive library and newspaper research, as well as university attendance in India, undertaken between June, 2010 and March, 2011. This comparative study (involving organic, NPM and Bt cotton cultivation) was conducted in three villages in Telangana, a region which was granted secession from Andhra Pradesh in July, 2013, and in Hyderabad, the state capital. Andhra Pradesh is renowned for its agrarian crisis and farmer suicides, as well as for the conflict which Bt cotton represents. This study adopts the categories of legitimation developed by Van Leeuwen (2007; 2008) in order to explore the theory of risk society (Beck, 1992; 1994; 1999; 2009), and the Habermasian (1996: 356-366) core-periphery model as means of theoretically analysing democratic legitimacy. The legitimation of risk and democracy in relation to Bt cotton refers to normative views on the way in which power should be exercised with regard to risk differentiation, construction and definition. The analysis finds that the more legitimate the exercise of power, the lower the exposure to risk as a concern for the collective. This also has consequences for the way in which resources are distributed, knowledge constructed, and democratic praxis institutionalised as a concern for social and epistemic justice. The thesis argues that the struggle to legitimate risk and democracy has implications not only for the constitution of the new state of Telangana and the region’s development, but also for the emergence of global society and the future development of humanity as a whole.en
dc.description.sponsorshipUniversity College Cork (W. J. Leen Scholarship)en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Version
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationDesmond, E. 2013. The legitimation of risk and democracy: A case study of Bt cotton in Andhra Pradesh, India. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.en
dc.identifier.endpage410
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/1688
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2013, Elaine Desmonden
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/en
dc.subjectRisken
dc.subjectDemocracyen
dc.subjectIndiaen
dc.subjectLegitimationen
dc.subjectDiscourse analysisen
dc.subjectCritical theoryen
dc.subjectGenetically modified cropsen
dc.thesis.opt-outfalse
dc.titleThe legitimation of risk and democracy: A case study of Bt cotton in Andhra Pradesh, Indiaen
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD (Social Science)en
ucc.workflow.supervisorg.mullally@ucc.ie
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