Feminist Political Ecology

Citation:

MacGregor, Sherilyn, and Nicole Seymour, eds. 2017. “Men and Nature: Hegemonic Masculinities and Environmental Change.” RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society (4), 1-93.

Authors: Sherilyn MacGregor, Nicole Seymour

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Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Race, Sexuality Regions: Africa, Central Africa, Americas, Central America, North America, Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, Nicaragua, United States of America

Year: 2017

Citation:

Tanyag, Maria. 2018. "Resilience, Female Altruism, and Bodily Autonomy: Disaster-Induced Displacement in Post-Haiyan Philippines." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 43 (3): 563-85.

Author: Maria Tanyag

Abstract:

Natural disasters are increasingly causing displacements globally, and such negative impacts of climate change are expected to increase exponentially. Women and girls in particular distinctly endure long-term or gradual harms while in displacement, such as heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence, including exposure to sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, and forced or unwanted pregnancies. This article examines the Philippines as a case study to unveil the growing gendered security threats embodied by disaster-induced displacements. In the aftermath of the disaster caused by supertyphoon Haiyan, which struck in November 2013, the mantra of developing a “disaster-resilient nation” has gained currency among national and international actors in the country. Building on critical feminist political economy analysis, this article argues that the Haiyan postdisaster relief and reconstruction efforts constitute gendered processes that intimately rely on and mobilize women’s unremunerated social reproductive labor, particularly through their role as primary caregivers. Data for this research is drawn from twenty-six interviews with key informants and from secondary sources such as official reports of governmental, nongovernmental, and international humanitarian organizations. The findings underscore the importance of deploying a feminist lens to critique the material and discursive power of “resilience” through which norms of female altruism are harnessed at household and community levels while postdisaster responsibilities are increasingly diverted away from the state. In so doing, resilience discourses may serve to reinforce the structural roots of gendered vulnerability, including political, cultural, and economic barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health services and supplies—thereby undermining bodily autonomy.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Climate Displacement, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Girls, Health, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Sexual Violence, SV against women Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2018

Citation:

Warren, Karen J. 1990. “The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism.” Environmental Ethics 12 (2): 125–46.

Author: Karen J. Warren

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Summary:
Ecological feminism is the position that there are important connections-historical, symbolic, theoretical-between the domination of women and the domination of nonhuman nature. I argue that because the conceptual connections between the dual dominations of women and nature are located in an oppressive patriarchal conceptual framework characterized by a logic of domination, (1) the logic of traditional feminism requires the expansion of feminism to include ecological feminism and (2) ecological feminism provides a framework for developing a distinctively feminist environmental ethic. I conclude that any feminist theory and any environmental ethic which fails to take seriously the interconnected dominations of women and nature is simply inadequate. (Summary from original source)

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy

Year: 1990

Citation:

Rosser, Sue V. 1991. “Eco-Feminism: Lessons for Feminism from Ecology.” Women’s Studies International Forum 14 (3): 143–51.

Author: Sue V. Rosser

Abstract:

For almost two decades feminists have successfully used the lens of gender to critique the extent to which androcentric bias has distorted the theory and practice of science. More recently ecofeminists have extended this critique to ecology, recognizing male domination and exploitation of both women and the environment. In this paper I pose the question in the other direction, to explore what the science of ecology in its theories, methods, and practice might contribute to the critique of feminism. In their fusion as ecofiminism both theories can intertwine and complement to form a strong framework for praxis.

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gendered Power Relations

Year: 1991

Citation:

Plumwood, Val. 1993. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London: Routledge.

Author: Val Plumwood

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Summary:
Two of the most important political movements of the late twentieth century are those of environmentalism and feminism. In this book, Val Plumwood argues that feminist theory has an important opportunity to make a major contribution to the debates in political ecology and environmental philosophy.

Feminism and the Mastery of Nature explains the relation between ecofeminism, or ecological feminism, and other feminist theories including radical green theories such as deep ecology. Val Plumwood provides a philosophically informed account of the relation of women and nature, and shows how relating male domination to the domination of nature is important and yet remains a dilemma for women. (Summary from CRC Press)

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality

Year: 1993

Citation:

Elmhirst, Rebecca, Mia Siscawati, Bimbika Sijapati Basnett, and Dian Ekowati. 2017. "Gender and Generation in Engagements with Oil Palm in East Kalimantan, Indonesia: Insights from Feminist Political Ecology." Journal of  Peasant Studies 44 (6): 1135–57.

Authors: Rebecca Elmhirst, Mia Siscawati, Bimbika Sijapati Basnett, Dian Ekowati

Abstract:

Across many parts of Indonesia, investment in oil palm has brought accelerated forms of land acquisition and market engagement for communities, signaling far-reaching implications for equity and well-being of current and future generations. This paper uses a conjunctural feminist political ecology approach to explore gendered and generational engagements with oil palm in Indonesia. The paper compares four communities in East Kalimantan that form part of an ongoing study of the gendered impacts of large-scale and independent smallholder investments in oil palm in the context of corporate zero deforestation commitments in West and East Kalimantan. We show how different pathways of engagement with oil palm – adverse or otherwise – reflect the interplay between modes of incorporation into oil palm systems with landscape history, gender, life stage and ethnic identity. Whilst our findings complicate singular ‘victim’ narratives, they also challenge the ‘cruel optimism’ that is accompanying the current oil palm boom.

Keywords: oil palm, gender, youth, Indonesia, forests, feminist political ecology

Topics: Age, Youth, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gendered Discourses, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Indonesia

Year: 2017

Citation:

Rocheleau, Dianne, Barbara Thomas-Slayter, and Esther Wangari, eds. 1996. Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 

Authors: Dianne Rocheleau, Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Esther Wangari

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Topics: Agriculture, Development, Economies, Environment, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Justice, Political Participation

Year: 1996

Citation:

Rose, Jeff, and Corey Johnson. 2017. “Homelessness, Nature, and Health: Toward a Feminist Political Ecology of Masculinities.” Gender, Place & Culture 24 (7): 991–1010. 

Authors: Jeff Rose, Corey Johnson

Abstract:

Engaging with feminist political ecology and leveraging experiences from a 16-month critical ethnography, this research explores ways in which masculinities served as both a rationale and an outcome of men facing homelessness living in the margins of an urban municipal public park – a space known as ‘the Hillside.’ Ethnographic narratives point to Hillside residents making their home in nature, connecting experiences in nature with various masculinities, and the gendered eschewing of social services. These portrayals further highlight the perceived feminization of social services within a context of rapidly neoliberalizing urban environments, and illustrate the ways participants positioned and engaged with social services. Entanglements of health and nonhuman nature prompt a feminist political ecological engagement with masculinity. Experiences from the Hillside add textured richness to discourses concerning the ways in which contemporary landscapes are constructed, perceived, experienced, and co-constituted through and with gender. 

Keywords: landscape, social services, gender, urban, wildland

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Masculinity/ies

Year: 2017

Citation:

Perkins, Ellie, Edith Kuiper, Rayén Quiroga-Martínez, Terisa E. Turner, Leigh S. Brownhill, Mary Mellor, Zdravka Todorova, Maren A. Jochimsen, and Martha McMahon. 2005. “Explorations: Feminist Ecological Economics.” Feminist Economics 11 (3): 107–50.

Authors: Ellie Perkins, Edith Kuiper, Rayén Quiroga-Martínez, Terisa E. Turner, Leigh S. Brownhill, Mary Mellor, Zdravka Todorova, Maren A. Jochimsen, Martha McMahon

Abstract:

These Explorations argue that more links between the fields of feminist ecology and feminist economics are both needed and promising, and presents new, boundary-crossing research in this area. It brings together contributions from various regions in the world that link political action and experience in practice and research in an economic theorizing that includes both environmental and feminist concerns.

Keywords: ecology, women, nature, globalization, feminist economic theory, agriculture

Topics: Agriculture, Economies, Feminist Economics, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Globalization

Year: 2005