Ester Boserup
Ester Boserup | |
---|---|
Born | Ester Børgesen 18 May 1910 |
Died | 24 September 1999 | (aged 89)
Nationality | Danish |
Academic career |
Ester Boserup (18 May 1910[1] – 24 September 1999) was a Danish economist. She studied economic and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations as well as other international organizations, and wrote seminal books on agrarian change and the role of women in development.
Boserup is known for her theory of agricultural intensification, also known as Boserup's theory, which posits that population change drives the intensity of agricultural production. Her position countered the
Her other major work, Woman's Role in Economic Development, explored the allocation of tasks between men and women, and inaugurated decades of subsequent work connecting issues of gender to those of economic development, pointing out that many economic burdens fell disproportionately on women.[3] In an early review, her book was called "pioneering;" nearly five decades later, it has proved influential, having been cited by thousands of other works.[4]
It was her great belief that humanity would always find a way and was quoted in saying "The power of ingenuity would always outmatch that of demand". She also influenced the debate on women in the workforce and human development, and the possibility of better opportunities of work and education for women.
Her work earned her three honorary doctorate degrees: one from
Biography
Her father was a Danish engineer, who died when she was 2 years old. The family was almost destitute for several years. Then, "encouraged by her mother and aware of her limited prospects without a good degree,"[7] she studied economic and agricultural development at the University of Copenhagen from 1929, and obtained her degree in theoretical economics in 1935.
Ester had married Mogens Boserup when both were twenty-one; the young couple lived on his allowance from his well-off family during their remaining university years.[7] Their daughter, Birte, was born in 1937; their sons Anders, in 1940, and Ivan, in 1944.
After graduation Boserup worked for the Danish government from 1935–1947, right through the Nazi occupation in WWII. As head of its planning office, she worked on studies involving the effects of subsidies on trade. She made almost no reference to conflicts between family and work during her lifetime. The family moved to Geneva in 1947 to work with the UN Economic Commission of Europe (ECE). In 1957, she and Mogens worked in India in a research project run by
Work
Scholarly contributions
Her first major work, The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change Under Population Pressure, laid out her thesis, informed by her experience in India in opposition to many views of the time.[6]
According to
Although Boserup is widely regarded as being anti-Malthusian, both her insights and those of Malthus can be comfortably combined within the same general theoretical framework.[9]
Boserup argued that when
Boserupian Theory
Although Boserup's original theory was highly simplified and generalized, it proved instrumental in understanding agricultural patterns in
Originally published in 1965, The Conditions of Agricultural Growth has been republished at least 16 times afterward and has been translated into at least four additional languages.[6]
Gender studies
Boserup also contributed to the discourse surrounding
Woman's Role in Economic Development, too, has been republished many times, appearing in print in at least a half dozen languages.[6]
Selected bibliography
Development economics |
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Economies by region |
Economic growth theories |
Fields and subfields |
Lists |
Books
- Boserup, Ester (1965). The conditions of agricultural growth: the economics of agrarian change under population pressure. London: Allen & Unwin. OCLC 231372. Pdf version.
- Reprinted as: Boserup, Ester (2005). The conditions of agricultural growth: the economics of agrarian change under population pressure. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Aldine Transaction. ISBN 9780202307930.
- Reprinted as: Boserup, Ester (2005). The conditions of agricultural growth: the economics of agrarian change under population pressure. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Aldine Transaction.
- Boserup, Ester (1970). Woman's role in economic development. London: George Allen & Unwin.
- Reprinted as: Boserup, Ester (2007). Woman's role in economic development. London Sterling, Virginia: Earthscan. ISBN 9781844073924.
- Reprinted as: Boserup, Ester (2007). Woman's role in economic development. London Sterling, Virginia: Earthscan.
- Boserup, Ester; Sachs, Ignacy (1971). Foreign aid to newly independent countries problems and orientations = Aide extérieure aux pays récemment indépendants: problèmes et orientations. The Hague: Mouton. ISBN 9783111557120.
- Boserup, Ester (1981). Population and technological change: a study of long-term trends. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226066745.
- Boserup, Ester (1981). Population and technology. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780631133711.
- Boserup, Ester (1998). My professional life and publications, 1929-1998. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 9788772895208.
Chapters in books
- Boserup, Ester (1975), "Women in the labour market", in OCLC 1646453.
- Boserup, Ester (1985), "The impact of scarcity and plenty on development", in Rotberg, Robert I.; Rabb, Theodore K. (eds.), Hunger and history: the impact of changing food production and consumption patterns on society, Cambridge Cambridgeshire New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 185–210, ISBN 9780521315050.
- Boserup, Ester (1997), "The economics of polygamy", in Grinker, Roy Richard; Steiner, Christopher B. (eds.), Perspectives on Africa: a reader in culture, history, and representation, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, pp. 506–517, ISBN 9781557866868.
Journal articles
- Boserup, Ester (1975). "The impact of population growth on agricultural output". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 89 (2): 257–270. JSTOR 1884430.
- Boserup, Ester (1976). "Environment, population, and technology in primitive societies". Population and Development Review. 2 (1): 21–36. JSTOR 1971529. Pdf version.
References
- ^ "Boserup, Ester". Library of Congress. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
data sheet. (b. 5-18-10)
- ^ Andrew C. Revkin, "An Ecologist Explains His Contested View of Planetary Limits", The New York Times, 16 September 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9780253218193.
- ^ Dodge, Norton T. (1973) "Women in Economic Development: A Review Essay." International Review of Education, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 161-166
- ^ S2CID 141638385. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
- ^ PMID 21135227.
- ^ a b c Tinker, Irene (9–10 March 2001). "Ester Boserup: a tribute (presented at Global Tensions Conference held at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York)". via WordPress.
- S2CID 154926911. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
- ^ Turchin and Nefedov: Secular Cycles
- .
- JSTOR 142848.
The paper first summarizes Boserup's theory of agricultural change and dispels the misconceptions to which it has given rise. It then attempts to recast the theory in a systems framework and thereby to eliminate certain fundamental weaknesses in it....
- ISSN 0804-3639. Archived from the original(PDF) on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
Summary: Subsequently to the Brundtland Report, the 1992 Earth Summit, and the resu1ting Agenda 21, the issue of population and development has increasingly evolved into discussion on the "population, environment and development nexus". In the face of this new mandate for research on population, environment and development dynamics, theoretical frameworks are limited. Conceptual thinking on population and environment within both the social and natural sciences has traditionally suffered from a long-term confinement within opposing "Malthusian" versus "Cornucopian" views. The work of Ester Boserup, however, continues to transcend the boundaries of this polarized discourse. This paper reviews the main points of Boserupian theory and its relevance to developing regions, in particular to sub-Saharan Africa. Recent reinterpretations of Boserup's work relevant to population and environment relationships in developing countries are also considered.
- ISBN 9781844073924.
Further reading
- Festschrift volume. Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Anette Reenberg, Anke Schaffartzik, Andreas Mayer (eds.) 2014. Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability: Orientations for Contemporary Research. Springer
- ISBN 9780415934411
- Turner II, B. L.; Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (2010). "Ester Boserup: An interdisciplinary visionary relevant for sustainability". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107 (51): 21963–21965. PMID 21135227.
- Map of Mauritius.
- Powerpoint presentation: Population case study - Mauritius.
- Oxford Dictionary of Geography: Böserup model.
- Giovanni Federico's review of The conditions of agricultural growth: the economics of agrarian change under population pressure by Ester Boserup.
- Agricultural change theory by G.D. Stone, including a section on Boserup.
- Boserup's optimistic view of population growth.
- Detailed account of Boserup's life by Irene Tinker.