Ecofeminism

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, Sep 27, 1993 - Social Science - 328 pages

This impressive book celebrates the coming together of two well-known critics of Western philosophy and science. From their respective backgrounds in social science and physics, Maria Mies and VAndana Shiva write about the concerns which unite them as women.

Theirs is a powerful critique of the emnacipatory ideas of the Enlightenment, which measured civilizationin terms of domination of Nature. They argue that feminism should see linkages between patriarchal opression and the destruction of Nature in the name of profit and progress. Women - in many parts of the world the principal farmers, food-providers, and nurturers of children - are the hardest hit by technological excess and environmental degradation.

Through examining issues such as the growth of new reproductive technologies, 'development', indigenous knowledge, globalization, and the concepts of freedom and self-determination, teh authors provide a vision of a different value system. Ecofeminism is after all a 'new term for an ancient wisdom'. Their book is a powerful plea for the rediscovery of such wisdom by feminists and ecologists everywhere.

From inside the book

Contents

Why We Wrote this Book Together
1
Why is it so difficult to see this common ground? Freedom versus
10
Ecofeminism Spiritual or political ecofeminism?
16
Copyright

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About the author (1993)

Maria Mies is a Marxist feminist scholar who is renowned for her theory of capitalist patriarchy, which recognizes third world women and difference. She is a professor of sociology at Cologne University of Applied Sciences, but retired from teaching in 1993. Since the late 1960s she has been involved with feminist activism. In 1979, at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, she founded the Women and Development programme. Her other titles published by Zed Books include The Lace Makers of Narsapur (1982), Women: The Last Colony (1988), The Subsistence Perspective (1999) and Ecofeminism (2014).

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