This study examines the nature of two women's activist groups in Madras and their activities since 1979, focusing on their work with the media, slum issues, registration of marriages and initiation of an apprenticeship scheme. But this volume is more than a study of women and their organisations. It is a study of political processes in which women are active, an attempt to discuss women's political behaviour in male-dominated society where official bodies, as well as the academic world, pay attention to 'women's issues' but where women as political actors continue to be invisible.

This study examines the nature of two women's activist groups in Madras and their activists since 1979, focusing on their work on the media, slum issues, registration of marriages and initiation of an apprenticeship scheme. It also studies political processes in which women are involved, attempting to discuss women's political behaviour in male-dominated society where official bodies, as well as the academic world, pay attention to "women's issues" but where women as political actors continue to be invisible.

What goes on inside a non-governmental organisation, and how does it develop over time? In spite of an abundance of NGO studies, surprisingly few investigate this. NGOs, in spite of the general meaninglessness and blurred nature of the term, tend to be taken for granted as bounded entities that act rationally to achieve their aims, and as units for analysis on a par with "the state," "civil society" and "the poor." This book explores the inner life of one Indian NGO - Unnayan - in Calcutta from the 1970s till the late 1990s. The study attempts to transgress often artificially constructed boundaries between segments in society and interpret social and political NGO activism in a fluid and shifting urban environment. The focus is Unnayan's institutional development and its nature of personal and associational interaction. The study reveals intricate webs of relationships, and a universe characterised by subtle domain formations, where loyalties and micro- alliances cut across the organisation - and out of it - in multi-layered ways, and where individuals competed for influence and authority.

Japanese culture appears to be found 'everywhere' in the West today. Sushi, sudoku, origami, sumo, manga, anime, and pokemon have become familiar idioms, especially among younger people. Norwegian interest in Japan, however, is not a recent phenomenon. In spite of the geographical and cultural distance, Norway and Japan have developed relations in a number of fields since the turn of the twentieth century, and even before. When the first Norwegian missionaries arrived in Japan after the Second World War, other Norwegians had long since become acquainted with the country.Japanese aesthetic trends were known in Europe from the second half of the nineteenth century, and influenced Scandinavian artistic expressions. There was, as well, considerable Norwegian interest in the commercial potential of Japan's expanding whaling and shipping industry. Shortly after Norway's independence, the country opened its first legation in Tokyo. Although the Second World War disrupted the diplomatic relations, contact between the two countries has steadily increased since the 1950s. At the turn of the twenty-first century, Japan had become Norway's most important trading partner in Asia. This book is based on rich empirical material and examines some of the fascinating stories that form the basis and background for today's close and cordial relationship between Norway and Japan.