Ecofeminism

by Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva

Authors from economics and philosophy merge women’s global perspectives into a practical, philosophical ecofeminist stance. Addressing patriarchy, environmental degradation, and militarism, they redefine values and ethics for a sustainable future.

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About the book

Two authors, one an economist, the other a physicist and philosopher, come together in this book on a controversial environmental agenda. Using interview material, they bring together women’s perspectives from North and South on environmental deterioration and develop and new way of approaching this body of knowledge which is at once practical and philosophical. Do women involved in environmental movements see a link between patriarchy and ecological degradation? What are the links between global militarism and the destruction of nature? In exploring such questions, the authors criticize prevailing theories and develop an intellectually rigorous ecofeminist perspective rooted in the needs of everyday life. They argue for the acceptance of limits, the rejection of the commoditization of needs, and a commitment to a new ethics.

Climate & Ecology Feminism, Gender & Sexuality

Authors

Maria Mies

Maria Mies is a professor of sociology and author of several influential feminist books, including Indian Women and Patriarchy (1980), Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale (1986), and (with Bennholdt-Thomsen and von Werlhof) Women: The Last Colony (1988).

She is Professor of Sociology at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, which is a Fachhochschule in Cologne, Germany. She worked for many years in India. In 1979 she established the Women and Development programme at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands. She has been active in the women’s movement and in women’s studies since the late 1960s. She has published several books and many articles on feminist, ecological and Third World issues. One of her main concerns is the development of an alternative approach in methodology and in economics. Having retired from teaching in 1993, she continues to be active in the women’s and other social movements. She has published a book on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and, with Veronika Bannholdt, has written a book on the subsistence perspective (from Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale).

Vandana Shiva

VANDANA SHIVA is a world-renowned environmental thinker and campaigner. A leader in the International Forum on Globalization, recipient of the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) and of the Earth Day Award, she is the author of several influential books, including: Staying Alive, The Violence of the Green Revolution, Monocultures of the Mind, Biopiracy, and Stolen Harvest.