In this groundbreaking work, two world-renowned scholars argue that ecological destruction and industrial catastrophes constitute a direct threat to everyday life, the maintenance of which has been made the particular responsibility of women. In both industrialized societies and the developing countries, the new wars the world is experiencing, violent ethnic chauvinisms and the malfunctioning of the economy also pose urgent questions for ecofeminists. Is there a relationship between patriarchal oppression and the destruction of nature in the name of profit and progress? How can women counter the violence inherent in these processes? Should they look to a link between the women''s movement and other social movements?Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva offer a thought-provoking analysis of these and many other issues from a unique North-South perspective. They critique prevailing economic theories, conventional concepts of women''s emancipation, the myth of ''catching up'' development, the philosophical foundations of modern science and technology, and the omission of ethics when discussing so many questions, including advances in reproductive technology and biotechnology.In constructing their own ecofeminist epistemology and methodology, these two internationally respected feminist environmental activists look to the potential of movements advocating consumer liberation and subsistence production, sustainability and regeneration. They argue for an acceptance of limits and reciprocity and a rejection of exploitation, the endless commoditization of needs, and violence.>

Read independently of the collection, many of the essays have innovative things to say to the political movements involved in fighting large scale development, nuclear energy, violence against women, wars and environmental destruction. Shiva's discussion of the development establishment's misnomer of poverty, her discussion of the biotechnology and the impact of GATT on third world women and informative political critique, and Mies on eco-tourism, German women's response to Chernobyl, and her critique of body as property and self-determination in the context of surrogacy, are enlivening additions to important debates.

Vorwort
A powerful searing indictment of development strategies practised by the North on the South from an ecofeminist perspective.

Autorentext
Maria Mies is a Marxist feminist scholar who is renowned for her theory of capitalist patriarchy, which recognizes third world women and difference. She is a professor of sociology at Cologne University of Applied Sciences, but retired from teaching in 1993. Since the late 1960s she has been involved with feminist activism. In 1979, at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, she founded the Women and Development programme. Her other titles published by Zed Books include The Lace Makers of Narsapur (1982), Women: The Last Colony (1988), The Subsistence Perspective (1999) and Ecofeminism (2014). Ariel Salleh is a scholar-activist; appointed Visiting Professor, Instituto de Humanidades, Artes e Ciencias, Universidade Federal de Bahia, Brasil for 2025-26; a Founding Member of the Global University for Sustainability, Hong Kong, and a Visiting Professor in Humanities, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. Her classic book Ecofeminism as Politics: nature, Marx, and the postmodern (2017) and some 300 articles are available in multiple translations. In 2019, she co-edited Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary with Ashish Kothari, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria and Alberto Acosta.

Klappentext
In this groundbreaking work, two world-renowned scholars argue that ecological destruction and industrial catastrophes constitute a direct threat to everyday life, the maintenance of which has been made the particular responsibility of women. In both industrialized societies and the developing countries, the new wars the world is experiencing, violent ethnic chauvinisms and the malfunctioning of the economy also pose urgent questions for ecofeminists. Is there a relationship between patriarchal oppression and the destruction of nature in the name of profit and progress? How can women counter the violence inherent in these processes? Should they look to a link between the women's movement and other social movements? Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva offer a thought-provoking analysis of these and many other issues from a unique North-South perspective. They critique prevailing economic theories, conventional concepts of women's emancipation, the myth of 'catching up' development, the philosophical foundations of modern science and technology, and the omission of ethics when discussing so many questions, including advances in reproductive technology and biotechnology. In constructing their own ecofeminist epistemology and methodology, these two internationally respected feminist environmental activists look to the potential of movements advocating consumer liberation and subsistence production, sustainability and regeneration. They argue for an acceptance of limits and reciprocity and a rejection of exploitation, the endless commoditization of needs, and violence.

Inhalt

Foreword - Ariel Salleh
Preface to the 'Critique Influence Change' edition

1. Introduction: Why We Wrote This Book Together
   Part I: Critique and Perspective
2. Reductionism and Regeneration: A Crisis in Science, Vandana Shiva

3. Feminist Research: Science, Violence and Responsibility, Maria Mies

   Part II: Subsistence V. Development

4. The Myth of Catching-up Development, Maria Mies
5. The Impoverishment of the environment: Women and Children Last, Vandana Shiva

6. Who Made Nature Our Enemy?, Maria Mies

   Part III: The Search for Roots

7. Homeless in the 'Global Village', Vandana Shiva
8. Masculinization of the Motherland, Vandana Shiva
9. Women Have No Fatherland, Maria Mies

10. White Man's Dilemma: His Search for What He has Destroyed, Maria Mies

    Part IV: Ecofeminism V. New Areas of Investment through Biotechnology

11. Women's Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation, Vandana Shiva
12. New Reproductive Technologies: Sexist and Racist Implications, Maria Mies

13. From the Individual to the Dividual: the Supermarket of 'Reproductive alternatives' Maria Mies

    Part V: Freedom for Trade or Freedom for Survival

14. Self Determination: The End of a Utopia? Maria Mies
15. GATT, Agriculture and Third World Women, Vandana Shiva
16. The Chipko Women's Concept of Freedom, Vandana, Shiva