I "hooked up" to the ecofem network today and am happy to see that debate
and dialogue are occurring. I too have a few comments to make. First of
all, I'm not sure that you should characterize Joni Seager's book as
coming from an ecofeminist perspective (if indeed that is what Suzanne
meant when she referred Bob to the book). Joni's book discusses ecofeminism
and other feminist responces to environmental crises. While I didn't have
a chance to attend the AAG session in which Joni's book was debated, I
will say that I found it to be interesting because it transcends theorectical
discussions of feminism and environment and presents material on actions
that women are taking to deal with environmental crises. For another
discussion of ecofeminism, I recommend C. Nesmith and S.A. Radcliffe's
article, "(Re)mapping Mother Earth: A geographical perspective on
environmental feminisms," in Environment and Planning D: Society and
Space 1993, volume 11, pp. 379-394. Although I disagree with the
authors' use of the term "environmental feminism" as synonymous with
"ecofeminism," the article points out the pros and the cons of the
ecofeminist perspective. Other articles which may be of interest are
Cecile Jackson's article, "Environmentalism and gender interests in the
third world," in Development and Change, 1993, vol. 24, pp. 649-677, and
Joekes et al. "Gender, environment and population," in Development and
Change, 1994, vol. 25, pp. 137-165. Both articles try to sort out
different feminist approaches to the environment. As for myself, I take
what Dianne Rocheleau has termed as a feminist political ecology
approach to my own research and consulting work.
Marcia Nation
