Feminist Political Ecology

Citation:

Karpf, Anne. 2021. How Women Can Save the Planet. Hurst Publishers.

Author: Anne Karpf

Annotation:

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe

Year: 2021

Citation:

Gay-Antaki, Miriam. 2016. “‘Now We Have Equality’: A Feminist Political Ecology Analysis of Carbon Markets in Oaxaca, Mexico.” Journal of Latin American Geography 15 (3): 49–66.

Author: Miriam Gay-Antaki

Abstract:

Carbon projects follow a neoliberal logic that stresses that nature is best conserved via market mechanisms. Studies and experiences of the impacts of development projects on communities and feminist political ecologies suggest that women, the elderly, the young, the poor, and the indigenous often perceive projects differently, benefit and lose in different ways, or shape the projects on the ground to fit their needs. Carbon projects have differentiated impacts within a community especially on the poor, women, and ecology; however, these differences do not tend to be the main focus of scholarship. The research presented here focuses on the effects of a wind project and a small scale reforestation project and the convergence of environment, gender and development as these are introduced into communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. This paper expands on carbon offset literature in Mexico by looking at the differential impacts of technologies on geographies and people with specific attention to gender. I find that there are important gendered differences between the wind and the forest projects, and suggest that a Feminist Political Ecology perspective is a necessary, though infrequently employed, lens through which to understand the impacts of carbon markets.

Keywords: feminist political ecology, Oaxaca, carbon projects

Topics: Development, Environment, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Indigenous Regions: Americas Countries: Mexico

Year: 2016

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

Citation:

Mehta, Lyla, and Wendy Harcourt. 2021. “Beyond Limits and Scarcity: Feminist and Decolonial Contributions to Degrowth.” Political Geography, May, 102411. doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102411.

Authors: Lyla Mehta, Wendy Harcourt

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Topics: Economies, Care Economies, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology

Year: 2021

Citation:

Author: Kalli F. Doubleday

Keywords: conservation, feminist political ecology, gender-based violence, well-being

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Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020

Citation:

Nordgaard, Kari. 1999. “Moon Phases, Menstrual Cycles, and Mother Earth: The Construction of a Special Relationship between Women and Nature.” Ethics and the Environment 4 (2): 197-209.

Author: Kari Nordgaard

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Summary:

“This paper will explore a number of contradictions to the theme of a special relationship between women and nature by examining associations between men and nature and ways that women may be considered distance from nature. I will suggest a variety of reasons why literature in women and environment, ecofeminism, and feminist political ecology has chosen this particular story about a special connection between women and nature (and thus failed to include other stories), and I will ask whether ecofeminist constructions of gender inadvertently reinforce the very social and ecological relations so many of us critique. Although much of my discussion will be directed towards ecofeminism, the fields of women and environment and feminist political ecology share the emphasis on women and nature to which I refer. I recognize that whether theorists see relationships between women and nature as biological or social has been the subject of much writing and criticism between theorists who consider themselves to be in different fields. But at this point, the fact that there is now such a large body of literature focusing on relationships between women and nature (or environment) sets up a cultural story that is present across fields. I will use the term special relationship to refer to the full range of ways that women and nature have been connected” (Nordgaard 1999, 198).

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender Regions: Americas Countries: United States of America

Year: 1999

Citation:

Buckingham, Susan. 2015. “Ecofeminism.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, edited by James D. Wright. London: Elsevier.

Author: Susan Buckingham

Abstract:

This article summarizes the history of ecofeminism and its various strands of activism and intellectual inquiry. Through critiques made of ecofeminism, both from those allying themselves with the movement, and from those who wish to disassociate themselves from it, the argument is made that ecofeminism, particularly in its social constructivist form, has been influential in international policy making. As a parallel development alongside feminist political ecology and other environmental feminisms it has developed analytically, infused by renewed interest by a new generation of academics and activists, as well as a new generation of environmental concerns, dominated by climate change.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology

Year: 2015

Citation:

Pagán, Melissa. 2020. “Cultivating a Decolonial Feminist Integral Ecology: Extractive Zones and the Nexus of the Coloniality of Being/Coloniality of Gender.” Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology 22 (1): 1-28.

Author: Melissa Pagán

Keywords: ecofeminism, coloniality, climate crisis

Annotation:

Summary:
“I contend that we ought to analyze the anthropological subject at the root of the climate crisis through the purview of modernity/coloniality, not only modernity. Explaining and analyzing the onto-anthropological nexus of the coloniality of being/coloniality of gender, I argue that while the modern anthropological subject certainly does sustain an extractive view of peoples and lands, it is born from a prior conception of the human person, one that is born from coloniality and that continues to be present in our own theological anthropologies (natural law, complementarity) especially. These anthropologies coalesce with and thus intensify the problems associated with the modern subject insofar as they aid in creating and sustaining hierarchized systems of knowledge and being. This further entrenches our complicity in the nexus of the coloniality of being/coloniality of gender rather than empowering us to subvert it, threatening our ability to build an authentic integral ecology and thus call for the creation of a feminist decolonial integral ecology to disrupt the nexus of the coloniality of being/coloniality of gender. To demonstrate the creative possibilities contained in a decolonial feminist integral ecology, I will provide and analyze two central concepts crucial to the cultivation of this decolonial integral ecology: hermeneutics of el grito, which is a renewed way to hear the cries of the earth and the cries of the poor, and vincularidad, which facilitates relationality and ecologies of decolonial rupture that, if incorporated into our integral ecology, would prove more helpful in resisting the extractability of bodies and lands” (Pagán, 2020, 5-6).

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Climate Change, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender

Year: 2020

Citation:

Tyagi, Niharika, and Smriti Das. 2020. “Standing up for Forest: A Case Study on Baiga Women’s Mobilization in Community Governed Forests in Central India.” Ecological Economics 178 (November). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106812.

Authors: Niharika Tyagi, Smriti Das

Abstract:

The forest history in India is fraught with struggles between the forest dwelling communities and the state. While the state usurped power over forests, excluding the communities and privileging commercial interests; the alienation of communities from their own land and homes resulted in mobilization across different sites. The movement for protection of forest commons assumed significance through the decade of 1970s that saw the famous Chipko movement in Uttarakhand and other forms of resistance across the country. The demand upon the forests that had intensified with subsistence, commercial and urbanization pressures, further enhanced with pressures of globalization. The consequent environmental degradation and dispossession of the communities of their resources resulted in varieties of environmentalism. In the arena of environmental conflict, Central India has been a hotbed of contest with forcible evictions, increasing base of extractive industries and steady militarization. The tribal communities in Central India faced serious threat from a monolithic state as it prioritized ‘national development’ goals over social equity and environmental justice. Rooted in this inequity was widespread discontent and social mobilization across the forested landscape. The local mobilization in Baiga Chak area of Central India clearly marked recognition of their socio-cultural embeddedness in their natural setting, particularly forest. What was unique in this movement was the uprising of Baiga women to assert their rights over the forest contrary to their traditionally defined role. It gradually led to collectivization of demand for recognition of Baiga communities’ historical relationship and claims over forest resource. Using the framework of Feminist Political Ecology, this paper examines Baiga women’s movement against Forest Department’s unlawful practices in Baiga Chak region of Central India. Using a case-based approach, the paper addresses the following questions: What factors led to the feminized grassroots environmental movement? How have women’s bargaining power and gender relations evolved at the local level consequently? What effect does women’s resistance have on community governed forest systems? In response to state usurpation that threatened the livelihood and household well-being, Baiga women collectively struggled to regain control over local forest resources. The analysis of this gendered environmental movement establishes an intersection between local structural, economic and ecological concerns and signals possibility of several gendered social movements in contested resource geographies.

Keywords: women's movements, feminist political ecology, gender roles and relations, forest commons

Topics: Environment, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Indigenous, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods, Rights, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020

Citation:

Resurrección, Bernadette P., and Edsel E. Sajor. 2015. “Gender, Floods and Mobile Subjects: A Postdisaster View.” In Gendered Entanglements: Revisiting Gender in Rapidly Changing Asia, edited by Ragnhild Lund, Philippe Doneys, and Bernadette P. Resurrección, 207-34. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.

Authors: Bernadette P. Resurrección, Edsel E. Sajor

Annotation:

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Security Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2015