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- Convenors:
-
Patrick Kilby
(Australian National University)
Joyce Wu (University of New South Wales)
Rochelle Spencer (Murdoch University)
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- Chairs:
-
Patrick Kilby
(Australian National University)
Rochelle Spencer (Murdoch University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Anthropocene thinking
- Location:
- Palmer 1.08
- Sessions:
- Thursday 29 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel focuses on feminist framings of socio-ecological relations and crises and what they mean for our understanding of the structural, socio-political limits to human wellbeing and progress (such as global inequality in all its forms) and the possibilities for transformation.
Long Abstract:
This panel focuses on feminist framings of socio-ecological relations and crises and what they mean for our understanding of the structural, socio-political limits to human wellbeing and progress (such as global inequality in all its forms) and the possibilities for transformation. In particular, the panel will consider how global pressures, not least of all environmental, have shaped women's and gender diverse people's options and, in many situations, made their lives more precarious. On the other hand, the panel seeks to engender conversations around how feminist analyses can be a critical resource for interrogating knowledge and governance regimes which form the basis for inequalities, disempowerment, and marginalization. More importantly, it aims to make more visible alternative perspectives of what matters in development grounded in gendered accounts of living in a world of crisis and uncertainty
Papers are invited that apply feminist knowledge and conceptual frameworks to the Anthropocene, and include case studies from the Global and Political South, and will consist of topics such as:
Migration
Humanitarianism
Gender transformative approaches and agriculture
Rethinking ecology, feminism, and the Anthropocene
We look forward to your contributions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 29 June, 2023, -Patrick Kilby (Australian National University) Joyce Wu (University of New South Wales)
Paper short abstract:
This brings the notion of precarity in the Age of the Anthropocene, as a real risk to women's empowerment and in the context of global migration chains. It explores how patriarchy and paternalist government policy can have an unintended effect and increase the precariousness of women's migration.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores precarity in short-term women’s migration using the case study of Nepal. Women migrate from Nepal for short-term contract work mostly in the domestic care sector. This research has used both focus group discussions, and key informant interviews with returned and prospective migrants, as well as NGO staff and others supporting migration. A picture of the precarity of women short term migration from Nepal to the Middle East has emerged, with the motivation for women’s migration being complex, and while it is primarily financial and for some an economic necessity, there are also broader implications, and the argument that migration can expand women’s choices and opportunities, and possibly be empowering. The research found that this 'empowerment' applies to relatively few women migrants. Nepalese women face considerable risks and this migration is generally precarious due to patriarchal control and paternalist government restrictions and controls, along each step of the migration pathway.
Vani Bhardwaj (Society of Gender Professionals)
Paper short abstract:
How gender-class-race-caste nexus play a role in water conflicts at community level and studying such intersections will help guide building gendered transformative water governance in the Brahmaputra river basin?
Paper long abstract:
Household level water insecurities are enmeshed into the power dynamics at the inter-community level. Water conflicts can be managed by gender-sensitive pathways in order to transform community water conflicts. Therefore, local peacebuilding strategies can be unearthed amidst the risks related to local water conflict. In a sense this paper problematizes the understanding of 'local', the fluctuating intensity of conflicts and cooperation regarding water resources and intra and inter-community hierarchies forming part of the social infrastructure around local water resources. How do men, women and queer part of the community contribute to peace regarding water security? Does such peacebuilding strategies unravel whether water securitization becomes embedded with masculinist connotations of security? The paper will study the Brahmaputra river basin which traverses transboundary river politics in order to advocate for transformative water governance.
Rochelle Spencer (Murdoch University) Jane Hutchison (Murdoch University) Huong Ngo Thi Thanh
Paper short abstract:
By placing women’s relationships at the heart of how development can be practised, might we consider gender transformative approaches and feminist participatory action research as development tools and ways of working to address Anthropogenic impacts?
Paper long abstract:
Feminist theory has long been concerned with the anthropegenic impact of human development on the environment. This paper draws on gender research in northern Vietnam with Thai ethnic minority coffee farmers. We reflect on the use of gender transformative approaches (GTAs) and feminist participatory action research (FPAR) as tools that center gender and women’s experiences both theoretically and practically in rural development; that place women’s relationships at the heart of how development in this age of the Anthropocene can be practised. We offer insights about how gender transformative approaches to rural development actively examine, question, and seek to change unequal gender norms as a means of achieving sectoral (productivity, food security, market access) and gender equality outcomes. GTAs are arguably a feminist response to the techno-normative approaches to development at a time when poverty and inequality continue to increase with the surge in extreme weather events. We also introduce and reflect on using an FPAR conceptual framework for its attempt to blend feminist theories and research with participatory action research. We pose that GTAs and FPAR could very well contribute to an 'Anthropocene Feminism' to highlight the alternatives a feminist lens can offer us for thinking relationally about achieving progress in gender equity.
Yeri Shim (Seoul National University)
Paper short abstract:
Gender mainstreaming is a contested concept with no agreed measures to assess its transformative potential. The paper suggests a field-oriented approach to assessing gender mainstreaming in development highlighting donors’ role in institutionalizing mechanisms to interact with local gender network.
Paper long abstract:
Gender and development has come a long way both as a field of research and practice. One of the best-known examples of knowledge production in the field is gender mainstreaming. Despite its global presence and visibility in policy areas, gender mainstreaming remains a contested concept with lack of agreed measures to assess its transformative potential. Donor countries refer to OECD gender equality policy marker to measure their commitment to support gender equality and women’s empowerment in a partner country in the Global South. However, the marker is based on the initial design of a project from the perspective of Global North. In fact, how gender perspective has been mainstreamed in the field has no weight in the criteria. This paper builds on the gender and development literature that the local context and actors need to be highlighted when assessing the successful implementation of gender mainstreaming. The study suggests a field-oriented approach to assessing gender mainstreaming in development which focuses on donors’ crucial role in institutionalizing mechanisms to interact with local gender network, comprising women’s policy agency, civil society organization and gender consultant. In addition, the substantive effort of donors must be combined with the connectivity among gender experts at the local level for a society-wide impact. The cases reviewed are selected development projects in Vietnam and Cambodia, which are countries with increasing ownership over aid received but not necessarily with a matching ownership over gender agenda at the state level. Methodology includes interviews with government officials, CSOs and gender consultants.