Intersectional justice as a guiding principle for feminist ecological economics

Abstract

Ecological economics focuses on provisioning for a good life for all within planetary boundaries. Feminist ecological economists have long highlighted the relevance of unpaid care work, times beyond linear clock time, and social-ecological provisioning towards this same end. In this article, we explore why and how intersectional justice should be a guiding principle for (feminist) ecological economics. Intersectional justice involves recognizing and redressing the discrimination that individuals or groups face due to overlapping social identities, which give rise to structural injustices that undermine the provisioning for a good life for all within planetary boundaries. Through three examples (global care chains, hidden ableist assumptions about ‘work’, and inequitable water access in India) we show that while many areas of feminist ecological economics lend themselves to intersectional analysis, operationalizing intersectional justice as a guiding principle is far from easy in practice. Learning from Black feminisms, disability studies, and feminist standpoint theory, we show how intersectional feminist perspectives can help challenge power structures and institutions that sustain injustices on both epistemic and material levels. This enables the kinds of collaborative action that can bring (feminist) ecological economics into broader acceptance, uniting struggles against various forms of oppression while building economic systems that prioritize the sustainability of life.