patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale

For our readers who are unfamiliar with the concept of ecofeminism could you give a brief historical overview of ecofeminism and its core ideas, and explain why it appealed to you? Therefore feminist and ecological struggles are inherently linked to each other. ROAR: The core idea of ecofeminism, I believe, is the idea that man’s domination over nature parallels that of man’s domination over women.

She gave Vandana this book when they met around 1990, after which Ecofeminism appeared for the first time in 1993. Before she and Vandana Shiva decided to write Ecofeminism together, she had already written Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, which was published by Zed Books in 1986. Since the late 1960s she has been involved with feminist activism. She is a professor of sociology at Cologne University of Applied Siences, but retired from teaching in 1993. Maria Mies is a feminist activist scholar who is renowned for her theory of capitalist patriarchy, one which recognizes women and nature as colonies of both systems. For this first part of the series, ROAR editor Joris Leverink interviews Maria Mies about her work Ecofeminism, which she co-authored with Vandana Shiva. We will look not only at what inspired the authors at the time of writing their influential works, but also at what they believe is the relevance of their ideas in bringing about change in the context of the current wave of global uprisings.

Over the coming weeks ROAR will publish a series of interviews with some of the authors from this varied and inspiring collection of critical analyses and theories. Recently, the UK-based publisher Zed Books launched its Critique Influence Change series, which “brings together pivotal texts by notable academics and activists from Zed Books’ publishing of the last thirty-five years”.

Patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale