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A Political Ecology of Women, Water, and Global Environmental Change

Authors:
Stephanie Buechler at Pennsylvania State University
Stephanie Buechler
Anne-Marie Hanson at University of Illinois at Springfield
Anne-Marie Hanson
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Abstract

This edited volume explores how a feminist political ecology framework can bring fresh insights to the study of rural and urban livelihoods dependent on vulnerable rivers, lakes, watersheds, wetlands and coastal environments. Bringing together political ecologists and feminist scholars from multiple disciplines, the book develops solution-oriented advances to theory, policy and planning to tackle the complexity of these global environmental changes. Using applied research on the contemporary management of groundwater, springs, rivers, lakes, watersheds and coastal wetlands in Central and South Asia, Northern, Central and Southern Africa, and South and North America, the authors draw on a variety of methodological perspectives and new theoretical approaches to demonstrate the importance of considering multiple layers of social difference as produced by and central to the effective governance and local management of water resources. This unique collection employs a unifying feminist political ecology framework that emphasizes the ways that gender interacts with other social and geographical locations of water resource users. In doing so, the book further questions the normative gender discourses that underlie policies and practices surrounding rural and urban water management and climate change, water pollution, large-scale development and dams, water for crop and livestock production and processing, resource knowledge and expertise, and critical livelihood studies. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental studies, development studies, feminist and environmental geography, anthropology, sociology, environmental philosophy, public policy, planning, media studies, Latin American and other area studies, as well as women’s and gender studies.
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March 2015: 262pp
29 illustrations
Hb: 978-0-415-74935-0 | $155.00
eBook: 978-1-315-79620-8
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A Political Ecology of
Women, Water and
Global Environmental
Change
Edited by Stephanie Buechler, University of Arizona, USA
and Anne-Marie S. Hanson, University of Illinois
Springfield, USA
Series: Routledge International Studies of Women and Place
The deterioration of water quality, rising temperatures, and
changes in the seasonality, quantity, and duration of
precipitation increasingly alters human, animal and plant
demand for water resources. This edited volume explores
how a feminist political ecology framework can bring new
and exciting insights to the study of livelihoods dependent
on vulnerable rivers, watersheds, wetlands and coastal
environments. Bringing together political ecologists and
feminist scholars from multiple disciplines, the book
develops solution-oriented advances to theory, policy and
planning to tackle the complexity of these global
environmental changes.
20% Discount Available - enter the code FLR40 at
checkout*
Hb: 978-0-415-74935-0 | $124.00
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... 3 For example, by understanding 'weather', 'climate' and 'climate change' as ideas constructed through cultural practices (Hulme, 2008;Jasanoff, 2010). Thus, it is crucial to study how climate change is lived and interpreted by people within particular social and historical contexts and how climate change experiences and understandings fit into wider understandings of the world (MacGregor, 2009;Bee et al., 2015;Buechler and Hanson, 2015). Berkes (2009) suggests that local understandings of environmental and climate change must be interpreted within the context of broader knowledge systems developed locally. ...
... Accordingly, feminist and decolonial scholars argue that efforts to promote climate change adaptation need to ask critical questions about how climate change knowledge is generated and by whom, directly addressing structural social inequalities and social and epistemological justice (Cameron, 2012;Bee et al. 2015;Todd, 2016). Such effort will be fruitless without a deep understanding of how climate change differently affects people on the ground -mediated by gender or other key intersectional dimensions of difference and inequality, whether ethnicity, race, poverty, indigeneity, or coloniality (Buechler and Hanson, 2015). ...
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... Such an approach implies interpreting climate change's physical dimensions through cultural meanings,3 e.g., understanding 'weather', 'climate' and 'climate change' as ideas constructed through cultural practices (Hulme, 2008;Jasanoff, 2010). Thus, it is crucial to study how climate change is lived and interpreted by people within particular social and historical contexts and how climate change experiences and understandings fit into wider understandings of the world (Bee et al., 2015;Buechler and Hanson, 2015;MacGregor, 2009). Berkes (2009) suggests that local understandings of environmental (and climate) change must be interpreted within the context of broader knowledge systems developed locally. ...
... Accordingly, feminist and decolonial scholars argue that efforts to promote climate change adaptation need to ask critical questions about how climate change knowledge is generated and by whom, directly addressing structural social inequalities and social and epistemological justice questions (Bee et al., 2015;Cameron, 2012;Todd, 2016). Such effort will be fruitless without a deep understanding of how climate change differently affects people on the ground mediated by gender or other key intersectional dimensions of difference and inequality, whether ethnicity, race, poverty, indigeneity, or coloniality (Buechler and Hanson, 2015). ...
“So many things have changed”: Situated understandings of climate change impacts among the Bassari, south-eastern Senegal
Article
  • Aug 2023
  • ENVIRON SCI POLICY
Mainstream discourses frame anthropogenic climate change as a biophysical apolitical problem, thus privileging Western science and silencing other worldviews. Through a case study among the Bassari, an ethnic group in South-Eastern Senegal, we assess the local, embodied, and situated understandings of climate change and the tensions that arise when the apolitical global climate change discourse interacts with situated understandings. Drawing on data from 47 semi-structured interviews and 176 surveys, we find that while the global climate change discourse has not permeated into the Bassari, they experience climate change through its many impacts on the biophysical and socio-economic systems. Results also highlight that climate is not considered the main or only driver of change, but that changes in elements of the climate system are inextricably linked with political and economic dynamics and environmental degradation. Finally, our results point toward the importance of values and supernatural forces in defining situated ways of conceptualizing, interpreting, and responding to change. By including situated worldviews in theoretical understandings of climate and environmental change, we contribute to the claims about the need to reframe how climate change is conceptualized. Our research emphasizes the importance of a relational view of climate change, which requires moving beyond understanding isolated climate change impacts towards defining climate change as a systemic problem. Building on feminist and decolonial literature, we argue for the need for more plural and democratic ways of thinking about climate change, crossing epistemological and ontological boundaries and including local communities and their knowledge and understandings.
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... Further to this, they have promoted the possibility to source food through gathering (Shiva, 1989) and self-sufficient farming (Buechler, 2015). These initiatives exploit the advantages and methods of small groups-as often deployed by women's movements-to connect the concerns of food and the environment to the well-being and justice of their communities and further, to the health of their bodies (Buechler & Hanson, 2015). ...
... Furthermore, many researchers have pointed out that the relation between gender, food production, and environment also intersect with other differences, such as class and caste relations (cf. Arora-Jonsson, 2013, p. 75;Buechler & Hanson, 2015;Kaijser, 2011;Philip, 2008). ...
Practices of modest recuperation: Food, situated knowledge, and the politics of respect Practices of modest recuperation: Food, situated knowledge, and the politics of respect
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2017
This article discusses food as a political object through an analysis of the practices of two non-governmental organizations that work with food production and the associated production of knowledge. Donna Haraway's notions of situated knowledge, companion species, and the politics of respect are employed to build the methodological framework for the analysis. The analysis employs a qualitative empirical study of a large Finnish women's organization working in the field of home economics, and a complementary study of an East London based feminist environmental organization. Both organizations work through local groups. Firstly, the article examines how these groups work with practices of food production, using the case of composting as an example. Composting food leftovers utilizes networks of companion species and their bio-socio-technical apparatuses across the globe, including-but not limited to-soil, worms, and waste management companies. Secondly, it shows how situated knowledge is produced by connecting research based knowledge and the experience based knowledge generated through material practices of food production and use. Finally, it discusses the ways in which communally produced situated knowledge facilitates the politics of respect in everyday practices of food production via networks of companion species for modest recuperation.
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... Feminist political ecology (FPE) literature points out that little research addresses the socio-political dimensions of climate change (MacGregor, 2010), such as how perceptions, impacts, and responses differ among subjects. FPE further highlights how climate change biophysical studies often marginalize the voices of the most vulnerable people (e.g., Indigenous people, women) (Buechler & Hanson, 2015). Additionally, FPE scholars argue that contemporary Western societies often view "climate change" as an abstract phenomenon, despite framing it in language of urgency and emergency. ...
... A third body of literature from new FPE and intersectionality informs our study. With specific reference to the Global North, an emerging academic literature examines how gender, race, class, education, and place, among other categories of social difference, make for differential perceptions, experiences and responses of rural people to climate change and environmental disasters more generally (e.g., drought, flooding, fire) (e.g., Alston, 2006;Buechler & Hanson, 2015;David & Enarson, 2012;Fletcher, 2018;García Gonzalez, 2019;Rodó-de-Zarate & Baylina, 2018;Walker et al., 2021;Whyte, 2014). Developed through the work of Black feminists, such as the Combahee River Collective and Crenshaw (1991), the concept of intersectionality has been described as the overlapping and interactive ways that gender and race can oppress (or empower) specific individuals or groups (Crenshaw, 1991). ...
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... The praxis from Grandmother Josephine Mandamin and other Anishinaabe women through Mother Earth Water Walks (MEWW) (McGregor, 2015) or the Women's Council, which enhanced the Nibi Declaration of Treaty #3 (Craft and King, 2021), are remarkable examples of enacting ethical and political commitments rooted in deep responsibilities to waterways. The experiences documented by Yaka (2017) in Turkey, and Caretta et al. (2020) in Ecuador and the United States, again show how expanded notions of the self which encompass non-human water bodies often push diverse women to mobilize and resist extractivist activities and ongoing assaults on the health of waterways (see also Buechler & Hanson, 2015;Johnson et al., 2020;Bustamante et al., 2005;Drew, 2014;Hayman et al., 2015;Jenkins, 2017, Boelens et al., 2022. ...
Beyond Material Dimensions of Water Insecurity
Chapter
  • Jul 2024
Common paradigms of water insecurity focus on material aspects and outcomes, for instance, piped infrastructure or bodily health. Definitions of water insecurity often engage with uses of water for domestic, productive, and industrial purposes. Considerable research foregrounds the ways that water insecurity is differentiated in terms of gender, age, socio-economic status, caste, or other axes of inequity, with varied outcomes for well-being and health. This chapter builds on recent work to propose an approach to gendered aspects of water insecurities that highlights non-material dimensions, enabling the consideration of gender and water insecurities otherwise. This perspective builds on an extended gender approach, as well as a relational understanding of water inspired by feminist, post-structural, post-humanist, and Indigenous theories and ontologies. Including these diverse understandings enables a consideration of gender and water insights more fully beyond the material. This chapter develops these ideas by moving through three interconnected currents/themes – 1) gendered notions of the self as linked with broader understandings of water, 2) water relations as fostering connections to place, landscape, and more-than-human beings and waterscapes, and 3) gendered and intersectional political engagements made possible through relationality with water.
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... Socio-technical approaches, such as ecosystems and systems theory (Wright and Meadows, 2008) and political ecology theories that focus on human agency (Buechler and Hanson, 2015;Bisung et al., 2016) provide comprehensive methods for analyzing social inequalities and broader dimensions that include global and political factors. They allow the positioning of a project within its ecosystem, revealing connections between water elements, sustainability factors, as well as relationships and interactions between stakeholders, while assisting in identifying feedback loops. ...
A holistic framework for evaluating and planning sustainable rural drinking water projects in sub-Saharan Africa
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2024
  • J RURAL STUD
Clean water facilities and services are failing the population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), hindering the goal of "Water for All" owing to unsustainable drinking water projects and infrastructure. A vast body of literature has examined the lack of sustainability in drinking water projects, identifying: economic, technological, planning, social and political factors. However, much of the existing literature reflects fragmented and siloed thinking, often focusing on specific issues without a holistic view, masking root causes, and overlooking multi-level stakeholder involvement, necessitating deeper analysis. In addition, most studies view individual projects as pertaining to a single spatial level-such as the village level-detached from its regional or global ecosystem. This paper introduces the "Holistic Integrated Framework" developed through a study in Siaya County, Kenya, on the sustainability of water projects aimed at bridging these gaps. This tool can enhance our understanding of sustainability, allowing for a comprehensive examination and understanding of the problems. It enables the identification of multiple spatial and governance levels and their cross referencing with sustainability categories. It uncovers essential underlying factors driving project sustainability and assesses stakeholders' interconnec-tedness as well as the direct impact of their actions, thus assisting in addressing the myriad obstacles to sustainability. Furthermore, it identifies the regional feedback loops that perpetuate these problems. The tool is exemplified through a case study illustrating the complexity and fragility of sustainability's, emphasizing the need for a detailed, comprehensive analysis to mitigate risks.
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... The institutional functionality and sustainability of the drinking water systems is problematic, as fewer than 28% of the systems in place remain fully functional (DWSSM, 2019;NMIP, 2014). Water supply disruptions disproportionately affect marginalized people, particularly women and young girls, who are primarily responsible for ensuring the household water supply in Nepal (Buechler & Hanson, 2015;Scott et al., 2021). Against this backdrop, Nepal's move to a federal system of governance via the Constitution of Nepal 2015 has vested additional power in the new local administrative units, the Palikas. ...
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... Ser hombre o ser mujer afecta la experiencia de vida de las personas en tres ejes principales: el acceso a recursos materiales necesarios para desarrollar sus medios de vida; la exposición diferenciada a riesgos e impactos socioambientales y el acceso a la toma de decisiones ambientales; y finalmente, los tipos y formas que adquiere el activismo y la participación política ambiental. Todos estos aspectos se ven influidos en última instancia por las relaciones de poder en las que participan mujeres y hombres en la sociedad más general, pero que se ven representadas y reafirmadas en las dinámicas socioecológicas en las que participan las personas (Buechler y Hanson, 2015;Rocheleau, Thomas-Slayter y Wangari, 1996;Velázquez, 1996). ...
MINERÍA Y SOCIEDAD EN EL RÍO SONORA. DIÁLOGOS SOBRE DESARROLLO, SOSTENIBILIDAD E INCLUSIÓN
Book
Full-text available
  • Dec 2022
El 6 de agosto de 2014 ocurrió el peor desastre ambiental en la historia de la minería en México: se derramaron 40 000 metros cúbicos de solución de sulfato de cobre acidulado al sistema hídrico de la cuenca alta del río Sonora. Esta obra colectiva busca sistematizar y difundir en la sociedad un conjunto de estudios inéditos que, desde las ciencias sociales, se han desarrollado a partir del análisis de esta contingencia ambiental y sus consecuencias.
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... Trained as feminist political ecologists, we can't help but notice a disjuncture between these assumptions about the digital and our own understandings of "rooted networks" in political ecology. FPE emphasizes that political ecological relations are not neutral and universal but are in fact gendered, classed, racialized and shaped through other markers of social difference, and that this in turn affects material outcomes such as labor roles, access to resources, environmental responsibilities and subjectivities, and knowledge production (Rocheleau et al., 1996;Elmhirst, 2011;Nightingale, 2011Nightingale, , 2013Buechler and Hanson, 2015;Harcourt and Nelson, 2015;Harcourt et al., 2022). FPE reminds us that environmental knowledge is situated, rooted and partial, necessitating attention to whose voices and lived experiences inform our understandings of the world (Rocheleau and Roth, 2007;Mollett and Faria, 2013;Nyantakyi-Frimpong, 2019). ...
Where are rooted networks in digital political ecologies?
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2022
This perspective piece contends that political-ecological relations are already digital and that feminist analyses help reveal their often-overlooked power relations. We argue that as digital political ecologies research grows in popularity, there is widespread omission and forgetting of key epistemological lessons from feminist political ecologies, such as rooted networks. Here, we remind readers of rooted networks lessons, and we distill them into suggested writing strategies for researchers. Such rooted network writing strategies may seem inefficient and may take up space and time, but as feminist political ecologists concerned with digital relations, we see them as necessary.
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Ecological Change and Livestock Governance in a Peruvian National Park
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2023
While the grazing of livestock has occurred for millennia in the Andes, current sustainability debates center on concerns with co-managing climate change and pastoralism. These discussions have special resonance in places protected by the state for biodiversity, scenery, and sustainable and traditional land uses, such as those found in protected areas and biosphere reserves. For this article, we integrate data from a social-ecological research project on the land use systems that affect high-elevation ecosystems in Peru’s Huascarán National Park, with special emphasis on the wetlands. We used land cover and land use data and insights from interactions with pastoralists to show that (1) wet meadows dominate the lower reaches of the park, while peatlands predominate above 4000 m elevation; (2) wet meadows are most useful for traditional grazing systems, while the peatlands are especially susceptible to trampling by livestock; and (3) there is limited ecological space at the highest elevations for the successful future upward relocation of either land use or potential habitats for species identified as of concern. We explore the implications of these findings for the adaptive strategies of biophysical and social processes in terms of livelihoods and biodiversity in and around a protected area. We conclude that there are many additional opportunities to be explored to inform the management of ecosystem services and provide improvements for the adaptive capacity of communities and park managers.
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