Avner de‐Shalit
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240388
- eISBN:
- 9780191599033
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240388.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Through the examination of Eco‐feminism and Deep Ecology, it is demonstrated how many in these two schools have misused the concept of ‘environment’ and caused a confusion that has been detrimental ...
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Through the examination of Eco‐feminism and Deep Ecology, it is demonstrated how many in these two schools have misused the concept of ‘environment’ and caused a confusion that has been detrimental to the social and political status of environmental philosophy. It is argued that when putting forward political goals that are legitimate and justified, but not ‘environmental’ at all, they have ‘conceptually exploited’ the ‘environment’. The reasons for environmental philosophy's lack of popularity among politicians and activists are (1) that it fails to distinguish between meta‐ethics and political theory, (2) that it identifies goals that do not necessarily appeal to environmentalists, and (3) that it overextended the use of its main concepts and caused confusion and vagueness.Less
Through the examination of Eco‐feminism and Deep Ecology, it is demonstrated how many in these two schools have misused the concept of ‘environment’ and caused a confusion that has been detrimental to the social and political status of environmental philosophy. It is argued that when putting forward political goals that are legitimate and justified, but not ‘environmental’ at all, they have ‘conceptually exploited’ the ‘environment’. The reasons for environmental philosophy's lack of popularity among politicians and activists are (1) that it fails to distinguish between meta‐ethics and political theory, (2) that it identifies goals that do not necessarily appeal to environmentalists, and (3) that it overextended the use of its main concepts and caused confusion and vagueness.
Maylin Biggadike
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199739813
- eISBN:
- 9780199866120
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739813.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter takes up the perspective of poor women in two-thirds of the world, out of the conviction that we will not understand prosperity without addressing the ethics and economics of poverty. ...
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This chapter takes up the perspective of poor women in two-thirds of the world, out of the conviction that we will not understand prosperity without addressing the ethics and economics of poverty. It explores the global gender gap and the effects of economic policies on women. It describes the approach of ecofeminism in the work of Ivone Gerbara and examines some existing programs of solidarity and empowerment. It evaluates the situation of Latin American women working in maquilas with help of ecofeminist analysis and the work of Amartya Sen.Less
This chapter takes up the perspective of poor women in two-thirds of the world, out of the conviction that we will not understand prosperity without addressing the ethics and economics of poverty. It explores the global gender gap and the effects of economic policies on women. It describes the approach of ecofeminism in the work of Ivone Gerbara and examines some existing programs of solidarity and empowerment. It evaluates the situation of Latin American women working in maquilas with help of ecofeminist analysis and the work of Amartya Sen.
Rebekah L. Miles
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144161
- eISBN:
- 9780199834495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144163.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
An examination is made of Rosemary Radford Ruether's naturalist moral realism, whose naturalist, ecofeminist ethic locates both God (divine presence) and human norms in natural processes, ...
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An examination is made of Rosemary Radford Ruether's naturalist moral realism, whose naturalist, ecofeminist ethic locates both God (divine presence) and human norms in natural processes, particularly in evolution. Transcendence of immediate context and experience is possible through conscious participation in natural evolutionary development into the future. Ruether's moral realism is evident in her confidence that humans can know the good by looking to nature, including human nature, and this same confidence makes her an idealist about the potential to eliminate domination by creating new selves, theologies, and social structures. Moreover, Ruether's description of normative human nature focuses on boundedness to nature and the self's unique faculty of consciousness as an expression of nature; it does not include the human capacity for radical transcendence of or freedom over nature and consciousness. Thus, it is argued, Ruether offers grounding for moral norms in her naturalist moral realism, but she lacks a mechanism to judge those norms and to account for the resilience of human sin and the potential of human creativity to transmute nature.Less
An examination is made of Rosemary Radford Ruether's naturalist moral realism, whose naturalist, ecofeminist ethic locates both God (divine presence) and human norms in natural processes, particularly in evolution. Transcendence of immediate context and experience is possible through conscious participation in natural evolutionary development into the future. Ruether's moral realism is evident in her confidence that humans can know the good by looking to nature, including human nature, and this same confidence makes her an idealist about the potential to eliminate domination by creating new selves, theologies, and social structures. Moreover, Ruether's description of normative human nature focuses on boundedness to nature and the self's unique faculty of consciousness as an expression of nature; it does not include the human capacity for radical transcendence of or freedom over nature and consciousness. Thus, it is argued, Ruether offers grounding for moral norms in her naturalist moral realism, but she lacks a mechanism to judge those norms and to account for the resilience of human sin and the potential of human creativity to transmute nature.
Andrew R. H. Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813165998
- eISBN:
- 9780813166698
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813165998.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The theocentrism of H. Richard Niebuhr, especially his understanding of value, is uniquely helpful in addressing the problem of value construction and negotiation involved in the debate over MTR. The ...
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The theocentrism of H. Richard Niebuhr, especially his understanding of value, is uniquely helpful in addressing the problem of value construction and negotiation involved in the debate over MTR. The author first examines several alternative ethical perspectives and shows that, although they offer important insights, none is sufficiently attuned to its own methodological presuppositions to allow Appalachian intertextuality to “speak for itself.” The perspectives considered—ecofeminism, liberation theology, environmental justice, environmental pragmatism, and political ecology—are promising, in that they all seek, on some level, to understand and address the power of the social discourses that define an ostensibly environmental issue like MTR. After considering the strengths and weaknesses of each in relation to MTR and Appalachia in particular, the author turns more directly to the question of values to examine this inadequacy more clearly. He concludes that Niebuhr’s relational theory of value offers the most accurate and helpful foundation for an ethical approach to MTR, one that is capable of relativizing fundamental assumptions and thereby founding a thorough critique of the discourses that surround the issue.Less
The theocentrism of H. Richard Niebuhr, especially his understanding of value, is uniquely helpful in addressing the problem of value construction and negotiation involved in the debate over MTR. The author first examines several alternative ethical perspectives and shows that, although they offer important insights, none is sufficiently attuned to its own methodological presuppositions to allow Appalachian intertextuality to “speak for itself.” The perspectives considered—ecofeminism, liberation theology, environmental justice, environmental pragmatism, and political ecology—are promising, in that they all seek, on some level, to understand and address the power of the social discourses that define an ostensibly environmental issue like MTR. After considering the strengths and weaknesses of each in relation to MTR and Appalachia in particular, the author turns more directly to the question of values to examine this inadequacy more clearly. He concludes that Niebuhr’s relational theory of value offers the most accurate and helpful foundation for an ethical approach to MTR, one that is capable of relativizing fundamental assumptions and thereby founding a thorough critique of the discourses that surround the issue.
Dana Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195137699
- eISBN:
- 9780199787937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137699.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
In the academy, the so-called Science Wars of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were waged largely by those on the left who were interested in the theories and findings of the several disciplines in which ...
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In the academy, the so-called Science Wars of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were waged largely by those on the left who were interested in the theories and findings of the several disciplines in which historical, philosophical, political, and sociological science studies are pursued. These radical critics equated scientific knowledge with power, but made an exception for ecology, which they saw as utopian because they too readily accepted the popular view of ecology as holistic and communitarian, and therefore as radically unlike physics, which has long set the standard for reductive and mechanistic views of nature as well as for objectivity and certainty. Radical critics of science have no faith in the latter, believing instead in the social construction of scientific knowledge, and asserting that the goal of most scientific research and experimentation is the domination of nature. Their confidence in theories of social construction leads them to treat science as just one form of discourse among others, and to dismiss disciplines like sociobiology and genetics as politically suspect. But many of these critics of science — who are variously influenced by Critical Theory, cultural studies, ecofeminism, and so-called social ecology — seem blithely to accept sociological determinism (which would appear to be just as onerous as any other form of determinism) and seem to misunderstand scientific realism, which is a realism not about theories or “discourses” but about entities which cannot be understood as mere effects of meaning or artifacts of signification.Less
In the academy, the so-called Science Wars of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were waged largely by those on the left who were interested in the theories and findings of the several disciplines in which historical, philosophical, political, and sociological science studies are pursued. These radical critics equated scientific knowledge with power, but made an exception for ecology, which they saw as utopian because they too readily accepted the popular view of ecology as holistic and communitarian, and therefore as radically unlike physics, which has long set the standard for reductive and mechanistic views of nature as well as for objectivity and certainty. Radical critics of science have no faith in the latter, believing instead in the social construction of scientific knowledge, and asserting that the goal of most scientific research and experimentation is the domination of nature. Their confidence in theories of social construction leads them to treat science as just one form of discourse among others, and to dismiss disciplines like sociobiology and genetics as politically suspect. But many of these critics of science — who are variously influenced by Critical Theory, cultural studies, ecofeminism, and so-called social ecology — seem blithely to accept sociological determinism (which would appear to be just as onerous as any other form of determinism) and seem to misunderstand scientific realism, which is a realism not about theories or “discourses” but about entities which cannot be understood as mere effects of meaning or artifacts of signification.
Dewey W. Hall and Jillmarie Murphy (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781949979046
- eISBN:
- 9781789629705
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781949979046.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
Gendered Ecologies: New Materialist Interpretations of Women Writers in the Long Nineteenth Century is comprised of a diverse collection of essays featuring analyses of literary women writers, ...
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Gendered Ecologies: New Materialist Interpretations of Women Writers in the Long Nineteenth Century is comprised of a diverse collection of essays featuring analyses of literary women writers, ecofeminism, feminist ecocriticism, and the value of the interrelationships that exist among human, nonhuman, and nonliving entities as part of the environs. The book presents a case for the often-disregarded literary women writers of the long nineteenth century, who were active contributors to the discourse of natural history—the diachronic study of participants as part of a vibrant community interconnected by matter. While they were not natural philosophers as in the cases of Sir Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and Michael Faraday among others, these women writers did engage in acute observations of materiality in space (e.g., subjects, objects, and abjects), reasoned about their findings, and encoded their discoveries of nature in their literary and artistic productions. The collection includes discussions of the works of influential literary women from the long nineteenth century—Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Caroline Norton, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Margaret Fuller, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Celia Thaxter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Francis Wright, and Lydia Maria Child—whose multi-directional observations of animate and inanimate objects in the natural domain are based on self-made discoveries while interacting with the environs.Less
Gendered Ecologies: New Materialist Interpretations of Women Writers in the Long Nineteenth Century is comprised of a diverse collection of essays featuring analyses of literary women writers, ecofeminism, feminist ecocriticism, and the value of the interrelationships that exist among human, nonhuman, and nonliving entities as part of the environs. The book presents a case for the often-disregarded literary women writers of the long nineteenth century, who were active contributors to the discourse of natural history—the diachronic study of participants as part of a vibrant community interconnected by matter. While they were not natural philosophers as in the cases of Sir Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and Michael Faraday among others, these women writers did engage in acute observations of materiality in space (e.g., subjects, objects, and abjects), reasoned about their findings, and encoded their discoveries of nature in their literary and artistic productions. The collection includes discussions of the works of influential literary women from the long nineteenth century—Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Caroline Norton, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Margaret Fuller, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Celia Thaxter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Francis Wright, and Lydia Maria Child—whose multi-directional observations of animate and inanimate objects in the natural domain are based on self-made discoveries while interacting with the environs.
Christina Holmes
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040542
- eISBN:
- 9780252098987
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040542.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
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 ...
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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.Less
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.
Kristin Czarnecki and Carrie Rohman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780983533900
- eISBN:
- 9781781382202
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780983533900.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This book is a compilation of thirty-one chapters which contain discussions presented at the twentieth annual international conference on Virginia Woolf. This volume explores Woolf's complex ...
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This book is a compilation of thirty-one chapters which contain discussions presented at the twentieth annual international conference on Virginia Woolf. This volume explores Woolf's complex engagement with the natural world, an engagement that was as political as it was aesthetic. The diversity of topics within this collection—ecofeminism, the nature of time, the nature of the self, nature and sporting, botany, climate, and landscape, just to name a few—fosters a deeper understanding of the nature of nature in Woolf's works.Less
This book is a compilation of thirty-one chapters which contain discussions presented at the twentieth annual international conference on Virginia Woolf. This volume explores Woolf's complex engagement with the natural world, an engagement that was as political as it was aesthetic. The diversity of topics within this collection—ecofeminism, the nature of time, the nature of the self, nature and sporting, botany, climate, and landscape, just to name a few—fosters a deeper understanding of the nature of nature in Woolf's works.
Jane Caputi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190902704
- eISBN:
- 9780190902742
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190902704.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics, Political Theory
The proposed new geological era, The Anthropocene (a.k.a. Age of Humans, Age of Man), marking human domination of the planet long called Mother Earth, is truly The Age of the Motherfucker. The ...
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The proposed new geological era, The Anthropocene (a.k.a. Age of Humans, Age of Man), marking human domination of the planet long called Mother Earth, is truly The Age of the Motherfucker. The ecocide of the Anthropocene is the responsibility of Man, the Western- and masculine-identified corporate, military, intellectual, and political class that masks itself as the exemplar of the civilized and the human. The word motherfucker was invented by the enslaved children of White slave masters to name their mothers’ rapist/owners. Man’s strategic motherfucking, from the personal to the planetary, is invasion, exploitation, spirit-breaking, extraction and toxic wasting of individuals, communities, and lands, for reasons of pleasure, plunder, and profit. Ecocide is attempted deicide of Mother Nature-Earth, reflecting Man’s goal to become the god he first made in his own image. The motivational word Motherfucker has a flip side, further revealing the Anthropocene as it signifies an outstanding, formidable, and inexorable force. Mother Nature-Earth is that “Mutha’ ”—one defying translation into heteropatriarchal classifications of gender, one capable of overwhelming Man, and not the other way around. Drawing upon Indigenous and African American scholarship; ecofeminism; ecowomanism; green activism; femme, queer, and gender non-binary philosophies; literature and arts; Afrofuturism; and popular culture, Call Your “Mutha’ ” contends that the Anthropocene is not evidence of Man’s supremacy over nature, but that Mother Nature-Earth, faced with disrespect, is going away. It is imperative now to call the “Mutha’ ” by decolonizing land, bodies, and minds, ending rapism, feeding the green, renewing sustaining patterns, and affirming devotion to Mother Nature-Earth.Less
The proposed new geological era, The Anthropocene (a.k.a. Age of Humans, Age of Man), marking human domination of the planet long called Mother Earth, is truly The Age of the Motherfucker. The ecocide of the Anthropocene is the responsibility of Man, the Western- and masculine-identified corporate, military, intellectual, and political class that masks itself as the exemplar of the civilized and the human. The word motherfucker was invented by the enslaved children of White slave masters to name their mothers’ rapist/owners. Man’s strategic motherfucking, from the personal to the planetary, is invasion, exploitation, spirit-breaking, extraction and toxic wasting of individuals, communities, and lands, for reasons of pleasure, plunder, and profit. Ecocide is attempted deicide of Mother Nature-Earth, reflecting Man’s goal to become the god he first made in his own image. The motivational word Motherfucker has a flip side, further revealing the Anthropocene as it signifies an outstanding, formidable, and inexorable force. Mother Nature-Earth is that “Mutha’ ”—one defying translation into heteropatriarchal classifications of gender, one capable of overwhelming Man, and not the other way around. Drawing upon Indigenous and African American scholarship; ecofeminism; ecowomanism; green activism; femme, queer, and gender non-binary philosophies; literature and arts; Afrofuturism; and popular culture, Call Your “Mutha’ ” contends that the Anthropocene is not evidence of Man’s supremacy over nature, but that Mother Nature-Earth, faced with disrespect, is going away. It is imperative now to call the “Mutha’ ” by decolonizing land, bodies, and minds, ending rapism, feeding the green, renewing sustaining patterns, and affirming devotion to Mother Nature-Earth.
Paul A. Gross
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195117257
- eISBN:
- 9780199785995
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195117255.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Feminist philosopher Elizabeth A. Lloyd has contributed to the so-called science wars a lengthy book chapter attacking scientist-authors who have recently defended natural science from various ...
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Feminist philosopher Elizabeth A. Lloyd has contributed to the so-called science wars a lengthy book chapter attacking scientist-authors who have recently defended natural science from various indictments (e.g., sexism, racism, masculinism, militarism, imperialism) lodged against it in the field of “science studies”. Her main charge is that the named scientists, not those against whose charges they defend science, are the real enemies of objectivity. It is argued that her methods are old and well-known devices of propaganda; her conclusions are therefore nugatory.Less
Feminist philosopher Elizabeth A. Lloyd has contributed to the so-called science wars a lengthy book chapter attacking scientist-authors who have recently defended natural science from various indictments (e.g., sexism, racism, masculinism, militarism, imperialism) lodged against it in the field of “science studies”. Her main charge is that the named scientists, not those against whose charges they defend science, are the real enemies of objectivity. It is argued that her methods are old and well-known devices of propaganda; her conclusions are therefore nugatory.
A. Whitney Sanford
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813134123
- eISBN:
- 9780813135915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813134123.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Chapter four moves beyond context to critique how concepts such as protection are used to justify inequitable practices and social relations to demonstrate how narrative legitimates destructive ...
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Chapter four moves beyond context to critique how concepts such as protection are used to justify inequitable practices and social relations to demonstrate how narrative legitimates destructive interventions and normalizes hierarchical social relations, particularly gender relations. It explores the gendered dimensions of agriculture to see how these emerge in actual practice. The presumed need for protection can be a slippery slope towards control and domination, so merits conscious reflection on how this need is assessed and why narratives of need are told and retold. In addition to critique, however, this chapter asks how—with conscious reflection—concepts such as reciprocity, obligation, and even protection might become the foundation for revised relations in the biotic community.Less
Chapter four moves beyond context to critique how concepts such as protection are used to justify inequitable practices and social relations to demonstrate how narrative legitimates destructive interventions and normalizes hierarchical social relations, particularly gender relations. It explores the gendered dimensions of agriculture to see how these emerge in actual practice. The presumed need for protection can be a slippery slope towards control and domination, so merits conscious reflection on how this need is assessed and why narratives of need are told and retold. In addition to critique, however, this chapter asks how—with conscious reflection—concepts such as reciprocity, obligation, and even protection might become the foundation for revised relations in the biotic community.
Bina Agarwal
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569687
- eISBN:
- 9780191721847
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569687.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental, International
Women's relationship with the environment is complex and replete with dualities in ways that are often little recognized in the linear narratives about gender and the environment which dominate the ...
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Women's relationship with the environment is complex and replete with dualities in ways that are often little recognized in the linear narratives about gender and the environment which dominate the literature. Women face opposing pulls from their survival needs and their interest in conservation. Gender and class differences in the extent and nature of dependence on the forest can lead to both co-operation and conflict between women and men, and between the well-off and the poor. Also, notwithstanding their interest in forest conservation, women are not always free to pursue that interest. This chapter explores these complexities and how they could play out in gendered responses to forest governance. It outlines the need for a feminist environmentalist perspective, as opposed to an ecofeminist perspective, and critically examines whether there is any basis for assuming that women are more conservationist or more co-operative than men.Less
Women's relationship with the environment is complex and replete with dualities in ways that are often little recognized in the linear narratives about gender and the environment which dominate the literature. Women face opposing pulls from their survival needs and their interest in conservation. Gender and class differences in the extent and nature of dependence on the forest can lead to both co-operation and conflict between women and men, and between the well-off and the poor. Also, notwithstanding their interest in forest conservation, women are not always free to pursue that interest. This chapter explores these complexities and how they could play out in gendered responses to forest governance. It outlines the need for a feminist environmentalist perspective, as opposed to an ecofeminist perspective, and critically examines whether there is any basis for assuming that women are more conservationist or more co-operative than men.
Amanda Graham
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780853235910
- eISBN:
- 9781781380420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235910.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Coined in 1974 by Françoise d'Eaubonne, the term ‘ecofeminism’ refers to the radical environmentalism that incorporates both ecological and feminist concerns. Emerging from the global feminist ...
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Coined in 1974 by Françoise d'Eaubonne, the term ‘ecofeminism’ refers to the radical environmentalism that incorporates both ecological and feminist concerns. Emerging from the global feminist movement of the 1970s, ecofeminism has since incorporated a wide range of contexts, from historical and political to religious, literary, ethical, empirical, conceptual, epistemological, methodological, and theoretical. According to Val Plumwood, the theory of ecofeminism results from the application of feminist perspectives to problems of ecology, and is therefore as complex and diverse as feminism itself. This chapter examines modern social ecofeminism (nonessentialist) and cultural ecofeminism (essentialist) in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's utopian 1915 novel Herland. In particular, it discusses the struggle between the ‘forest’ and the ‘desert’ within the novel's utopian vision.Less
Coined in 1974 by Françoise d'Eaubonne, the term ‘ecofeminism’ refers to the radical environmentalism that incorporates both ecological and feminist concerns. Emerging from the global feminist movement of the 1970s, ecofeminism has since incorporated a wide range of contexts, from historical and political to religious, literary, ethical, empirical, conceptual, epistemological, methodological, and theoretical. According to Val Plumwood, the theory of ecofeminism results from the application of feminist perspectives to problems of ecology, and is therefore as complex and diverse as feminism itself. This chapter examines modern social ecofeminism (nonessentialist) and cultural ecofeminism (essentialist) in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's utopian 1915 novel Herland. In particular, it discusses the struggle between the ‘forest’ and the ‘desert’ within the novel's utopian vision.
Rebecca Laroche and Jennifer Munroe
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474455589
- eISBN:
- 9781474477130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474455589.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Rebecca Laroche and Jennifer Munroe offer innovative approaches to teaching the embodied and collective history of human impact on the planet through early modern texts and contemporary ecofeminist ...
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Rebecca Laroche and Jennifer Munroe offer innovative approaches to teaching the embodied and collective history of human impact on the planet through early modern texts and contemporary ecofeminist theory. Combining Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence” (a way to understand environmental destruction over long periods of time) with an ecofeminist approach that “interrogates mutual forms of subjugation,” the authors stress how humans inhabit collective environments with other human and nonhuman entities. Their intersectional teaching strategy reflects this attitude by elevating collaborative scholarship, forging links between distinct classroom communities, and empowering students to historicize environmental problems, from water quality to wildfires. Students collaborate across geographic and institutional differences, and with scholarly efforts like the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective, to develop a heightened sense of both place and global interconnectedness.Less
Rebecca Laroche and Jennifer Munroe offer innovative approaches to teaching the embodied and collective history of human impact on the planet through early modern texts and contemporary ecofeminist theory. Combining Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence” (a way to understand environmental destruction over long periods of time) with an ecofeminist approach that “interrogates mutual forms of subjugation,” the authors stress how humans inhabit collective environments with other human and nonhuman entities. Their intersectional teaching strategy reflects this attitude by elevating collaborative scholarship, forging links between distinct classroom communities, and empowering students to historicize environmental problems, from water quality to wildfires. Students collaborate across geographic and institutional differences, and with scholarly efforts like the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective, to develop a heightened sense of both place and global interconnectedness.
Daniel Belgrad
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226652368
- eISBN:
- 9780226652672
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226652672.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
For many Americans, the insights of general systems theory implied a validation of traditional Native American ideas, which posited a spirit immanent in material nature, unlike the scientific ...
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For many Americans, the insights of general systems theory implied a validation of traditional Native American ideas, which posited a spirit immanent in material nature, unlike the scientific discourses of Western modernity. Referred to in environmentalist, ecofeminist, and neo-pagan discourse as a “reverence” toward nature, the traditional Native American viewpoint was equated with an empathetic wisdom that Western civilization had sacrificed in its pursuit of a scientific knowledge that promised to predict, manipulate, and otherwise transcend nature. This chapter explores how such perceptions of Native American spirituality were promulgated through popular culture, and what their implications were, both for non–Native Americans who saw themselves as adopting traditional Native American beliefs, and for American Indians themselves. The chapter includes close readings of texts by the Keep America Beautiful campaign, filmmaker Carroll Ballard, nature writer Farley Mowat, professional tracker Tom Brown, the Mohawk newspaper Akwesasne Notes, and American Indian activist Vine Deloria, Jr.Less
For many Americans, the insights of general systems theory implied a validation of traditional Native American ideas, which posited a spirit immanent in material nature, unlike the scientific discourses of Western modernity. Referred to in environmentalist, ecofeminist, and neo-pagan discourse as a “reverence” toward nature, the traditional Native American viewpoint was equated with an empathetic wisdom that Western civilization had sacrificed in its pursuit of a scientific knowledge that promised to predict, manipulate, and otherwise transcend nature. This chapter explores how such perceptions of Native American spirituality were promulgated through popular culture, and what their implications were, both for non–Native Americans who saw themselves as adopting traditional Native American beliefs, and for American Indians themselves. The chapter includes close readings of texts by the Keep America Beautiful campaign, filmmaker Carroll Ballard, nature writer Farley Mowat, professional tracker Tom Brown, the Mohawk newspaper Akwesasne Notes, and American Indian activist Vine Deloria, Jr.
Rosemary Radford Ruether
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823227457
- eISBN:
- 9780823236626
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823227457.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Ecofeminism emerged in the late 20th century as a major school of philosophical and theological thought and social analysis. Ecofeminism sees an interconnection between ...
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Ecofeminism emerged in the late 20th century as a major school of philosophical and theological thought and social analysis. Ecofeminism sees an interconnection between the domination of women and the domination of nature. This interconnection is typically made on two levels: ideological-cultural and socioeconomic. This chapter surveys several ecofeminist perspectives that are emerging from a number of religious and cultural contexts—those of Vandana Shiva from India, Ivone Gebara from Brazil, and Carolyn Merchant, a North American historian of science. It concludes with some questions about the utility of this effort to interconnect the domination of women and of nature, social justice, and ecological health.Less
Ecofeminism emerged in the late 20th century as a major school of philosophical and theological thought and social analysis. Ecofeminism sees an interconnection between the domination of women and the domination of nature. This interconnection is typically made on two levels: ideological-cultural and socioeconomic. This chapter surveys several ecofeminist perspectives that are emerging from a number of religious and cultural contexts—those of Vandana Shiva from India, Ivone Gebara from Brazil, and Carolyn Merchant, a North American historian of science. It concludes with some questions about the utility of this effort to interconnect the domination of women and of nature, social justice, and ecological health.
Chris Pak
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382844
- eISBN:
- 9781786945426
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382844.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Terraforming and its destructive ecological impact began to receive greater attention in the light of environmentalism in the 1960s-1970s. This chapter draws attention to the links between the ...
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Terraforming and its destructive ecological impact began to receive greater attention in the light of environmentalism in the 1960s-1970s. This chapter draws attention to the links between the utopian imagination, the pastoral, and the notion of the communard, a concept that was re-voiced in “New Age” environmentalist discourse. The first section compares and contrasts several significant proto-Gaian works while the second explores terraforming narratives that re-work the 1950s tradition. Citing Val Plumwood’s analysis of dualistic operations in Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, the conflict between colonising forces and indigenous populations is considered. This section argues that the popular ecological image of connection and the theme of love is a symbolic attempt to bridge the hyperseparation between dualised concepts; between coloniser and colonised, nature and culture.Less
Terraforming and its destructive ecological impact began to receive greater attention in the light of environmentalism in the 1960s-1970s. This chapter draws attention to the links between the utopian imagination, the pastoral, and the notion of the communard, a concept that was re-voiced in “New Age” environmentalist discourse. The first section compares and contrasts several significant proto-Gaian works while the second explores terraforming narratives that re-work the 1950s tradition. Citing Val Plumwood’s analysis of dualistic operations in Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, the conflict between colonising forces and indigenous populations is considered. This section argues that the popular ecological image of connection and the theme of love is a symbolic attempt to bridge the hyperseparation between dualised concepts; between coloniser and colonised, nature and culture.
Sharon Betcher
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823227457
- eISBN:
- 9780823236626
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823227457.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter analytically engages the theological history of Spirit, that concept by which Christianity has often escaped the tug of gravity. By opening out the aversions ...
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This chapter analytically engages the theological history of Spirit, that concept by which Christianity has often escaped the tug of gravity. By opening out the aversions to ground that have been carried in theologies of Spirit, it hopes to release Spirit in and for “organic transcending.” When Spirit gets grounded, we may then circulate our life love as a groundswell, rather than as a transcendental updraft.Less
This chapter analytically engages the theological history of Spirit, that concept by which Christianity has often escaped the tug of gravity. By opening out the aversions to ground that have been carried in theologies of Spirit, it hopes to release Spirit in and for “organic transcending.” When Spirit gets grounded, we may then circulate our life love as a groundswell, rather than as a transcendental updraft.
Roger S. Gottlieb
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199738748
- eISBN:
- 9780199979349
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738748.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter analyses the critical role of spirituality in the human relationship with nature. Different forms of connection (nature as sacred in itself, nature as the word of God, nature “spirits”) ...
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This chapter analyses the critical role of spirituality in the human relationship with nature. Different forms of connection (nature as sacred in itself, nature as the word of God, nature “spirits”) are described as are the particular experiences and virtues to which our connection to nature gives rise. The difference between traditional senses of nature and the contemporary sense of ‘environment’—nature assaulted and wounded by humanity—is discussed. The particular relevance of indigenous and ecofeminist spirituality is stressed, as are the social questions of needed ecological change. The chapter concludes by questioning the relation between love of nature and love of people; what can be considered a reasonable level of consumption; and what happens to our concept of the sacred when the sacred is vulnerable and poisoned.Less
This chapter analyses the critical role of spirituality in the human relationship with nature. Different forms of connection (nature as sacred in itself, nature as the word of God, nature “spirits”) are described as are the particular experiences and virtues to which our connection to nature gives rise. The difference between traditional senses of nature and the contemporary sense of ‘environment’—nature assaulted and wounded by humanity—is discussed. The particular relevance of indigenous and ecofeminist spirituality is stressed, as are the social questions of needed ecological change. The chapter concludes by questioning the relation between love of nature and love of people; what can be considered a reasonable level of consumption; and what happens to our concept of the sacred when the sacred is vulnerable and poisoned.
Barbara K. Seeber
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262028059
- eISBN:
- 9780262325264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028059.003.0010
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
Barbara K. Seeber argues that Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneering feminist theorist, also offers considerable insights into the relationship between human beings and nature. Wollstonecraft sees ...
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Barbara K. Seeber argues that Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneering feminist theorist, also offers considerable insights into the relationship between human beings and nature. Wollstonecraft sees commonalities between human beings and other animals; she attributes sentience and emotion to animals and accords them ethical consideration. Anticipating ecofeminism, Wollstonecraft sees cruelty toward animals as part of a broader matrix of gender, class, and species oppression; tyrannical behavior toward animals and toward other human beings is mutually reinforcing. However, Wollstonecraft’s perspective on nature goes beyond moral consideration for animals: her written observations of the Scandinavian landscape assess the environmental degradation wrought by human beings and also break down the distinction between subject and object, as she immerses herself in an interactive, reciprocal relationship with the natural environment and also sees agency in the landscape’s nonhuman inhabitants. Incontesting the subject/object distinction, Wollstonecraft also criticizes, as patriarchal and oppressive, the ideal of the detached observer of nature.Less
Barbara K. Seeber argues that Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneering feminist theorist, also offers considerable insights into the relationship between human beings and nature. Wollstonecraft sees commonalities between human beings and other animals; she attributes sentience and emotion to animals and accords them ethical consideration. Anticipating ecofeminism, Wollstonecraft sees cruelty toward animals as part of a broader matrix of gender, class, and species oppression; tyrannical behavior toward animals and toward other human beings is mutually reinforcing. However, Wollstonecraft’s perspective on nature goes beyond moral consideration for animals: her written observations of the Scandinavian landscape assess the environmental degradation wrought by human beings and also break down the distinction between subject and object, as she immerses herself in an interactive, reciprocal relationship with the natural environment and also sees agency in the landscape’s nonhuman inhabitants. Incontesting the subject/object distinction, Wollstonecraft also criticizes, as patriarchal and oppressive, the ideal of the detached observer of nature.
