Feminist Perspectives on Environment and Society

by Littig; Beate

• ISBN13: 9780582369429
• ISBN10: 0582369428
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-04-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book aims to give a comprehensive overview of the concepts, theories and results of environmental sociology from a feminist perspective. Environmental sociology is a relatively new field of sociological resarch. The issues surrounding the relationship between the environment and society challenge the basic assumptions of sociological theory and they are more or less marginalized by the main stream of sociological research. The feminist perspectives on environment and society are even more marginalized. They have been dominated by ecofeminism but in the discourse on sustainable development different positions and debates are beginning to emerge. The book portrays the feminist perspectives on environment and society and gives an overview of the feminist critique of environmental sociology. It starts with an overview of basic concepts of the nature-society-relationships, goes further with special fields of human-nature-interaction: work and consumption, and the portrayal of environmental political strategies, and ends with the outline of an integrating approach: gender-sensitive socio-ecological research..

Table of Contents

Publisher's acknowledgements	viii
Author's acknowledgements	x
Introduction: feminist perspectives	1	(29)
Introduction	1	(2)
Environmental sociology	3	(3)
Feminist perspectives	6	(4)
Feminist critique of science and technology	10	(3)
Ecofeminism as a theory	13	(2)
Ecofeminism as a movement	15	(6)
Feminist environmental research	21	(5)
Outlook	26	(1)
Outline of remaining chapters	27	(1)
Summary	28	(1)
Further reading	29	(1)
Environment and society	30	(27)
What are environmental problems?	30	(7)
Deep ecology and ecofeminism	37	(1)
Are environmental problems real?	38	(5)
Sociology and the relationships between nature and society	43	(5)
Societal metabolism and the colonisation of nature	48	(3)
Other conceptions of the relationship between society and nature	51	(5)
Summary	56	(1)
Further reading	56	(1)
Work and the environment	57	(28)
Work and environment: the shortcomings of the debate from a feminist angle	57	(1)
`The crisis of the work society' - `The crisis of Fordism'	58	(4)
The work society and the gendered division of labour	62	(3)
`Environment and employment' - and women? A deficit analysis	65	(3)
A brief overview of the development of female employment	68	(3)
Sustainable work: an emerging discourse	71	(7)
Feminist contributions to the topic of sustainable labour	78	(5)
Summary	83	(1)
Further reading	84	(1)
Consumerism, lifestyles and behavioural changes	85	(36)
Introduction	85	(3)
Global production - global consumption	88	(3)
Consumption and lifestyles	91	(3)
Sustainable development: developing new models of prosperity, consumption and lifestyles	94	(3)
The `dematerialisation' of consumption by eco-efficient services	97	(7)
Environmental consciousness and environmentally sound behaviour	104	(5)
Mobile women	109	(5)
`Sustainable mobility'	114	(5)
Summary	119	(1)
Further reading	120	(1)
Politics and political strategies	121	(26)
Introduction	121	(1)
Phases of Western environmental movements	122	(9)
Environmental activism and women	131	(4)
Towards global (eco) feminism	135	(7)
Local Agenda 21	142	(3)
Summary	145	(1)
Further reading	146	(1)
Conclusions and outlook: towards a gender-sensitive socio-ecological research	147	(8)
Concluding remarks	147	(6)
Summary	153	(1)
Further reading	154	(1)
Glossary	155	(4)
Select bibliography	159	(31)
Index	190