Another attempt to explain the natural environment from a feminist perspective

Abstract

The anthology “Geschlechterverhältnisse – Naturverhältnisse” addresses the innovative contributions of the feminist debate for approaches in the sociology of the environment and searches for common areas and boundaries between “gender” and “nature”. A commendable attempt is made to establish a link between gender conditions and natural conditions, as well as “introduce the long neglected feminist discussion and gender studies into the sociology of environment and to establish as a gender perspective” (p.9) within this area of studies. The book consists of four chapters with the contributions of fifteen authors. They discuss the so far ignored phenomena and perspectives of problems (various aspects of nature, environment, gender, culture) in a multi -facet, theoretically demanding and mostly creative fashion. The authors approach these phenomena from a sociological, cultural, political or natural science perspective. The editors explicitly formulate the goal to move from a multi-disciplinary to an interdisciplinary approach, but it comes only close to this in some instances (especially in the introduction and the contributions in the first chapter). The debate over terminology, theories, and the latest research approaches (by Foucault, on Butler and Donna Haraway) points to/ manifests the need of “immanent deconstruction” of natural science assumptions. Especially conclusive are in this regard the contributions of Irmgard Schultz, Elvira Scheich, Mary Mellor and Paula-Irene Villa in particular who offers interesting and creative thoughts and clarifications on the relationships of nature, culture and sex. Those readers who are looking for an overview over the feminist environmental research, will be disappointed. Obviously, the search for an adequate concept of gender and natural conditions and the integration of gender as a central analytical category has to be continued and will be a long-winded process. On this road, one hopes for a fast circulation of this anthology and a deep theoretical response/resonance not only amongst environmental sociologists.