understanding of development processes on the experiences of poor women
throughout the Third World.

This volume draws principally on the papers and discussions from a
workshop held in Cocoyoc, near Mexico City, in 1992. A selection of the
chapters, which were commissioned by the project for the workshop, was edited
for and forms the core of this volume, together with additional chapters by
researchers invited to attend the workshop. The editors have provided an
introduction, which is drawn in part from the original project proposal to the
MacArthur Foundation, and a conclusion, which summarizes much of the
discussion at the workshop. Discussions at the workshop were greatly assisted
by a talented and lively group of commentators. They included: Peggy
Antrobus ( University of the West Indies), Jane Collins ( University of Wisconsin,
Madison), Sonia Correa ( SOS Corpo, Brazil), Magali Daltabuit
( CRIM-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca), Haudea
Izazola ( Mexican Demographic Society), Elizabeth Jelãn ( Instituto de
Investigaciones Sociales, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos
Aires), Francis Lelo ( Egerton University, Kenya), Cheywa Spindel ( Instituto de
Estudos Econômicos, Sociais e Politicos de São Paulo, Brazil) and Margarita
Velàzquez ( Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico).

This undertaking was generously funded by the MacArthur Foundation, with
additional funding from the John Merck Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation.

The editors are grateful for the substantial contributions of Rosina Wiltshire
and Alberto Palloni in crafting the foundation proposals and planning the
workshop. Much of the material in Chapters 1 and 11, as well as the overall
project design, reflects their contributions. The editors are also grateful for the
work of Richard Rockwell, then with the SSRC and now with the
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, who shepherded
the project in its early stages and contributed greatly to the early written
formulations of the project, some of which are reflected in Chapter 1. The
editors also benefitted from comments in the early stages of the project from
individual members of SSRC's committees and from the insightful reviews of
Emilio Moran and Roger Kasperson. Valuable editorial and administrative
assistance was provided by Alexandra Cordero, Susan Forester, Sarah Gordon,
Susan Merryman and Felicia Sullivan of the SSRC.

Lourdes Arizpe
M. Priscilla Stone
David C. Major

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