Contemporary Perspectives on Ecofeminism

Drawing on insights from ecology, feminism and socialism, eco-feminism analyses the ideology that authorises oppressions based on race, class, gender, sexuality as a parallel to the oppression of Nature. Quite a lot of space in this volume is devoted to refuting the charge of essentialism in terms of a distinctive feminine approach, but I do think that there are common attitudes towards the body, women and Nature that have pervaded monotheistic outlooks. The structure of the book corresponds to the equal emphasis on academic analysis and activism, which are both concerned with issues of justice. The introduction quotes from the WWF Living Planet Report showing that populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish around the globe dropped by 52% between 1970 and 2010. In the same period, human population more than doubled.

The essays in the first part discussed the eco-feminist perspective on the relationship between humans and animals, emotional and physical distancing from the world as a reason for governmental inertia, and the multiple facets of our crisis as ecological, social, political and economic. This last essay makes a critique of domination, based on three central principles: the role of alienation and reification; dualism, separation and identification; and instrumentalism and objectification. The argument owes something to Marx, and has interesting implications as a critique of liberal individualism along with instrumental reason, adding up to an alienation from Nature. Although these ideas may seem quite abstract, they do have considerable practical relevance and can provide intellectual fuel for NGOs and social movements. The second part looks at a number of situations including funding for women's farming, the role of game ranger's wives in conservation, narratives of climate change and climate justice, post-colonialism in South African townships, gender theory and resource management, and the emergence of spiritual principles in business. One interesting theme is the contrast between the instrumental values of techno-science with the logic of care and relational values of cooperation, dependency and flourishing that we may unthinkingly ascribe more to women, but which, as Carol Gilligan shows, are in fact a human capacity. The book is a timely reminder of important issues that we cannot afford to neglect.