论文部分内容阅读
Abstract: Eco-feminism ,a new and developing theory, is the third high tide of Feminist movement, which is still regarded as the most wonderfully exotic flower in the theories of Feminism. Eco-feminists emphasize the particular connection between female and nature，proposing the principles of asserting female and paying attention to female while ecological problems are being solved .
Key Words : Eco-Feminism low-carbon development the countryside
Ⅰ. The starting point of the research: recombing of the basical theories of Eco-feminism
Eco-feminism ,as a new and developing theory, is the third high tide of Feminist movement, which has been regarded as the most wonderfully exotic flower in the theories of Feminism. The characteristics of this open theory, on the one hand, make it fill with infinite vigor and vitality, on the other hand, make it fall into the great divergence within the camp itself which would easily lead to difficulties that are not so easy to be understood. Throughout these theories, I hold the opinions that the following three elements should be included in the basic theoretical structures:
First, the starting point and the core of the theory: emphasizing on the particular connection between female and nature.
Eco-feminism makes emphasis on the close connection between female and nature, believing that women are in close relation to nature in the aspects of creating and raising lives. Spretnak said that the earth and the womb are following the rhythmic circulation of the universe.[1] Women give birth to and nurture their children with their own fresh and blood while nature, metabolically, has produced countless rich fruits ,breeding an amazing complex biosphere . The famous eco-feminist, Warren, makes a detailed summary of the relation between female and nature, revealing the non-separation between female and nature.[2]
Second, the origin of the theory affiliated to the middle-level structure: criticizing and opposing to the patriarchal cultural structure from which the thought framework model of binary opposition are derived.
Eco-feminists hold that anthropocentrism is just a variant of male-centrism, which is a typical expression of patriarchal culture. Patriarchal culture is characterized by dividing human beings and nature, males and females into two opposite parts by using the binary thoughts, believing that nature is just a tool used by human beings and advocating that females, fresh, subjective and emotional, are in relation to nature, whereas males , intelligence, objective and rational ,to human beings. Women are always thought to be inferior to men because the value of the latter is thought to be superior to the former ,therefore, men’s dominance on women has the legality just like human beings’ conquest and control on nature. So it is to say that human beings’ control on nature and men’s dominance and oppression of women have the same homologous theory.
Third, female recognition and maintenance of nature affiliated to the surface structure: the principles ,which make females public pay attention to females, are used to solved the issues of environments
The so-called “female principles”, includes sustainability, comprehensiveness, motile creativity, diversity, integrity, the sanctity of life and non-sexism, etc.[4] Eco-feminism puts forward that the male principles of patriarchal society, which are considered grabbing nature, are those such as men’s aggression, expansion ,oppression of women, yet the female principles pay attention to the things such as love, care, protection and nurturance .The essence of ecological crisis, caused by rejection and oppression of women and the robbing and destroying of nature, is the destruction of female principles ,so the principles should be uphold and the earth and women should be respected.[5] The solution to ecological problems must depend on Feminism.[6]
Eco-feminist excavation of those including the oppression of women and robbing of nature which both take root in the shared social culture, no doubt deepens the awareness of environmental protection and the exploring of the issues of environmental ethics. Trying to make Eco-feminism root and bud in Chinese soil, the researchers must link the theory with practice and build up the Eco-feminist theory of our own, but it is rare to use eco-feminism theory to analyze low-carbon development in rural areas in China.
Ⅱ.The forming logic of eco-feminism in the low carbon development in China’s rural areas
Any low-carbon eco-development is not perfectly applied without eco-feminism in China’s rural areas, and any low-carbon development is also a flawed development without the participation of eco-feminism. To be exact, the forming logic of eco-feminism in rural areas are as follows:
1 The feminization of agriculture turns the rural women into the main force in the low-carbon development
With the change of industrial structure in rural areas and the transfer of agricultural labor force to non-agricultural field, most of the male labors flow to the secondary industry, such as industry and construction, while most women still remain in rural areas ,engaging in agriculture. Feminization of agriculture has made the rural women become the main force in the process of the agriculture and the low-carbon development.
2 Rural women are playing the leading role in both the consuming of household and the producing of agriculture .
This leading role has performed that rural women has become both the key decision-makers in the consuming of household and the producing of agriculture and the coordinator in dealing with the relation between consuming and saving. Rural women are both the main body of the rural consumers in the market and the coordinators of consuming and saving.
3 Rural women play the dual roles of both the educators and practitioners in the low—carbon education
Women are the primary caregivers of children, and their awareness of and their active attitudes toward low-carbon development is bound to influence on their children which can reserve forces for the future sustainable development of low-carbon.
4 Rural women are the main victims and direct Stakeholders of environmental degradation .
The women who are participating in the Third World ecological movement are not just the victims, nor passively connected with nature, but in close contact with nature in the struggle of saving lives.[7]Rural women have a stronger dependence on nature and its resources and the degradation of environments directly causes the increase of their burdens of housework and the survival predicament.
Ⅲ.The approach to Eco-feminism in the rural low-carbon
development
1 To enhance awareness of gender-sensitivity, we should make gender statistics to establish the database to meet different needs for males and females in rural low-carbon development.
Collecting information respectively by gender, we can get to know gender differences in their social roles to enhance the effectiveness of low-carbon development, meanwhile we can use the traditional experience and knowledge accumulated from the different roles, responsibilities and activities between males and females in rural areas .
2 Women organizations should be established to promote low carbon development and enhance the reformation of the unequal social structure
The principle of making feminine public maintains that solving ecological problem cannot just depend on the strength of individual woman, but on the organizations of women, which make women grasp their own living rights and become the main body of the development. Enormous strength cannot be shown until the women are organized and combined, through which the living space of equality and the space of development can be created for the rural women and nature, and then reconstruct the relations between human and nature and reestablish a new moral value and new social structure.
3 The training and education of women should be focused on, in order to strengthen and enhance their awareness of rural low carbon development .
Rural women seldom have opportunities to participate in or receive the environmental training or education, which is almost regarded as the thing of men.
The training and education of women must be effective and greatly associated with their daily lives. Protecting the environment from the women’s emotional aspect should be paid more attention to ,which can promote and stimulate women’s enthusiasm to Rudimentary knowledge of low-carbon development should be focused on .
4 To endow rural women the power of rural ecological management and decision-making.
The rural women should be endowed with the power of ecological management and the power of decision-making. To achieve this, policies and systems embodying women’s standpoints should be established at the same time.
“From perspective of politics, if less than 30% of its representatives, it would be difficult for the crowd to make a sound in decision-making of the group.”[8]
To endow rural women with the power of management and decision—making ,there is a successful international experience ,that is ,first of all, to ensure the ratio of female representatives .The participation must run through each section from planning, implementing to evaluation.
Ⅳ The government’s function in eco-feminist low-carbon development in rural areas
Environment-related issues are essentially political, and environment-related decisions are not also politically neutral.[9] More and more people keep ecological crises in touch with the leading role of the government.
1 This kind of leading role lies in the fact that the government should supply the systematic assistance for rural women and rural low-carbon development.
To promote eco-feminism, the government should continue to play its authority role in the environmental protection by establishing and improving a range of systems in order to release the female ecological values and the female potential wisdom in the eco-feminist development.
2 The leading role is to reconstruct gender discourse in rural areas.
The government should channel gender consciousness into the main stream of decision-making and put eco-feminism into practice ,which can prevent and overcome discourse mode and move against the low-carbon development in the rural areas.
3 The leading role lies in that the government looks for new ways and measures to further liberate women and better the environments in the process of eco-feminist low carbon development.
The government does not have motive forces to explore new approaches and new measures until accountability system of ecological and women's development are established to examine and evaluate government’s duties.
V. Conclusion
When we celebrate the great achievements we have had in rural development since the era of Deng Xiaoping , we must remember the fact that this kind of achievement is somewhat at a cost of environments which is in relation to the government’s present environmental policies which ignored gender consciousness as well as gender perspective ,meanwhile the policies neglected the significant gender differences in environment.
Eco-feminism can provide the low-carbon development with a new measurement criteria and spiritual support which can bring the emancipation of women into the plans of the sustainable development and safeguard the real interests of women ,meanwhile it can avoid the limitation of its development.
References
[1]查伦•斯普瑞特耐克.生态女性主义建设性的重大贡献[J].国外社会科学, 1996, (11)
[2] K•J•Warren. Introduction for Eco-feminism [A].M•E•Zimmerman. Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology[C].New Jersey：Prentice Hall, 1993.253-267
[3]Karen Warren. Feminism and Ecology[J].Environmental Ethics.1987,9(1).
[4]林树明.多维视野中的女性主义文学批评[M].北京:中国社会科学出版社, 2004:217(Lin Shuming. Multi-dimensional Feminist Literary Criticism[M].Beijing: Chinese social science press, 2004:217)
[5][美]卡洛琳•麦钱特著.吴国盛等译.自然之死---妇女、生态和科学革命[M].长春:吉林人民出版社,1999.
[6 ]Warren Karen J. Feminism and Ecology[J].Environmental Review ,1987，(1):3-20.
[7]Vandana Shiva. Let us Survive[A].Rosemary Radford Ruether. Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism and Religion[C].New York: Orbis Books,1996.65-73
[8]魏星河等著:当代中国公民有序政治参与研究[M].北京：人民出版社，2007：316
[9]黛安•罗谢瑞、巴巴拉•托马斯•斯来特.胡玉坤编译.社会性别与环境:女性主义政治生态学的视野[J].妇女研究论丛,2000,(4)
Key Words : Eco-Feminism low-carbon development the countryside
Ⅰ. The starting point of the research: recombing of the basical theories of Eco-feminism
Eco-feminism ,as a new and developing theory, is the third high tide of Feminist movement, which has been regarded as the most wonderfully exotic flower in the theories of Feminism. The characteristics of this open theory, on the one hand, make it fill with infinite vigor and vitality, on the other hand, make it fall into the great divergence within the camp itself which would easily lead to difficulties that are not so easy to be understood. Throughout these theories, I hold the opinions that the following three elements should be included in the basic theoretical structures:
First, the starting point and the core of the theory: emphasizing on the particular connection between female and nature.
Eco-feminism makes emphasis on the close connection between female and nature, believing that women are in close relation to nature in the aspects of creating and raising lives. Spretnak said that the earth and the womb are following the rhythmic circulation of the universe.[1] Women give birth to and nurture their children with their own fresh and blood while nature, metabolically, has produced countless rich fruits ,breeding an amazing complex biosphere . The famous eco-feminist, Warren, makes a detailed summary of the relation between female and nature, revealing the non-separation between female and nature.[2]
Second, the origin of the theory affiliated to the middle-level structure: criticizing and opposing to the patriarchal cultural structure from which the thought framework model of binary opposition are derived.
Eco-feminists hold that anthropocentrism is just a variant of male-centrism, which is a typical expression of patriarchal culture. Patriarchal culture is characterized by dividing human beings and nature, males and females into two opposite parts by using the binary thoughts, believing that nature is just a tool used by human beings and advocating that females, fresh, subjective and emotional, are in relation to nature, whereas males , intelligence, objective and rational ,to human beings. Women are always thought to be inferior to men because the value of the latter is thought to be superior to the former ,therefore, men’s dominance on women has the legality just like human beings’ conquest and control on nature. So it is to say that human beings’ control on nature and men’s dominance and oppression of women have the same homologous theory.
Third, female recognition and maintenance of nature affiliated to the surface structure: the principles ,which make females public pay attention to females, are used to solved the issues of environments
The so-called “female principles”, includes sustainability, comprehensiveness, motile creativity, diversity, integrity, the sanctity of life and non-sexism, etc.[4] Eco-feminism puts forward that the male principles of patriarchal society, which are considered grabbing nature, are those such as men’s aggression, expansion ,oppression of women, yet the female principles pay attention to the things such as love, care, protection and nurturance .The essence of ecological crisis, caused by rejection and oppression of women and the robbing and destroying of nature, is the destruction of female principles ,so the principles should be uphold and the earth and women should be respected.[5] The solution to ecological problems must depend on Feminism.[6]
Eco-feminist excavation of those including the oppression of women and robbing of nature which both take root in the shared social culture, no doubt deepens the awareness of environmental protection and the exploring of the issues of environmental ethics. Trying to make Eco-feminism root and bud in Chinese soil, the researchers must link the theory with practice and build up the Eco-feminist theory of our own, but it is rare to use eco-feminism theory to analyze low-carbon development in rural areas in China.
Ⅱ.The forming logic of eco-feminism in the low carbon development in China’s rural areas
Any low-carbon eco-development is not perfectly applied without eco-feminism in China’s rural areas, and any low-carbon development is also a flawed development without the participation of eco-feminism. To be exact, the forming logic of eco-feminism in rural areas are as follows:
1 The feminization of agriculture turns the rural women into the main force in the low-carbon development
With the change of industrial structure in rural areas and the transfer of agricultural labor force to non-agricultural field, most of the male labors flow to the secondary industry, such as industry and construction, while most women still remain in rural areas ,engaging in agriculture. Feminization of agriculture has made the rural women become the main force in the process of the agriculture and the low-carbon development.
2 Rural women are playing the leading role in both the consuming of household and the producing of agriculture .
This leading role has performed that rural women has become both the key decision-makers in the consuming of household and the producing of agriculture and the coordinator in dealing with the relation between consuming and saving. Rural women are both the main body of the rural consumers in the market and the coordinators of consuming and saving.
3 Rural women play the dual roles of both the educators and practitioners in the low—carbon education
Women are the primary caregivers of children, and their awareness of and their active attitudes toward low-carbon development is bound to influence on their children which can reserve forces for the future sustainable development of low-carbon.
4 Rural women are the main victims and direct Stakeholders of environmental degradation .
The women who are participating in the Third World ecological movement are not just the victims, nor passively connected with nature, but in close contact with nature in the struggle of saving lives.[7]Rural women have a stronger dependence on nature and its resources and the degradation of environments directly causes the increase of their burdens of housework and the survival predicament.
Ⅲ.The approach to Eco-feminism in the rural low-carbon
development
1 To enhance awareness of gender-sensitivity, we should make gender statistics to establish the database to meet different needs for males and females in rural low-carbon development.
Collecting information respectively by gender, we can get to know gender differences in their social roles to enhance the effectiveness of low-carbon development, meanwhile we can use the traditional experience and knowledge accumulated from the different roles, responsibilities and activities between males and females in rural areas .
2 Women organizations should be established to promote low carbon development and enhance the reformation of the unequal social structure
The principle of making feminine public maintains that solving ecological problem cannot just depend on the strength of individual woman, but on the organizations of women, which make women grasp their own living rights and become the main body of the development. Enormous strength cannot be shown until the women are organized and combined, through which the living space of equality and the space of development can be created for the rural women and nature, and then reconstruct the relations between human and nature and reestablish a new moral value and new social structure.
3 The training and education of women should be focused on, in order to strengthen and enhance their awareness of rural low carbon development .
Rural women seldom have opportunities to participate in or receive the environmental training or education, which is almost regarded as the thing of men.
The training and education of women must be effective and greatly associated with their daily lives. Protecting the environment from the women’s emotional aspect should be paid more attention to ,which can promote and stimulate women’s enthusiasm to Rudimentary knowledge of low-carbon development should be focused on .
4 To endow rural women the power of rural ecological management and decision-making.
The rural women should be endowed with the power of ecological management and the power of decision-making. To achieve this, policies and systems embodying women’s standpoints should be established at the same time.
“From perspective of politics, if less than 30% of its representatives, it would be difficult for the crowd to make a sound in decision-making of the group.”[8]
To endow rural women with the power of management and decision—making ,there is a successful international experience ,that is ,first of all, to ensure the ratio of female representatives .The participation must run through each section from planning, implementing to evaluation.
Ⅳ The government’s function in eco-feminist low-carbon development in rural areas
Environment-related issues are essentially political, and environment-related decisions are not also politically neutral.[9] More and more people keep ecological crises in touch with the leading role of the government.
1 This kind of leading role lies in the fact that the government should supply the systematic assistance for rural women and rural low-carbon development.
To promote eco-feminism, the government should continue to play its authority role in the environmental protection by establishing and improving a range of systems in order to release the female ecological values and the female potential wisdom in the eco-feminist development.
2 The leading role is to reconstruct gender discourse in rural areas.
The government should channel gender consciousness into the main stream of decision-making and put eco-feminism into practice ,which can prevent and overcome discourse mode and move against the low-carbon development in the rural areas.
3 The leading role lies in that the government looks for new ways and measures to further liberate women and better the environments in the process of eco-feminist low carbon development.
The government does not have motive forces to explore new approaches and new measures until accountability system of ecological and women's development are established to examine and evaluate government’s duties.
V. Conclusion
When we celebrate the great achievements we have had in rural development since the era of Deng Xiaoping , we must remember the fact that this kind of achievement is somewhat at a cost of environments which is in relation to the government’s present environmental policies which ignored gender consciousness as well as gender perspective ,meanwhile the policies neglected the significant gender differences in environment.
Eco-feminism can provide the low-carbon development with a new measurement criteria and spiritual support which can bring the emancipation of women into the plans of the sustainable development and safeguard the real interests of women ,meanwhile it can avoid the limitation of its development.
References
[1]查伦•斯普瑞特耐克.生态女性主义建设性的重大贡献[J].国外社会科学, 1996, (11)
[2] K•J•Warren. Introduction for Eco-feminism [A].M•E•Zimmerman. Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology[C].New Jersey：Prentice Hall, 1993.253-267
[3]Karen Warren. Feminism and Ecology[J].Environmental Ethics.1987,9(1).
[4]林树明.多维视野中的女性主义文学批评[M].北京:中国社会科学出版社, 2004:217(Lin Shuming. Multi-dimensional Feminist Literary Criticism[M].Beijing: Chinese social science press, 2004:217)
[5][美]卡洛琳•麦钱特著.吴国盛等译.自然之死---妇女、生态和科学革命[M].长春:吉林人民出版社,1999.
[6 ]Warren Karen J. Feminism and Ecology[J].Environmental Review ,1987，(1):3-20.
[7]Vandana Shiva. Let us Survive[A].Rosemary Radford Ruether. Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism and Religion[C].New York: Orbis Books,1996.65-73
[8]魏星河等著:当代中国公民有序政治参与研究[M].北京：人民出版社，2007：316
[9]黛安•罗谢瑞、巴巴拉•托马斯•斯来特.胡玉坤编译.社会性别与环境:女性主义政治生态学的视野[J].妇女研究论丛,2000,(4)