Environment

Patriarchy and Progressive Politics: Gendered Resistance to Mining through Everyday Social Relations of State Formation in Intag, Ecuador

Citation:

Billo, Emily. 2020. “Patriarchy and Progressive Politics: Gendered Resistance to Mining through Everyday Social Relations of State Formation in Intag, Ecuador.” Human Geography 13 (1): 16–26. 

Author: Emily Billo

Abstract:

Over the last decade, the Ecuadorian government, following regional trends, called for social and environmental progress through state-controlled resource extraction. Scholars have demonstrated that this neo-extractive model warranted further investigation regarding its progressive aims. Specifically, this paper examines gendered critiques of state-led extractivism linked to expanding governmental and social programs. Even as women asserted their political recognition and rights in state politics, they still confronted patriarchal relations in their everyday lives. Drawing on eight months of ethnographic research over 6 years in campesino communities of Junín and Chalguayacu Alto, I argue that women in Intag challenged patriarchal state relations of extractive capitalism. This paper offers a novel contribution to literature on neo-extractivism and gendered forms of resistance. Women held the state accountable for its promises of social welfare and infrastructural development through which it generated public support for controversial mineral projects. These symbols of state paternalism revealed expanded patriarchal structures that underpinned their daily lives, with significance for a gendered politics of resistance.

Topics: Development, Environment, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Patriarchy Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Ecuador

Year: 2020

Climate Change and Gender Justice: International Policy and Legal Responses

Citation:

Kameri-Mbote, Patricia. 2013. “Climate Change and Gender Justice: International Policy and Legal Responses.” In Climate Change: International Law and Global Governance, edited by Oliver C. Ruppel, Christian Roschmann, and Katharina Ruppel-Schlichting, 1st ed., 323–48. Volume I: Legal Responses and Global Responsibility. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. 

Author: Patricia Kameri-Mbote

Abstract:

Climate change raises issues of justice for different subjects of law – states and individuals. It is therefore not surprising that international policy and legal responses to climate change took equity concerns on board by considering differentiated responsibilities for climate change and taking respective capabilities of states into account in assigning the role to protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind. While the link between gender and climate change has not always been obvious, there is increasing evidence to demonstrate that women and men experience climate change differently; that climate change increases women’s vulnerability; and gender inequalities worsen women’s coping capacities. This article looks at the relationship between gender and climate change and how international policies and laws on gender and climate change address the interface. It also highlights the increasing advocacy for the inclusion of gender justice in international climate change debates. It concludes that including gender in the laws, policies and discussions on climate change brings a critical constituency to these platforms and also enhances the effectiveness of the interventions aimed at dealing with climate change because of the roles that women play in different programmes and contexts.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Men, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Law

Year: 2013

Ecological Borderlands: Body, Nature, and Spirit in Chicana Feminism

Citation:

Holmes, Christina. 2016.  Ecological Borderlands: Body, Nature, and Spirit in Chicana Feminism. University of Illinois Press. 

Author: Christina Holmes

Abstract:

Environmental practices among Mexican American women have spurred a reconsideration of ecofeminism among Chicana feminists. This book examines ecological themes across the arts, Chicana activism, and direct action groups to reveal how Chicanas can craft alternative models for ecofeminist processes. The book revisits key debates to analyze issues surrounding embodiment, women's connections to nature, and spirituality's role in ecofeminist philosophy and practice. By doing so, it challenges Chicanas to escape the narrow frameworks of the past in favor of an inclusive model of environmental feminism that alleviates Western biases. The book uses readings of theory, elaborations of ecological narratives in Chicana cultural productions, histories of human and environmental rights struggles in the Southwest, and a description of an activist exemplar to underscore the importance of living with decolonializing feminist commitment in body, nature, and spirit. The book attempts to revitalize ecofeminist theory by investigating its intersections with other theoretical traditions, including Chicana and new materialist feminisms.

Keywords: Mexican-American women, Chicana feminism, Chicana activism, direct action groups, ecofeminism, environmental feminism, ecofeminist philosophy

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2016

Feminisms, the Environment and Capitalism: On the Necessary Ecological Dimension of a Critical Latin American Feminism

Citation:

Schild, Verónica. 2019. “Feminisms, the Environment and Capitalism: On the Necessary Ecological Dimension of a Critical Latin American Feminism.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 20 (6): 23–43.

Author: Verónica Schild

Abstract:

Latin American women are on the move today, taking their demands to the streets throughout the region in unprecedented numbers. What these demands reveal is a growing frustration and anger among women with the distance between official democratic promises and protections and the limited gains in basic rights, even the reversal of minimal achievements in places like Central America and Brazil. Feminists are weaving together different struggles into an intersectional movement explicitly linking gender demands to the end of a neoliberal capitalist model of development and its devastating social, economic and ecological effects on Latin America’s overwhelming majority. A critical Latin American feminism aimed at apprehending the present predicament of women in the region, I suggest, needs to extend its commitment to producing knowledge from below and to the left, by reaching further, and engaging critically with Marx and his feminist critics. Given the widespread impact of the present capitalist modernity, tethered to neo-extractivism, not only on the lives of peasant and indigenous Latin Americans but also of increasingly broader sectors of rural and urban society and in particular, on the lives of women, it is imperative that we understand the structural nature of the relation between women, capitalism and nature.

Topics: Development, Environment, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Intersectionality, Rights

Year: 2019

Equality, Harmony, and the Environment: An Ecofeminist Approach to Understanding the Role of Cultural Values on the Treatment of Women and Nature

Citation:

Bloodhart, Brittany, and Janet K. Swim. 2010. “Equality, Harmony, and the Environment: An Ecofeminist Approach to Understanding the Role of Cultural Values on the Treatment of Women and Nature.” Ecopsychology 2 (3): 187–94. 

Authors: Brittany Bloodhart, Janet K. Swim

Abstract:

This research investigated the associations between hegemonic cultural values, gender equality, and environmental protection. Psychologists have largely studied domination of people over other people (e.g., men over women) rather than domination of people over the environment. Ecofeminism, however, theorizes that hegemonic systems of power and oppression materialize both as domination of men over women and as domination of people over the environment, leading to degradation of the ecosystems. Consequently, we theorize that gender inequality and impacts on the natural world should be related at a national level, and that cultural tendencies to prioritize hegemonic values of hierarchy of people (rather than egalitarianism) and mastery over the environment (rather than harmony) should be related to negative environmental impacts and gender inequality. Data from the United Nations (2009) on gender equality and women's empowerment, Schwartz's (2006) assessment of cultural value orientation, and Yale's Environmental Performance Index (2008) generally support ecofeminist predictions: controlling for gross domestic product, gender empowerment is related to a country's tendency to exploit the environment, and cultural hegemonic values are predictive of gender inequality and environmental exploitation. However, gender empowerment mediates the relationship between hegemony and environmental health, whereas it is mutually predictive with hegemony of ecosystem vitality. These results may be influenced by women's representation in law and policy creation as well as by men's differential self-interest in their own health over the health of animals, the biosphere, and marginalized human groups.

Topics: Economies, Ecological Economics, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health

Year: 2010

The Gendered Criminalization of Land Defenders in Ecuador: From Individualization to Collective Resistance in Feminized Territories

Citation:

Venegas, Melissa Moreano, and Karolien van Teijlingen. 2021. “The Gendered Criminalization of Land Defenders in Ecuador: From Individualization to Collective Resistance in Feminized Territories.” In Environmental Defenders. Routledge.

Authors: Melissa Moreano Venegas, Karolien van Teijlingen

Abstract:

This chapter reflects upon two features of the violence against land and environmental defenders, anti-extraction activists, and communities that oppose extractive activities in Ecuador. The first aspect is the gendered character of this violence, which produces feminized territories; the second aspect is the perils of individualization of struggles in relation to this violence, and the benefits of its collectivization. We use a critical feminist geography perspective and base this reflection on various interviews and long-term fieldwork in the Amazon region, particularly with communities affected by extractive activities, and on the analysis of the political action of the collective Mujeres Amazónicas (Amazonian Women).

Topics: Conflict, Resource Conflict, Environment, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Gender, Indigenous Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Ecuador

Year: 2021

Gender and Climate Change Research : Moving Beyond Transformative Adaptation

Citation:

Santos, Pablo Romero-Nieva, Nikolai George Lewis Holm, Julia Olsen, and Grete K. Hovelsrud. 2020. “Gender and Climate Change Research : Moving Beyond Transformative Adaptation." Arctic Yearbook 2020: 189-218. https://nordopen.nord.no/nord-xmlui/handle/11250/2728589.

Authors: Pablo Romero-Nieva Santos, Nikolai George Lewis Holm, Julia Olsen, Greta K. Hovelsrud

Abstract:

Research on how communities in the Arctic can overcome the challenge of climate change have traditionally employed adaptation frameworks. The ability of these groups to continue thriving in the Arctic is complicated by historical, social, economic, and political complexities - issues thoroughly addressed through the postcolonial feminist concept of transformation. This article critically examines contemporary research on climate and gender, and the extent to which feminist transformative concerns are addressed, thereby challenging systems and promoting power structures that recognize or benefit all segments of society. The article adopts an analytical strategy which combines two parallel instances of critical reflection on climate research, specifically, a systematic literature review of climate and gender studies in the Canadian Arctic, and the results of a round-table workshop of international climate experts and researchers on the state of climate change, adaptation and gender research in the Arctic. The article explores the results of these analyses and distinguishes those strategies that represent a continuation of status-quo power relations and climate adaptation processes from those that account for current economic and socio-political factors.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Power Relations Regions: Europe, Nordic states Countries: Canada

Year: 2020

Rethinking Knowledge Systems for Urban Resilience: Feminist and Decolonial Contributions to Just Transformations

Citation:

Wijsman, Katinka, and Mathieu Feagan. 2019. “Rethinking Knowledge Systems for Urban Resilience: Feminist and Decolonial Contributions to Just Transformations.” Environmental Science & Policy 98 (August): 70–76..

Authors: Katinka Wijsman, Mathieu Feagan

Abstract:

Work in urban resilience planning recognizes the importance of knowledge diversity to understanding and acting on climate change, but falls short in adequately situating itself within ongoing historical processes that shape uneven urban playing fields in which planning happens. This paper uses insights from environmental feminist and decolonial knowledge politics to challenge knowledge systems analysis to explicitly question and alter structures of power in environmental knowledge making in North American cities. If knowledge systems analysis can investigate and intervene in governance structures through which environmental decision- and policy-making happen, this necessitates reflection on ontological, epistemological and ethical commitments (or ‘starting points’) as these carry material and discursive weight: they open up and foreclose ways in which resilience is practiced. Given increasing recognition that urban resilience needs to consider issues of justice and equity, in this paper we take cues from feminist and decolonial scholarship that has centered these themes for decades and which offer ‘starting points’ to rethink knowledge systems for resilience. Understanding urbanization as key process in the expansion of relations fundamental to the production of anthropocentric climate change, we argue that changing these relations is crucial if urban resilience planning is to contribute to alternative and socially just urban futures. Against tendencies of depoliticization that solutions-oriented work can sometimes exhibit, feminist and decolonial perspectives locate knowledge-making practices squarely within struggles for social justice in the city. We propose three strategies for those working on knowledge systems for resilience to advance their practice: centering justice and transgression, reflexive research practice, and thinking historically. Ultimately, this paper shows that taking seriously critical social sciences furthers fundamentally new ideas for what transitions to urban resilience could mean.

Keywords: urban planning, climate change, decolonial theory, feminist theory, knowledge systems

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Governance, Infrastructure, Urban Planning, Justice

Year: 2019

Indigenous Feminisms: Disturbing Colonialism in Environmental Science Partnerships

Citation:

Dhillon, Carla M. 2020. “Indigenous Feminisms: Disturbing Colonialism in Environmental Science Partnerships.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 6 (4): 483–500.

Author: Carla M. Dhillon

Abstract:

Efforts have been under way by Indigenous peoples to reanimate governance that includes people of all ages and genders. Simultaneous initiatives to decolonize science within environmental fields must confront how settler colonial systems can continue to operate under the guise of partnership. Indigenous feminist theories aid understanding of ongoing colonialism alongside heteropatriarchy and racism with attempts to dismantle oppression in everyday practice. The author examines governance in a North American environmental science partnership consisting of Indigenous and non-Indigenous climate scientists. Using a mixed-methods social network approach, the author evaluates central actors in the national-scale climate science organization on the basis of intersectional identities, relational ties, and structural leadership roles. Findings indicate that Indigenous women and youth were not among core governance dominated by elder Indigenous men and White women. However, Indigenous women consistently bridged distant members back into the group and provided less visible labor to support the organization. These did not translate to decision-making roles. The author argues that Indigenous values of relational reciprocity and self-determination need to supersede the rhetoric of diversity in environmental fields. The case demonstrates the importance of inclusive Indigenous governance to decolonize environmental partnerships and the potential lack of legitimacy should unexamined notions of tradition be used to obscure settler colonial dominance.

Keywords: Native Americans, climate change, social networks, inclusive governance, racism, patriarchy

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Indigenous Regions: Americas, North America

Year: 2020

At the Last Well on Earth: Climate Change Is a Feminist Issue

Citation:

Zoloth, Laurie. 2017. “At the Last Well on Earth: Climate Change Is a Feminist Issue.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 33 (2): 139–51. 

Author: Laurie Zoloth

Keywords: climate change, women, feminist

Annotation:

Summary:

"Climate change is a feminist issue. If paying attention to the lives and fate of women, concern about women’s bodies, or women’s reproductive rights, or women’s equal opportunities are central tenets of feminist ethics, then we must attend to the crisis that is climate change, which is beginning to throw these rights, bodies, and fates into chaos. In the impending environmental crisis, women and children will be the first to be harmed. All the freedoms we have obtained in the West—all the fine capacities for voice and leadership—will mean little if feminists stand by and watch the world warm, the seas rise, the climate change, the refugees struggle, and the world we share disappear. Unless we turn our scholarly attention (which is, after all, the only sort of public voice we have) toward this crisis, there will be a time when the last well is dry. And then it will be too late" (Zoloth 2017, 141). 

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Climate Displacement, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women

Year: 2017

Pages

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