Description
Two of Zed's best-known 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.
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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.
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