Eco-Feminisms in Theory and Practice in the Global South: India, South Africa, and Ecuador

Abstract

In recent years, given mounting environmental and especially climate injustices in the Global South, activists and social scientists alike need to understand better how citizens’ movements address these threats. Academics apply various theories to climate justice movements of their regions. However, one arguably universal approach is eco-feminism because it uniquely addresses several overlapping, interlocking problems: patriarchal power relations, the vital albeit unpaid role of women in social reproduction (including mutual aid during climate crises), inter-generational ecological stewardship, and the search for more harmonious society–nature relations. These contributions are clarified using a five-part categorization: principles, analyses, strategies, tactics, and alliances. This chapter reviews three ongoing sites in which well-known eco-feminists and their organizational networks influence climate justice movements: India, South Africa, and Ecuador. We aim to summarize competing theoretical eco-feminist approaches and to show the merits (and, in some cases, limitations) of “justice,” and “equity” claims (e.g., for ecological reparations such as “climate debt”), as well as concrete actions to address emissions mitigation (for example, in opposing “extractivism”) and improve climate adaptation and the hotly contested notion of “resilience.” The chapter concludes by recommending a brief agenda for social scientists and practitioners to incorporate eco-feminist contributions, positioning research and advocacy to contribute more effectively toward an environmentally and climate-just society.