Western science and technology are the motors that drive social progress; no other knowledge system comes anywhere close. It's a widely held view, an example of Western exceptionalism and triumphalism -- but is it correct? The philosopher of science Sandra Harding talks about knowledge appropriation, the failure of "development," and the value and sophistication of non-Western ways of thinking.

You call an 800 number for technical support, and you get a person in India. Thousands of workers at call centers in that country serve the customers of major transnational corporations. Radha Hegde describes what the new high-tech work environments in Bangalore, India are doing to gender relations, class distinctions, and cultural attitudes. Also, Martha Burk weighs in on anti-woman political rhetoric.

US feminists in the 1960s and 70s did not build coalitions across racial and ethnic lines. Was that because women of color were put off by white feminist racism? Benita Roth rejects this argument; she contends that second wave feminists' adoption of a New Left ethos of "organizing one's own" militated against the formation of cross-racial coalitions.

Must this nation's founding narrative be premised on white European superiority and their "civilizing" mission? Cari Carpenter finds in Sarah Winnemucca's book Life Among the Piutes both an alternative origin story of the US and a direct challenge to the myth of the vanishing Indian. Also, Andrea Smith talks about the role of indigenous ideas in anti-violence movement theorizing.

Thousands of women and girls are murdered every year by their brothers, fathers, and other male relatives. If these killings are explained or justified as a matter of family honor, how should we respond? And how has popular revulsion toward so-called honor killings been used politically? Jordanian journalist Rana Husseini is the author of Murder in the Name of Honor.

How strong are social pressures to act in a certain way, and what does that have to do with sexual assault and rape? Julia Serano explores the impact of the sexual predator/prey mindset on both women and men. Jill Filipovic asserts that rape is, among other things, a tool of social control; the constant threat of rape, she contends, keeps women afraid and in line.