Ecological Politics [Paperback]

Greta Gaard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 1998

In the 1980s, ecofeminism and the U.S. Green movement seemed to offer some of this country's most powerful and promising solutions to problems of social and environmental justice. A decade later, ecofeminism has become more a perspective than a movement, and divisions within the Greens have deepened as its national focus has shifted from issue-based politics to party building. Why have these movements faltered? A member of both movements, Greta Gaard bases her analysis on her personal experience as well as extensive secondary sources and interviews with key theorists, activists, and speakers across the United States. By allowing each movement's members to speak for themselves, she traces the separate origins and development of each movement, explains their connections, and reveals the light that each can cast upon the other and on the difficulties facing social action in general. Beginning with the ecofeminists, Gaard describes the paths environmental causes, the feminist peace movement, the feminist spirituality movement, the animal liberation movement, and the anti-toxics movement, as well as experiences of interconnectedness that have led women (and a few men) to articulate an ecofeminist perspective. Tracing the movement from the 1980s to the present, she defines its present strands as liberal ecofeminism, radical ecofeminism, socialist ecofeminism, and social ecofeminism. Gaard illustrates the development of the U.S. Greens from a national movement into a political party. She defines the various factions the Left Greens, the Youth Greens, and the Green Politics Network that influenced the movement's direction and underlay the debates during Ralph Nader's 1996 presidential campaign. She shows how the history of these three groups can be seen as stages in the transition from a leftist and sometimes anarchist focus to an emphasis on electoral political action that places the Green movement squarely within the pattern of other social movements around the world. Despite the significant influence that ecofeminists have had in shaping the Greens as a national movement, many have chosen to withdraw from the Greens. Gaard looks at the reasons for member disaffection and draws disturbing conclusions about the compatibility between liberal feminism, cultural ecofeminism, and patriarchal politics. She also presents the divisions within the Greens as ongoing battles within the new left, the radical ecology movement, and various social justice movements. She focuses on three general areas conflicts over philosophy, conflicts over representation, and conflicts over strategy to make suggestions for how to bring about the kind of social transformation envisioned by both the Greens and the ecofeminists. Arguing that the Concord Principles represent a populist form of liberal democracy that fundamentally betrays both ecofeminism and Green philosophy, she uses the 1996 Nader campaign as a departure point for developing an ecofeminist theory of radical democracy and to speculate on future directions for Green politics and for ecofeminism. Her analysis illuminates the nature and direction of each of these important movements and the pressures and conflicts experienced by all social movements at the end of the twentieth century. Author note: Greta Gaard is Associate Professor of Humanities, Fairhaven College at Western Washington University. She is the editor of "Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature" (Temple).

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

An illuminating account of two interconnected social movements from their grassroots origins in the 1970s to the 1996 Green presidential campaign --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

In the 1980s, ecofeminism and the U.S. Green movement seemed to offer some of this country's most powerful and promising solutions to problems of social and environmental justice. A decade later, ecofeminism has become more a perspective than a movement, and divisions within the Greens have deepened as its national focus has shifted from issue-based politics to party building. Why have these movements faltered?

A member of both movements, Greta Gaard bases her analysis on her personal experience as well as extensive secondary sources and interviews with key theorists, activists, and speakers across the United States. By allowing each movement's members to speak for themselves, she traces the separate origins and development of each movement, explains their connections, and reveals the light that each can cast upon the other and on the difficulties facing social action in general.

Beginning with the ecofeminists, Gaard describes the paths—environmental causes, the feminist peace movement, the feminist spirituality movement, the animal liberation movement, and the anti-toxics movement, as well as experiences of interconnectedness—that have led women (and a few men) to articulate an ecofeminist perspective. Tracing the movement from the 1980s to the present, she defines its present strands as liberal ecofeminism, radical ecofeminism, socialist ecofeminism, and social ecofeminism.

Gaard illustrates the development of the U.S. Greens from a national movement into a political party. She defines the various factions—the Left Greens, the Youth Greens, and the Green Politics Network—that influenced the movement's direction and underlay the debates during Ralph Nader's 1996 presidential campaign. She shows how the history of these three groups can be seen as stages in the transition from a leftist and sometimes anarchist focus to an emphasis on electoral political action that places the Green movement squarely within the pattern of other social movements around the world.

Despite the significant influence that ecofeminists have had in shaping the Greens as a national movement, many have chosen to withdraw from the Greens. Gaard looks at the reasons for member disaffection and draws disturbing conclusions about the compatibility between liberal feminism and cultural ecofeminism and patriarchal politics. She also presents the divisions within the Greens as ongoing battles within the new left, the radical ecology movement, and various social justice movements. She focuses on three general areas—conflicts over philosophy, conflicts over representation, and conflicts over strategy—to make suggestions for how to bring about the kind of social transformation envisioned by both the Greens and the ecofeminists. Arguing that the Concord Principles represent a populist form of liberal democracy that fundamentally betrays both ecofeminism and Green philosophy, she uses the 1996 Nader campaign as a departure point for developing an ecofeminist theory of radical democracy and to speculate on future directions for Green politics and for ecofeminism. Her analysis illuminates the nature and direction of each of these important movements and the pressures and conflicts experienced by all social movements at the end of the twentieth century. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 337 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (June 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566395704
• ISBN-13: 978-1566395700
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,726,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greta Gaard has written a tremendously helpful book., December 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ecological Politics (Paperback)

Greta Gaard has written a tremendously helpful book that examines the development of Green politics in the U.S. from the first murmurs of ecofeminism and of animal rights, and the joining of radical ecologists and anti-nuke activists into a Committee of Correspondence in the 1980ís, to the conclusion of the Nader for President campaign and the subsequent split in 1996. She brings a particular perspective to these struggles, which could be called a a cooperative social ecofeminism, with a grounding in animal rights. She is unequivocally anti-capitalist, and not simply a populist asking for corporate account-ability and other reforms within the capitalist system. As critical as she is of the Left Greens, in the larger picture she is certainly an ally of the left. Of that larger picture, it reminds her of the allegory of the six blind folks who grasp different parts of an elephantís body and tell each other of the totality they are witnessing first-hand. As a theorist, Gaard skillfully weaves a Social Ecofemninist interpretation into a demonstrably fair history of the main currents within the Greens. And she illuminates some of the smaller eddies and whirlpools that have, unfortunately, been spun off in the rush toward the mainstream. Walt Sheasby

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important book for understanding the Greens movement, December 4, 1998

By 

Marjorie Cramer, MD, FACS (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens (Hardcover)

Book Review: Ecological Politics, Ecofeminists and the Greens, by Greta Gaard, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1998 Ecofeminists are often marginalized by the patriarchal Greens and Animal Liberation movements. I read Greta Gaard's new book in the hope that it would help me understand the dynamics of the Greens movement so that I might extrapolate this information to perceived problems within the Animal Liberation movement. Professor Gaard details the ideological complexities of the Greens and Ecofeminist movements, and their interactions, with detail and clarity and from every angle. This informative and thought-provoking new book details the authors' involvement in the Greens movement and political party. It chronicles in detail the philosophical differences within the Greens movement and within Ecofeminism, the effect that these differences have had on the course of the Greens movement to date, and demonstrates how the Nader, 1996 presidential campaign betrayed both Greens and Ecofeminist Philosophy.

Professor Gaard begins with a graphic representation and description of the sources of Ecofeminism, which she points out is fundamentally a feminist theory with deep connections to the environmental and peace movements, but including feminist spirituality, animal liberation, environmental, anti-toxics, radical feminist, womanist, socialist ecofeminist, social ecofeminist and activist ecofeminist activism. She describes the growth of the Ecofeminist and Greens movements, and their parallel development, in detail. Information presented in one chapter is reworked and presented from a different perspective in another to give clarity to this enormously complex subject. There are complete appendices giving the chronology of developments within Ecofeminism and the Greens and a substantial, relevant bibliography.

Sexism had been recognized as a major problem in the German Greens party, and Ecofeminists predicted that the success of the U. S. Greens movement would depend on an ability to recognize and uproot patriarchy. This was an especially important point since, from the start, all branches of the U. S. Greens movement have been predominantly white, male, heterosexual and middle class. The movement has been marked by struggles over Feminist and Ecofeminist issues, and separate women's caucuses have been formed. Women also had to struggle with masculinist styles of work, debate and leadership, and it soon became apparent that the endless debates about the representation of various constituencies were being fought over contentiously by the men in the movement, while the women focused on cooperation and building.

Animal Liberation concerns within the Greens have met with little success, and by 1990 it had become apparent that the Greens movement was not a suitable place for an Animal Liberation activist, and indeed many had already left. Many Greens activists are unable to confront their own speciesism and, for many, it is perfectly possible to discuss non-violence while eating animal flesh. Professor Gaard points out that Ecofeminism is the only radical environmental theory to adequately address issues of animal liberation.

With the decision among the Greens to form a political party and run a Presidential candidate, there was a shift in focus away from grass roots that was accompanied by a corresponding decrease in importance of the Ecofeminist presence within the movement. The scope of electoral campaigns and the practices of electoral politics in general are such that the focus is on quickly obtainable, visible, vote-getting changes, rather than the kind of long-range, radical change envisioned by the Greens. The Green's original vision of grass roots democracy, decentralization and post-patriarchal values was betrayed by the ill-advised Nader campaign. Nader was not a Green and never intended to run on a Green platform. Ignoring gay and other rights and not addressing the concerns of workers, his philosophy tended toward "one liberation fits all." This philosophy served the needs of the dominant group, subordinating the interests of marginalized groups. As the Greens made a transition from grassroots movement to political party, Ecofemism began to be seen as a subsidiary to the Greens movement rather that a philosophy and movement valuable in its' own right.

Given the amount of energy that women in the Animal Liberation movement often find themselves spending on battles over whether feminist of Ecofeminist issues are "really animal issues," this book is very relevant. A strong network of Ecofeminist women is needed in this movement also, as a source of strength, nurturance, and empowerment. Those working for radical change would do well to read the histories of other movements and learn from them. The author points out that both Greens and Ecofeminists need to form alliances with other progressive movements such as the Social Justice, Anti-toxics, Labor and Queer movements, in order to build a progressive movement through an inclusive network alliance of diverse groups based on solidarity rather than unity. She concludes that: "A radically democratic movement for social and ecological justice will be larger than ecofeminism and larger than the Greens." She also concludes that, as long as women continue to be oppressed in a patriarchal society, they will be oppressed in a progressive movement also. I would add: "Amen" to that. Ecofeminists working within a mixed gender organization can be overruled or ignored, so that an autonomous Ecofeminist movement is necessary.

In the space allotted, it is not possible to do justice to this important book, which is extremely detailed. I would recommend that every Ecofeminist and everyone working working in the Animal Liberation movement read it carefully and learn from it.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings on Gaard's opus against the Green Party, March 19, 2000

By 

Charles Douglas (Arcata, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ecological Politics (Paperback)

I read this book in hope of some illumination of the history and direction of the Green Party. And I did receive quite a detailed history of the contentious period for the party in the early 90's. Gaard is the only author I know of who has given some specific information on the development of Green Youth organizing in America, something I am particularly pleased with. Gaard's exploration of the ecofeminist Green perspective was also refreshing.

However, Gaard's clear and unending bias against the electoral expression of the Green movement, namely the Green Party, limits her ability to give credible counsel to the direction of the Party. The direction Greens have gone in clearly has not been pleasing to Gaard, but the fact that Ralph Nader will again be a Green national candidate is pretty clear. I hope that she decides to get her hands 'dirty' and join us in the trenches to fight for a democratic & feminist Green Party and for a Greener government.

Charles Douglas Arcata, CA Coordinator, Campus Greens of Humboldt State University Member, Coordinating Committee, Green Party of California