Prof Andrea Cornwall

Biography

Andrea Cornwall is a political anthropologist who specializes in the anthropology of democracy, citizen participation, participatory research, gender and sexuality. She has worked on topics ranging from understanding women's perspectives on family planning, fertility and sexually transmitted infection in Nigeria and Zimbabwe, public engagement in UK regeneration programs, the quality of democratic deliberation in new democratic spaces in Brazil, the use and abuse of participatory appraisal in Kenya, domestic workers' rights activism in Brazil and sex workers' rights activism in India.

Role

Andrea Cornwall is Professor of Anthropology and Development in the School of Global Studies. 

Current research interests include:

• the politics of the body, with a particular interest in mobilization on sexual and reproductive rights;
• new democratic institutions and the potential and practice of radical democracy in non-western settings;
• states of citizenship - understanding everyday practices of citizenship in different kinds of states;
• rethinking 'gender' in development, including in relation to work with/on men and masculinities;
• development's colonial continuities.

In my work on development, I've published articles on development buzzwords, deliberative democracy, participation, citizen involvement in health policy, men and masculinities, gender and development, gender and participatory development, and sexuality and development. 

Articles drawing on my anthropological research include 'Taking Chances, Making Choices: The Tactical Dimensions of “Reproductive Strategies" in Southwestern Nigeria' (Medical Anthropology, 2007),  'Of choice, chance and contingency: Career strategies and tactics for survival among Yoruba women traders' (Social Anthropology, 2007), 'Spending Power: Love, Money and the Reconfiguration of Gender Relations in Ado-Odo, SW Nigeria' (American Ethnologist, 2002). 

I've also written articles for various online news sites and blogs on a range of issues including democracy, empowerment and participatory governance. 

Recent books include Negotiating Empowerment (co-edited with Jenny Edwards, IDS Bulletin, 2010), Democratizing Engagement: What the UK Can Learn from International Experience (Demos, 2009), Development with a Body: Sexuality, Human Rights and Development (co-edited with Sonia Correa and Susie Jolly, Zed Books, 2008), The Politics of Rights: Dilemmas for Feminist Praxis (co-edited with Maxine Molyneux, Routledge, 2008), Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: Struggles for Interpretive Power in Gender and Development (co-edited with Elizabeth Harrison and Ann Whitehead, Blackwell, 2008). 

I'm also co-author of a truer-than-fiction account of life inside an aid bureaucracy The Beast of Bureaucracy: Tales from Valhalla.

I welcome applications for DPhil study from students with interests in the following areas/topics:

• the politics and ethnography of struggles around sexual rights and gender expression in non-western contexts;
• ethnographic studies of masculinities in relation to politics and the economy, i.e. masculinities in the formal political arena, men's engagement with efforts to transform gendered inequities in the labour market and so on;
• what feminists can learn from sex workers about men, money and empowerment;
• what contemporary feminist theory might have to offer gender and development thinking and practice;
• what effects heteronormativity and the (re)-enforcement of the gender binary in gender and development policy and practice has on women's, men's and trans people's experiences of development intervention.  

Cornwall, Andrea (2013) Cultures of Politics, Spaces of Power: Contextualizing Brazilian Experiences of Participation. Journal of Power, 6 (2). pp. 309-333. ISSN 1754-0291

Cornwall, Andrea and Scoones, Ian, eds. (2011) Revolutionizing Development: Reflections on the Work of Robert Chambers. Routledge. ISBN 9781849713290

Cornwall, Prof Andrea, Edstrom, J and Greig, A, eds. (2011) Men and Development: Politicising Masculinities. Zed Books.

Cornwall, Prof Andrea, ed. (2011) The Participation Reader. Zed Books.

Cornwall, Prof Andrea and Eade, D, eds. (2010) Deconstructing Development Discourse: Buzzwords and Fuzzwords. Practical Action Publishing.

Cornwall, Andrea and Anyidoho, Nana Akua (2010) Introduction: Women's empowerment: Contentions and contestations. Development, 53 (2). pp. 144-149. ISSN 10116370

Cornwall, Andrea, Capibaribe, Fernanda and Gonçalves, Terezinha (2010) Revealed cities: A photovoice project with domestic workers in Salvador, Brazil. Development, 53 (2). Pages 299-300. ISSN 10116370

Cornwall, Andrea and Edwards, Jenny (2010) Introduction: Negotiating Empowerment. IDS Bulletin, 41 (2). pp. 1-9. ISSN 1759-5436

Cornwall, Andrea, Coelho, Vera Schattan P and Shankland, Alex (2010) Taking a seat on Brazil's health councils. openDemocracy.

Cornwall, Andrea and Pratt, Garett (2010) The use and abuse of participatory rural appraisal: reflections from practice. Agriculture and Human Values, 28 (2). pp. 263-272. ISSN 0889048X

Cornwall, Andrea and Jolly, Susan (2009) Sexuality and the development industry. Development, 52 (1). Pages 5-12. ISSN 10116370

Cornwall, Andrea, Gideon, Jasmine and Wilson, Kalpana (2008) Introduction: Reclaiming feminism: Gender and neoliberalism. IDS Bulletin, 39 (6). Pages 1-9. ISSN 02655012

Cornwall, Andrea (2008) Deliberating Democracy: Scenes from a Brazilian Municipal Health Council. Politics and Society, 36 (4). pp. 508-531. ISSN 0032-3292

Robins, Steven, Cornwall, Andrea and von Lieres, Bettina (2008) Rethinking 'citizenship' in the postcolony. Third World Quarterly, 29 (6). pp. 1069-1086. ISSN 01436597

Cornwall, Andrea, Standing, Hilary and Lynch, Andrea (2008) Introduction: Putting unsafe abortion on the development agenda. IDS Bulletin, 39 (3). pp. 1-9. ISSN 02655012

Cornwall, Andrea and Shankland, Alex (2008) Engaging citizens: lessons from building Brazil's national health system. Social Science and Medicine, 66 (10). pp. 2173-2184. ISSN 02779536

Cornwall, Andrea (2008) Democratising engagement : what the UK can learn from international experience. Demos. ISBN 9781841801988

Cornwall, Andrea, Correa, Sonia and Jolly, Susan, eds. (2008) Development with a body: sexuality, human rights and development. Zed Books. ISBN 9781842778906

Cornwall, Andrea (2008) Unpacking 'Participation': models, meanings and practices. Community Development Journal, 43 (3). pp. 269-283. ISSN 0010-3802

Cornwall, Andrea (2007) Taking chances, making choices: the tactical dimensions of 'Reproductive Strategies' in Southwestern Nigeria. Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, 26 (3). pp. 229-254. ISSN 0145-9740

Cornwall, Andrea (2007) Of choice, chance and contingency: 'Career strategies' and tactics for survival among Yoruba women traders. Social Anthropology, 15 (1). pp. 27-46. ISSN 0964-0282

Cornwall, Andrea, Harrison, Elizabeth and Whitehead, Ann (2007) Gender myths and feminist fables: the struggle for interpretive power in gender and development. Development and Change, 38 (1). pp. 1-20. ISSN 0012-155X

Cornwall, Andrea, Whitehead, Ann and Harrison , Elizabeth (2007) Special Issue: Repositioning gender in development: gender myths and feminist fables. Development and Change, 38 (1). Wiley. ISBN 0012-155X

Cornwall, Andrea and Molyneux, Maxine, eds. (2007) The Politics of Rights: Dilemmas for Feminist Praxis. Routledge, London. ISBN 9780415437721

Cornwall, Andrea (2006) Historical perspectives on participation in development. Journal of Comparative and Commonwealth Politics, 44 (1). pp. 62-83. ISSN 1466-2043

Cornwall, Andrea and Goetz, Anne-Marie (2005) Democratizing Democracy: Feminist Perspectives. Democratization, 12 (5). pp. 783-800. ISSN 1351-0347

Cornwall, Andrea and Brock, Karen (2005) What do buzzwords do for development policy: a critical look at "participation", "poverty reduction" and "empowerment". Third World Quarterly, 26(7). pp. 1043-1060. ISSN 0413-6597

Cornwall, Andrea (2003) Whose voices? Whose choices? Reflections on gender and participatory development. World Development, 31 (8). pp. 1325-1342. ISSN 0305-750X

Cornwall, Andrea (2003) To be a man is more than a day's work: Shifting ideals of manliness in Ado-Odo, S W Nigeria. In: Men and Masculinities in Modern Africa. Heinemann, Princeton, USA, pp. 230-248. ISBN 9780325002545

Cornwall, Andrea (2002) Spending power: love, money and the reconfiguration of gender relations in Ado-Odo, Southwestern Nigeria. American Ethnologist, 29 (4). pp. 963-980. ISSN 0094-0496

Cornwall, Andrea (2001) Wayward women and useless men: contest and change in gender relations in Ado-Odo. In: Wicked Women and the Reconfiguration of Gender in Africa. Social History of Africa . Heinemann. ISBN 9780325070049

Cornwall, Andrea (2000) Missing men? Reflections on men masculinities and gender in GAD. IDS Bulletin, 31 (2). pp. 18-27. ISSN 0265-5012

Cornwall, Andrea (2000) Beneficiary consumer citizen: perspectives on participation for poverty reduction. SIDA studies, 2 . Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. ISBN 9789158689190

Cornwall, Andrea (1998) Gender participation and the politics of difference. In: The Myth of Community: Gender Issues in Participatory Development. Intermediate Technology Publications, London, pp. 46-57. ISBN 1853394211

Cornwall, Andrea (1997) Men masculinity and 'gender in development'. Gender and Development, 5 (2). 8- 13. ISSN 13552074