| Contents Notes |
Foreword / INSTRAW -- Preface / Bella Abzug -- 1. Introduction: The Global Crisis of Environment and Development and the Emergence of the Women, Environment and Sustainable Development Theme : Preparation for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ; In search of theoretical connections: a proposal ; Western science: the motor of the crisis ; Transformations of development: different suggestions -- 2. Developmentalism: A Discourse of Power : The development decades: their impact on the South ; The theoretical assumptions of developmentalism ; Development in the 1990s -- 3. Feminist Critiques of Science : Feminist thought on science ; Historical analysis of feminist epistemology ; Theoretical analysis of feminist epistemology ; The new feminist epistemologies -- 4. The Relationship between Women and Nature: Debates within Feminism : Streams within feminism ; The first wave of feminism ; Nazi Germany ; The second wave ; Ecriture féminine ; Cultural feminism ; Differences among women ; Essentialism versus constructivism -- 5. Women, the Environment and Sustainable Development: Emergence of the Theme and Different Views. Women in Development (WID) in a historical perspective ; The shift from women in development to gender and development ; Women, Environment and Sustainable Development (WED) in historical perspective ; Women organize for the Earth Summit ; Ideas of Women, Environment and Sustainable Development ; Development agencies' conceptualization of WED ; WED and the UNCED process -- 6. Alternative Development : The alternative structuralist and the alternative normativist approach to alternative development ; Feminist critique of development by DAWN (Development with Women for a New Era) -- 7. Environmental Reforms and the Debates on Sustainable Development : UNCED and the NGO Global Forum in 1992 ; The sustainable development debate ; Concepts of economic growth and equity in the sustainable development debate ; Environmental reforms in economics ; Strategies towards sustainable development: some proposals -- 8. Responses to the Crisis from Deep Ecology, Social Ecology and Ecofeminism. Deep ecology ; Social ecology ; Ecofeminism: challenges and contradictions -- 9. Conclusions. Women and UNCED: successes and failures ; WED as a coalition theme: some proposals for future action ; The WED movement post-UNCED ; Proposals for policy changes on WED in development co-operation. "There is a widespread perception that the development process is in a state of multiple crisis. While the notion of sustainable development is supposed to address adequately its environmental dimensions, there is still no agreed framework relating women to this new perspective. This book is an attempt to present and disentangle the various positions put forward by major actors and to clarify the political and theoretical issues that are at stake in the debates on women, the environment and sustainable development. Among the current critiques of the western model of development which the authors review are the feminist analysis of Science itself and the power relations inherent in the production of knowledge; Women, Environment and Development (WED); Alternative Development; Environmental Reformism; and Deep Ecology, Social Ecology and Ecofeminism. In traversing this important landscape of ideas, they show how they criticise the dominant developmental model at the various levels of epistemology, theory and policy. The authors also go further and put forward their own ideas as to the basic elements they consider necessary in constructing a paradigmatic shift -- emphasising such values as holism, mutuality, justice, autonomy, self-reliance, sustainability and peace. This unique work is a signally useful contribution to clarifying thinking on a topic with immense implications for all women." -- Publisher's description |
