Another introduction
I'm Lorraine Elliott - I'm a lecturer in the Political Science Department
at the Australian National University. I teach courses in introductory
international relations and the global politics of the environment.
Although I'm an IR scholar, I'll also be putting together a green politics
course in 1996, in order to fill a gap in the department's teaching. My
research and publishing is primarily in the area of environment (global at
this stage) - and I have a particular interest in 'voices beyond the
state'. I've been doing a lot of research, conference papers etc on
women/gender/feminism and the environment. ECOFEM is therefore
(potentially) an absolutely marvellous list for me.
As to what ecofeminism is - one should perhaps ask what are ecofeminisms.
At one level, one could simply define it as bringing the insights of
feminism(s) to environmental philosophy and practice. That itself says
little about the content, simply because the insights of feminism(s) are
varied and diverse. I hope that this list will provide an opportunity to
explore those ideas in a way that encourages dialogue and conversation,
rather than confrontation.
I note that people have been making suggestions about works to look at
which contribute to this literature - isn't it wonderful just how much
material is around on this. I thought perhaps I'd add a few to the list.
Several people have mentioned Vandana Shiva's work - I interpret this as
something more than women = nurturing = essentialist. When she talks about
reclaiminig the feminine, she is not talking about just replacing
'feminine' with 'masculine' (which is what Val Plumwood calls the feminism
of uncritical reversal). I think the more contemporary and sophisticated
ecofeminisms move beyond essentialism (and, as a feminist, I find
essentialism problematic). For those who are interested in some good
introductions, try Val Plumwood's book (I'll have to check the reference -
it's not on my shelf at present and the name escapes me) or anything that
she's written. Or look at the section on eco-feminism in Robyn Eckersley's
book, Environmentalism and Political Theory. Within green theory
generally, there are lots of differences about ecofeminisms - if you want
to follow this debate through, read The Ecologist (especially the on-going
debate between Fox, Salleh etc). Look at anything written by Janet Biehl
(a 'social ecologist' who is critical of ecofeminism), Warwick Fox, a deep
ecologist who also suggests (misleadingly in my view) that 'feminism has
nothing to add to the concept of environmental ethics', Ariel Salleh (an
ecofeminist), Janis Birkeland (who refers to other forms of ecophilosophy
as 'manstream'), Freya Matthews (who argues, in challenge to Fox, that deep
ecology is a masculinist philosophy). Look also at Ynestra King, or Karen
Warren (see articles in Environmental Ethics).
If you're interested in moving beyond the 'philosophical debate', there's
an absolute library of good books on women/environment, often arising out
of the women/environment/development literature and debate. I'm only
starting to dip into this literature, and would love to hear (either by the
list or directly) from anyone who has been doing work in this area. I'm
hoping to spend a bit of time in the Pacific and South East Asia next year
(funding permitting) doing a bit of field work on where women are in the
environmental debate, both as participants (or not) in policy-making,
grass-roots groups and in terms of how environmental degradation affects
them.
I'm looking forward to being part of this list.
Lorraine
__________________________________________________________________________
| Dr Lorraine Elliott Phone: (61 6) 249 0589 |
| Department of Political Science Fax: (61 6) 249 5054 |
| Faculty of Arts |
| Australian National University |
| Canberra, ACT 0200 |
| AUSTRALIA |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
