REFLECTIONS ON THE ECOFEMINIST
DESIRE FOR NATURE
During the past several decades, strands of ecological theory have emerged
reflecting diverse expressions of the desire for ecological integrity. By tracing
the development of specific ecological discussions within a wider ecology
movement, we may gain an appreciation for the challenges and possibilities
that arise as particular groups begin to explore the connections between social
and ecological justice.
As noted in the previous chapter, the desire for ecological integrity can
be marked by moments of individualism, abstraction, and romanticism that can
be traced back to ecology’s European origins. Yet as this chapter illustrates,
ecological activists may also express this desire in more social and political
terms, linking problems of ecological degradation to questions of hierarchy and
oppression within society. In such cases, the “desire for nature”—or the desire
for a quality of everyday life that is healthful, meaningful, and ecological—is
framed as a need to overcome social as well as ecological injustice.
Using ecofeminism as a case study, this chapter examines the process by
which different groups approach ecological issues from a more social, rather
than individualistic or romantic perspective, recasting questions of nature in
terms that reflect their own identities and situations. It is through exploring the
connections between ecology and social justice that ecofeminists ground their
desire for ecological integrity in concrete social and ecological realities of
everyday life. In so doing, ecofeminism is largely able to articulate a social
desire for nature, transcending many of the limitations that mark the wider
radical ecology movement as a whole.
Yet the history of ecofeminism has not been without hurdles. Emerging
from a variety of different ecological and feminist tendencies, ecofeminists have