Much of our understanding of the world, our societies, and ourselves rests on theories and knowledge generated predominantly by men of certain nationalities and economic classes. This male-dominated and culturally specific theorizing and knowledge have generally resulted in the exclusion of women and other groups from the process of formal theorizing and knowledge building. Feminism argues that the male-dominated knowledge represents a skewed perception of reality and is only partial knowledge. Feminism is a generalized, wide-ranging system of ideas about social life and human experience developed from a woman-centered perspective. It treats women as the central subjects in the investigative process and seeks to see the world from the distinctive vantage points of women in the social world. The best way to empower women and better the situation for women is to take women's daily experiences and their informal theorizing into account and, on this basis, adopt feminist approaches to building theory and knowledge. Philosophising Experiences and Vision of the Female Body, Mind, and Soul: Historical Context and Contemporary Theory provides an overview and introduction to the study of feminist theory and practice in the social sciences. This book provides a starting point for further and more advanced study of the nexus of feminism, gender, and development and translates feminist theory and concepts into practice. The chapters investigate, in a historical context, mainstream and contemporary theories of feminism and gender studies. This book is ideal for post-graduate students of social science; researchers of development management, business management, public governance, and gender and development; activists; feminists; and practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in feminist theory and knowledge building.

This study sought to investigate the challenges faced by the informal cross border traders (ICBTs) plying the Harare -Johannesburg route from 2006 to 2010. The study shows that informal cross border traders encounter a lot of challenges during the conduct of their business. Some of these challenges, in terms of severity include border formalities, lack of government support and high transport costs. Informal traders are not organized and do not join associations. This study recommends that informal cross border traders' associations embark on recruitment campaigns to educate the informal cross border traders about the benefits they get by belonging to an association. It also encourages associations to come up with savings clubs to mobilize funds from members for loaning to those members in need at an interest. Finally it also recommends that the government come up with a set of relaxed regulations that would create a non-formal board to oversee the informal trade activities. It would then make it mandatory for informal traders to register with the board, making it easier to monitor, regulate and intervene.