Ecofeminism

The End of Nature and the Human: A Global South Ecofeminist Approach to the Anthropocene

Abigail Pérez Aguilera

April 11, 2024

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The Climate Crisis and a 'Just Transition' in South Africa: an Eco-Feminist-Socialist Perspective

Citation:

Cock, Jacklyn. 2018. “The Climate Crisis and a ‘Just Transition’ in South Africa: An Eco-Feminist-Socialist Perspective.” In The Climate Crisis: South African and Global Democratic Eco-Socialist Alternatives, edited by Vishwas Satgar, 210–30. Wits University Press.

Author: Jacklyn Cock

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Ecofeminism Regions: Africa, Southern Africa

Year: 2018

"Para el Bien Común" Indigenous Women's Environmental Activism and Community Care Work in Guatemala

Citation:

Hallum-Montes, Rachel. 2012. “‘Para El Bien Común’ Indigenous Women’s Environmental Activism and Community Care Work in Guatemala.” Race, Gender & Class 19 (1/2): 104–30.

Author: Rachel Hallum-Montes

Abstract:

This article adopts an "eco-intersectional" perspective to examine the motivations and strategies that guide indigenous women's environmental activism in Guatemala. A total of 33 indigenous Kaqchikel women who work with a transnational environmental organization were interviewed in 2006 and 2009. The interviews reveal that gender, race, and class figured prominently in women's decisions to become environmental activists. Women mobilized around their identities as mothers and caregivers, and viewed their environmental activism as a way of caring for both their families and the indigenous community. Women also linked their local activism to larger social movements—including the indigenous, women's, and environmental movements. The article concludes by discussing recommendations for academic, activist, and policy work.

Keywords: gender, indigenous, environment, Guatemala, ecofeminism

Topics: Economies, Care Economies, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Race Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: Guatemala

Year: 2012

Is This the Future We Want? An Ecofeminist Comment on the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Outcome Document

Citation:

Wilkinson, Kate. 2016. “Is This the Future We Want? An Ecofeminist Comment on the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Outcome Document.” In The Public Law of Gender: From the Local to the Global, edited by Kim Rubenstein and Katharine G. Young, 538–60. Cambridge University Press.

Author: Kate Wilkinson

Annotation:

Summary:
"In 2012, governments and people from across the globe reconvened in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), twenty years after the landmark UN Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED). This conference was part of a long political process to refine and implement the concept of sustainable development so as to achieve the interrelated policy aims of environmental sustainability and socioeconomic development. At the UNCSD, governments met with one main objective: to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development. In order to achieve this, governments agreed to discuss three thematic areas in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. Two of these themes considered the green economy in the context of the latter and an institutional framework for sustainable development. The Conference resulted in a political Outcome Document, entitled the ‘The Future We Want’, which compiled the views, aspirations and objectives of governments to achieve sustainable development" (
Wilkinson 2016, 538-39).

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Year: 2016

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

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

Tracing the Ecological Footprints of our Foremothers: Towards an African Feminist Approach to Women’s Connectedness with Nature

Citation:

Siwila, Lilian Cheelo. 2014. “Tracing the Ecological Footprints of our Foremothers: Towards an African Feminist Approach to Women’s Connectedness with Nature.” Studie Historiae Ecclesiasticae 40 (2): 131-147.

 

Author: Lilian Cheelo Siwila

Abstract:

Throughout church history, the subject of ecology has assumed prominence in church circles with resolutions constantly being reached on how the church can and has responded to the ecological crisis. For example, the early church fathers' experiences of connectedness to nature created another approach to the Christian concept of ecology of that time. A feminist approach to ecology shows that there has been a good amount of research on the subject matter, especially from an interventional perspective. Despite this positive response, this article argues that if ecofeminism is to be effective in responding to issues of ecology, discourses around African women's embedded ecological spiritualties need to be retrieved and transformed for the liberation of both women and nature. The article uses ecomatemalistic theory to argue for a need to promote the conceptualisation of the interconnectedness between women and nature. The article concludes by showing that discussions on ecofeminism can take different forms in different contexts. Thus in some African contexts this dualistic approach between women and nature also carries positive aspects that need to be identified as a tool for dialogue on African ecofeminism.

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Religion Regions: Africa

Year: 2014

Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation

Citation:

Gebara, Ivone. 1999. Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

 

Author: Ivone Gebara

Annotation:

Summary"In her book, Latin American theologian Ivone Gebara brings together two contemporary strands of theological thought: Latin American liberation and ecofeminist theologies. Both engaging and critiquing her fellow Latin American colleagues, Gebara offers a critical assessment of the androcentrism and anthropocentrism of contemporary and historical theologies through an ecofeminist hermeneutic. One of the first monographs to extensively treat ecofeminism from a Latin American perspective, Gebara is influenced by her North American counterparts, especially Rosemary Radford Ruether and Sallie McFague." (summary from Michelle A. Gonzales, Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology)

Table of Contents

Prologue

Introduction

1. Knowing Our Knowing: The Issue of Epistemology
Epistemology in Search of Meaning
Knowledge and Ethics
The Hierarchical, Anthropocentric, and Androcentric Bias of Patriarchaal Epistemology
Patriarchal Epistemology in Theology
Ecofeminist Epistemology
 
2. The Human Person From an Ecofeminist Perspective
Beginning to Talk about the Human Person
Questioning the Autonomy of the Human Person
The Patriarchal Perspective: Its Value and Limitations
"Person" in an Ecofeminist Perspective: A Tentative Construction
 
3. God: An Ecofeminist Approach to the Greatest of Mysteries
Relatedness as a Language and an Experience of the Divine
Issues Raised about Ecofeminist Discource on God
God: Models and Mystery
God: My Hope
 
4. Ecofeminism and the Trinity
Feelings and Associations Related to the Trinity
What Human Experience Is Described by Trinitarian Language?
Religious Language and Its Crystallization in Institutions
Reconstructing Trinitarian Meanings and Celebrating Life
 
5. Jesus From an Ecofeminist Perspective
The Road I Have Walked with Jesus
Ecofeminist Challenges to Our Relationship with Jesus of Nazareth
 
6. That All May have Life: The Way to A new Understanding of Religion
The Issue That Concerns Us
The Destruction of Green Things, of Diversity, and of Our Symbols
Religion and Community Life
A Religion That Isn't in Crisis
Religious Biodiversity: A Path in Need of Rediscovery
 
Epilogue: As the Deer Longs for Running Waters
 
Notes
 
Bibliography
 
Index

Topics: Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Religion Regions: Americas

Year: 1999

Interpreting Ecofeminist Environmentalism in African Communitarian Philosophy and Ubuntu: An Alternative to Anthropocentrism

Citation:

Chemhuru, Munamato. 2018. “Interpreting Ecofeminist Environmentalism in African Communitarian Philosophy and Ubuntu: An Alternative to Anthropocentrism.” Philosophical Papers 48 (2): 241-64.

 

Author: Munamato Chemhuru

Abstract:

The question of what an African ecofeminist environmental ethical view ought to look like remains unanswered in much of philosophical writing on African environmental ethics. I consider what an African ecofeminist environmental ethics ought to look like if values salient in African communitarian philosophy and ubuntu are seriously considered. After considering how African communitarian philosophy and ubuntu foster communitarian living, relational living, harmonious living, interrelatedness and interdependence between human beings and various aspects of nature, I reveal how African communitarian philosophy and ubuntu could be interpreted from an ecofeminist environmental perspective. I suggest that this underexplored ecofeminist environmental ethical view in African philosophical thinking might be reasonably taken as an alternative to anthropocentric environmentalism. I urge other ethical theorists on African environmentalism not to neglect this non-anthropocentric African environmentalism that is salient in African ecofeminist environmentalism.

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism Regions: Africa

Year: 2018

Ecofeminism

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