Feminism, Capitalism, and Ecology (Paperback)
A philosophical response that brings together feminist and ecological approaches to solving the global environmental crisis that the capitalist economic system has created
In the face of ecological catastrophe, neither feminists nor environmentalists have the option of merely supporting an environmental politics that would preserve an imagined nature somewhere outside capitalism. As Johanna Oksala contends, the political goal must be more radical: to challenge the capitalist economic system itself and the mechanisms by which it expropriates life on the planet.
Feminism, Capitalism, and Ecology lays the critical groundwork for this political project. It develops a new way of bringing feminist and ecological responses to capitalism together into a cohesive framework. By exposing the systemic logic by which environmental destruction and gender oppression are jointly rooted in capitalism, Oksala establishes the theoretical foundations for an effective political alliance. The traditions of materialist ecofeminism and Marxist feminism are critical starting points. But the rapid rise of biotechnology and the steady increase of precarity necessitate a model of resistance that responds to the distinctive challenges of contemporary biocapitalism. Timely and urgent, this book articulates a theoretically sophisticated response and maps out our real-world options in this existential struggle.
In the face of ecological catastrophe, neither feminists nor environmentalists have the option of merely supporting an environmental politics that would preserve an imagined nature somewhere outside capitalism. As Johanna Oksala contends, the political goal must be more radical: to challenge the capitalist economic system itself and the mechanisms by which it expropriates life on the planet.
Feminism, Capitalism, and Ecology lays the critical groundwork for this political project. It develops a new way of bringing feminist and ecological responses to capitalism together into a cohesive framework. By exposing the systemic logic by which environmental destruction and gender oppression are jointly rooted in capitalism, Oksala establishes the theoretical foundations for an effective political alliance. The traditions of materialist ecofeminism and Marxist feminism are critical starting points. But the rapid rise of biotechnology and the steady increase of precarity necessitate a model of resistance that responds to the distinctive challenges of contemporary biocapitalism. Timely and urgent, this book articulates a theoretically sophisticated response and maps out our real-world options in this existential struggle.
JOHANNA OKSALA is the Arthur J. Schmitt Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. Her books include Foucault, Politics, and Violence and Feminist Experiences: Foucauldian and Phenomenological Investigations, both published by Northwestern University Press.
“A concise and incisive intervention into current debates about the critique of capitalism.” —Amy Allen, author of Critique on the Couch: Why Critical Theory Needs Psychoanalysis
“Johanna Oksala’s book offers both a guide to and defense of an ecofeminist critique of capitalism. It is current and timely, outlining a contemporary approach to ecofeminism that is informed by emergent literatures and new philosophical perspectives.” —Penelope Deutscher, author of Foucault’s Futures: A Critique of Reproductive Reason