Coloniality/Post-Coloniality

Thinking Eco-Feminism

Citation:

Jahanbegloo, Ramin, and Vandana Shiva. 2013. “Thinking Eco-Feminism.” In Talking Environment: Vandana Shiva in Conversation with Ramin Jahanbegloo. Oxford University Press.

Authors: Ramin Jahanbegloo, Vandana Shiva

Abstract:

In this section, Vandana Shiva talks about her book Ecofeminism, which offers a critique of patriarchal violence, capitalism, and colonialism. She comments on the reductive nature of scientific reasoning and argues that reductionism influences the way people think about the world around them. Discussing the connection between reduction and science, Vandana views eco-feminism as recognition of the conquest of nature and the conquest of human beings. She explains how reductionist science results in ignorance; how science is related to techno-science; and techno-science as a form of knowledge. Moreover, she emphasizes the role of mutual care and love in a global civil society; biodiversity and the plurality of knowledge in a community; how corporations and scientists are harming nature and biodiversity; eco-feminism and the feminism of ordinary women; poverty in India; how Indians can fight corruption; and the negative impact of globalization on spirituality and the ‘sacredness of life’.

Keywords: Vandana Shiva, ecofeminism, India, poverty, corruption, reductionism, eco-feminism, techno-science, feminism, spirituality

Topics: Civil Society, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Globalization, Livelihoods, Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2013

A Materialist Ecofeminist Reading of the Green Economy: Or, Yes Karl, the Ecological Footprint is Sex-Gendered

Citation:

Salleh, Ariel. 2020. "A Materialist Ecofeminist Reading of the Green Economy: Or, Yes Karl, the Ecological Footprint is Sex-Gendered." In The Routledge Handbook of Transformative Global Studies, edited by Hamed Hosseini, James Goodman, Sara Motta, and Barry Gills. New York: Routledge.

Author: Ariel Salleh

Abstract:

This chapter tells how the Green Economy ideology came to dominate international politics, but remains capitalist patriarchal, colonising, and environmentally ineffective. If policy makers, scholars, and activists, look more closely at differences of class, ethnicity, and especially sex-gender, they will see that responsibility for the global ‘ecological footprint’ is not equally shared. Comparison of consumer lifestyles versus ecosufficient provisioning reveals that workers from the non-monetised domestic and geographic peripheries of capital already practice a logic of sustainability. The hands-on multi-tasking labours of this ‘meta-industrial class’ lead to a skill-set that meets everyday needs while keeping the humanity– nature metabolism intact. Advocates of the Green Economy and more recent Sustainable Development Goals respond to global crises with business as usual, tech fixes, and ecological modernist policy. This externalises material costs on to less powerful communities and the ecosystem at large. Refusing this destructive cycle of entitlement and denial, people’s philosophies from ecofeminism to buen vivir are now joining together to create alternative futures.

Topics: Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2020

Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern

Citation:

Salleh, Ariel. 2017. Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern, 2nd edition. London: Zed Books.

Author: Ariel Salleh

Annotation:

Summary:
Exploring the philosophical and political challenges of bridging feminist and ecological concerns, Ecofeminism as Politics argues that ecofeminism reaches beyond contemporary social movements as a political synthesis of four revolutions in one, taking in ecology, feminism, socialism, and postcolonial struggle.
 
Informed by a critical postmodern reading of Marxism, Ecofeminism as Politics integrates discourses on science, the body, culture, nature, and political economy. Highlighting the importance of finding commonalities between ecofeminist and indigenous struggles, Salleh offers a groundbreaking discussion of deep ecology, social ecology, eco-socialism, and postmodern feminism through the lens of an ecofeminist deconstruction. (Summary from Amazon)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Ecology Reframes History
 
2. Ecofeminist Actions
 
3. Body Logic: 1/0 Culture
 
4. Man/Woman=Nature
 
5. For and Against Marx
 
6. The Deepest Contradiction
 
7. When Feminism Fails
 
8. Terra Nullius
 
9. A Barefoot Epistemology
 
10. As Energy/Labour Flows
 
11. Agents of Complexity
 
12. Beyond Virtual Movements

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Year: 2017

Ecofeminism in Dialogue

Citation:

Vacoch, Douglas A, and Sam Mickey, eds. 2017. Ecofeminism in Dialogue. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Authors: Douglas A. Vacoch, Sam Mickey

Annotation:

Summary:
There are countless ways of thinking, feeling, and acting like an ecofeminist. Ecofeminism includes a plurality of perspectives, thriving in dialogue between diverse theories and practices involving ecological and feminist matters of concern. Deepening the dialogue, the contributors in this anthology explore critical and complementary interactions between ecofeminism and other areas of inquiry, including ecocriticism, postcolonialism, geography, environmental law, religion, geoengineering, systems thinking, family therapy, and more. This volume aims to further the cultural and literary theories of ecofeminism by situating them in conversation with other interpretations and analyses of intersections between environment, gender, and culture. This anthology is a unique combination of contemporary, interdisciplinary, and global perspectives in dialogue with ecofeminism, supporting academic and activist efforts to resist oppression and domination and cultivate care and justice. (Summary from Amazon)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Ecofeminist, Post-Colonial, and Anti-Capitalist Possibilities in Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring
Anna Bedford
 
2. “I Learnt All the Words and Broke Them Up / To Make a Single Word: Homeland”: An Eco-Postcolonial Perspective of Resistance in Palestinian’s Women’s Literature
Benay Blend
 
3. Pylons, Playgrounds, and Power Situations: Ecofeminism and Landscape in Women’s Short Fiction from Wales
Michelle Deininger
 
4. Angela Carter’s Postmodern Wolf Tales
Karen Ya-Chu Yang
 
5. “If Only I had Petals, my Situations Would be Different”: The Curious Case of Nature Reserves and Shelters for Battered Women
Edna Gorney
 
6. Leaning into the Light: Toward an Ecofeminist Model of Family Therapy
Gail Grossman Freyne
 
7. Technofeminism and Ecofeminism: An Analysis of Geoengineering Research
Tina Sikka
 
8. Weaving Ecofeminisms and Spiritualities: Reflections from Latin American Women
Ann Hidalgo
 
9. Women, Water, and Ecofeminism: A Method to Respond to the Commodification of Water
Rachel Hart Winter
 
10. Hope Over Powerlessness: McFague’s Meditation on the World as God’s Body
Rebecca Meier-Rao
 
11. Dilemmas and Possibilities of Online Activism in a Gendered Space
Jessica McLean
 
12. Mapping and Misrecognition: Ecofeminist Insights into Chicana Feminist Aesthetics
Christina Holmes
 
13. Ecofeminist Potentials for International Environmental Law
Kate Wilkinson Cross

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Domestic Violence, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, International Law, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Justice Regions: MENA, Americas, Central America, South America, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories, United Kingdom

Year: 2018

Feminist Interventions on Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Citation:

Ansorg, Nadine, Toni Haastrup, and Katharine Wright. 2020. “Feminist Interventions on Foreign Policy and Diplomacy.” In Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research, edited by Catia Confortini and Tarja Väyrynen. Taylor & Francis Group.

Authors: Nadine Ansorg, Toni Haastrup, Katharine Wright

Abstract:

In this chapter, we examine the contributions of feminist scholarship and activism to the discourses and practices of foreign policy and diplomacy. From the changes in the make of foreign policy actors to include more women, to the implications of the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the nascent adoption of Feminist Foreign Policy by some countries, we show how feminism has been fundamental to the evolution international politics’ search for peace. We nevertheless highlight persistent blind spots and unintended consequences of the ‘feminist’ turn in foreign policy and diplomatic practice highlighting their challenges to credible ethical practices of states. As we argue, states located in the Global North are more predisposed to branding their foreign policy as ‘feminist’. The implementation of feminist foreign policy for the distant other obscures domestic realities, while reinforcing colonial logics. We conclude that while this feminist turn has given more space for feminist interventions, the adoption of an ethical code is crucial when tackling tensions and contradictions between idealism and pragmatism in feminist foreign policy.

Keywords: feminism, FFP, foreign policy, diplomacy

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Feminist Foreign Policy, Peace and Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2020

A Green New Deal for Social Work

Citation:

Bhuyan, Rupaleem, Stéphanie Wahab, and Yoosun Park. 2019. "A Green New Deal for Social Work." Affilia 34 (3): 289-94.

Authors: Rupaleem Bhuyan, Stephanie Wahab, Yoosun Park

Annotation:

Summary:
"In this editorial, we consider what climate action would mean for the social work profession. We first review some of the Green New Deal proposals in the United Kingdom, Canada, and in the United States that emerged in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. We then discuss scholarship from a growing contingent of scholars who outline environmental, sustainable, and ecological frameworks for social work research and practice. Drawing upon ecofeminist and decolonial praxis, we then consider the potential for what Malin and Ryder (2018) calls a “deeply intersectional” framework that addresses “intersecting forms of structural environmental injustice and dominant ideologies that operate as classist, racist, sexist, nativist, ableist, homophobic, and anthropocentric matrices of domination” (p. 1). Whether or not the Green New Deal proposals are politically feasible amid the rise of Trump-styled right-wing populism, the urgency to address climate change compels social work practitioners, educators, and researchers to embrace Grace Lee Bogg’s suggestion “not to continue in the same old way” but to embrace a vision of social work that is committed to restoring human well-being and the natural world" (Bhuyan et al 2019, 290).

Topics: Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Intersectionality, Livelihoods, Race, Sexuality Regions: Americas, North America, Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America

Year: 2019

Cleared for Investment? The Intersections of Transnational Capital, Gender, and Race in the Production of Sexual Violence and Internal Displacement in Colombia's Armed Conflict

Citation:

Sachseder, Julia. 2020. “Cleared for investment? The Intersections of Transnational Capital, Gender, and Race in the Production of Sexual Violence and Internal Displacement in Colombia’s Armed Conflict.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (2): 162-86.

Author: Julia Sachseder

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
Investigating the nexus of transnational capital, gender, and race, I argue that sexual violence and internal displacement tacitly serve the interest of transnational corporations (TNCs). Drawing on extensive ethnographic research in war-torn regions in Colombia, I elucidate how violence is deeply intertwined in the globalization of neoliberal capitalism and operates by exploiting and instrumentalizing constructions of gender and race that are articulated through colonial legacies and further dehumanize the “Other.” The focus on intersectional power relations advances a critical understanding of the political economy of armed conflict. First, it reveals how local and global (economic) actors are entrenched in exacerbating local forms of domination that produce sexual violence and internal displacement through a particular political economy of masculinity and neoliberal forms of expansion and exploitation. Beyond that, both forms of violence are not only the product of colonial, capitalist, and gendered structures and ideas but also serve to re-entrench these power relations between dominant and subaltern groups. I conceptualize this relationship as the “coloniality of violence.” It constitutes a shared space for violent forms of domination and appropriation that facilitates capital accumulation, and it may further foster a relation of structural oppression in “post-conflict” Colombia.
 
GERMAN ABSTRACT:
Mit Blick auf das Verhältnis von transnationalem Kapital, Geschlecht und “race” wird in diesem Artikel erarbeitet, wie sexuelle Gewalt und innere Vertreibung dem Interesse transnationaler Konzerne dienen. Auf Basis umfassender ethnografischer Forschung in einigen vom Krieg betroffenen Regionen Kolumbiens zeige ich den Zusammenhang zwischen politischer Gewalt und der Globalisierung des neoliberalen Kapitalismus auf. Dieser beutet Konstruktionen von Geschlecht und “race” aus, die im Kolonialismus verankert sind. Der Rückgriff und die Instrumentalisierung dieser (post)kolonialen Zuschreibungen helfen dabei, bestimmte Gruppen in Begriffen “der Anderen” zu kategorisieren und sie weitgehend zu dehumanisieren. Der Fokus auf intersektionale Macht- und Herrschaftsverhältnisse trägt somit zu einem kritischen Verständnis der politischen Ökonomie bewaffneter Konflikte bei. Erstens wird aufgezeigt, wie lokale und globale (ökonomische) Akteure soziale Ungleichheiten verstärken und durch eine spezifische politische Ökonomie von Männlichkeit und neoliberale Formen der Expansion und Ausbeutung sexuelle Gewalt und innerer Vertreibung hervorbringen. Darüber hinaus ist politische Gewalt nicht nur das Produkt kolonialer, kapitalistischer und geschlechtsspezifischer Strukturen und Diskurse sondern dient auch dazu, diese gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse zwischen dominanten und subalternen Gruppen zu verfestigen. Dieses Verhältnis fasse ich mit dem Begriff der “Kolonialität der Gewalt.” Dieser stellt einen gemeinsamen Raum für gewaltvolle Formen der Beherrschung und Aneignung dar, der Kapitalakkumulation erleichtert und strukturelle Unterdrückung in der sogenannten Nachkriegszeit in Kolumbien forciert.
 
SPANISH ABSTRACT:
En mi investigación sobre la interrelación entre capital transnacional y formas de opresión basadas en concepciones de género y raza argumento que la violencia sexual y el desplazamiento interno sirven implícitamente a los intereses de los grandes grupos transnacionales. Partiendo de una investigación etnográfica integral en regiones afectadas por el conflicto armado en Colombia ilustro de qué manera la violencia está asociada a la globalización del capitalismo neoliberal y explico el mecanismo funcional subyacente que consiste en instrumentalizar y explotar construcciones de género y de raza que se manifiestan a través de históricos vínculos coloniales los cuales contribuyen a deshumanizar al “Otro.” El objetivo consiste en alcanzar una comprensión crítica de la economía política en el marco de un conflicto armado a través de un enfoque centrado en la interseccionalidad de las relaciones de poder. De esta manera se revela el arraigo profundo de las actores (económicos) locales y globales en formas locales de dominio, fenómenos que a su vez contribuyen a exacerbar la violencia sexual y el desplazamiento interno en Colombia por medio de una economía política basada en un determinado concepto de masculinidad y en formas neoliberales de expansión y explotación. Así mismo, ambas formas de violencia no solamente se pueden ver como resultado de determinadas estructuras e ideas coloniales, capitalistas y de género sino que sirven también para consolidar tales relaciones de poder entre grupos dominantes y subalternos. Conceptualizo esta relación cómo “colonialidad de violencia” que a su vez constituye un escenario compartido para formas violentas de dominación y apropiación. Considerada en su conjunto la colonialidad de violencia fomenta la acumulación de capital estimulando de esta manera una relación de opresión estructural y violenta en la Colombia del llamado “posconflicto.”

Keywords: Gender, race, transnational capital, sexual violence, Colombian armed conflict

Topics: Armed Conflict, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Economies, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Intersectionality, Political Economies, Post-Conflict, Race, Sexual Violence, Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2020

Black Women’s Struggles against Extractivism, Land Dispossession, and Marginalization in Colombia

Citation:

Hernández Reyes, Castriela Esther. 2019. "Black Women’s Struggles against Extractivism, Land Dispossession, and Marginalization in Colombia." Latin American Perspectives 46 (2): 217-34.

Author: Castriela Esther Hernández Reyes

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
The neocolonial turn toward extractivism intensifies the use of violence while fostering land dispossession, racism, and militarization of social life. Afro-Colombian women resist this process by using their subjectivities politically, strategically, discursively, and textually. An examination through the lens of black/decolonial feminism of the first national Mobilization for the Care of Life and Ancestral Territories, led by 40 black women from the Department of Cauca in 2014, shows that black women’s emotions and collective affections were driving forces that exhibited both their exclusions and their resistance. These feelings may be seen as catalysts through which their lived experiences are expressed and performed in the material world. Examination of this event suggests that a more radical analysis of black women’s historicity, subjectivities, and struggles is needed to better capture and understand experience-based epistemologies that challenge hegemonic forms of knowledge production.
SPANISH ABSTRACT:
El giro neocolonial hacia el extractivismo intensifica el uso de la violencia al tiempo que fomenta el despojo de tierras, el racismo y la militarización de la vida social. Las mujeres afrocolombianas se resisten a este proceso utilizando sus subjetividades políticas, estratégica, discursiva y textualmente. Un examen a través del feminismo negro/decolonial de la primera movilización nacional por el Cuidado de la Vida y los Territorios Ancestrales, liderada por 40 mujeres negras del Departamento del Cauca en 2014, revele que las emociones y los afectos colectivos de las mujeres negras fueron fuerzas impulsoras que exibian tanto sus exclusiones como sus formas de resistencia. Estos sentimientos pueden verse como catalizadores a través de los cuales sus experiencias vividas se expresan y realizan en el mundo material. El examen de este evento sugiere que se necesita un análisis más radical de la historicidad, las subjetividades y las luchas de las mujeres afrodescendientes para captar y comprender mejor las epistemologías basadas en la experiencia que desafían las formas hegemónicas de producción de conocimiento.

Keywords: Afro-Colombian women, neocolonial extractivism, racialized capitalism, Afro-aesthetic and emotion politics, political subjectivities, black/decolonial feminism

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Extractive Industries, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Political Participation, Race, Rights, Land Rights, Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2019

Mundane Peace and the Politics of Vulnerability: A Nonsolid Feminist Research Agenda

Citation:

Väyrynen, Tarja. 2019. “Mundane Peace and the Politics of Vulnerability: A Nonsolid Feminist Research Agenda.” Peacebuilding 7 (2): 146–59.

Author: Tarja Väyrynen

Abstract:

This article draws on critical feminist theorising and post-colonial theories of the body, relatedness, vulnerability and the everyday to offer an alternative framing of peace and suggest a new research agenda. Although there are multiple ontologies in feminist peace theory, the concern for marginalisation and the understanding of the relational and vulnerable nature of human existence are the key contributions that enable a new take on mundane practices of peace. The article argues that traditional ways of thinking about peace ignore the notion that peace is best studied as an event that arises within mundane and corporeal encounters. Furthermore, the article provides a novel take on eventness that centers peace in the lives of ordinary people, and develops the concept of choreography as a means to grasp the richness and fluidity of the everyday techniques of interaction that are relevant for peace.

Keywords: peace, mundane, Gender, feminist theory, vulnerability

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Peacebuilding

Year: 2019

Critical Peace and Conflict Studies: Feminist Interventions

Citation:

McLeod, Laura, and Maria O’Reilly. 2019. “Critical Peace and Conflict Studies: Feminist Interventions.” Peacebuilding 7 (2): 127–45.

Authors: Laura McLeod, Maria O’Reilly

Abstract:

Critical Peace and Conflict Studies (PCS) as a field cares about gender. Yet, feminist work frequently receives token acknowledgement by critical scholars rather than sustained engagement and analysis. This Special Issue demonstrates why critical PCS needs feminist epistemologies, methodologies, and empirical analyses. In this introductory article, we deploy a feminist genealogical analysis of the ‘four generations’ of PCS and argue that the ghettoization of ‘gender issues’ marginalises feminist work within academia, policy, and practice. Critical PCS research has taken inspiration from feminist scholars, however there remain opportunities for deeper conversations. Addressing this marginalisation matters if we wish to decolonise PCS and develop a nuanced sensory perception of peace and conflict. Furthermore, engaging with feminist ideas can directly contribute to building more meaningful, sustainable, and equitable forms of peace. In short: feminist insights are crucial to prompting a deeper and more transformative dialogue within the scholarship and practice of critical PCS.

Keywords: Gender, peacebuilding, feminism, peace and conflict studies (PCS), four generations

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding

Year: 2019

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