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Explores from a sex/gender perspective the theoretical formation of an ecological political economic approach to the relationship between humanity & the wider ecosystem. Materialist ecofeminists view the sex/gender division as central to the environmental destructiveness of economic systems dominated by men. Class exploitation, racism, colonialism, & speciesism are also contributors. Reform for both women's subordination & ecological destruction could be achieved by the following actions: (1) recognition that physically reproducing & caring for one's children is as important as production in the workforce; (2) economically rewarding women's work; (3) refusal to provision unnecessary & destructive forms of economic activity; & (4) the creation of an economic framework to replace destructive economic systems within communities & to stop the exploitation of women, men, other species, & the ecosystem. L. A. Hoffman

Explores from a sex/gender perspective the theoretical formation of an ecological political economic approach to the relationship between humanity & the wider ecosystem. Materialist ecofeminists view the sex/gender division as central to the environmental destructiveness of economic systems dominated by men. Class exploitation, racism, colonialism, & speciesism are also contributors. Reform for both women's subordination & ecological destruction could be achieved by the following actions: (1) recognition that physically reproducing & caring for one's children is as important as production in the workforce; (2) economically rewarding women's work; (3) refusal to provision unnecessary & destructive forms of economic activity; & (4) the creation of an economic framework to replace destructive economic systems within communities & to stop the exploitation of women, men, other species, & the ecosystem. L. A. Hoffman

Response to Cecile Jackson's "Radical Environmental Myths: A Gender Perspective." Critiques her view that certain myths regarding self-determination's & freedom's identification with nature; the superiority of subsistence economies & communal forms of life; & the choice of local, indigenous, & women's knowledge over scientific knowledge ignores the radical potential of historical materialist values of both ecofeminist & environmental approaches. Critiques Jackson's narrow focus on Maria Mies' & Vanda Shiva's Ecofeminismas one reason for some of her mistaken assumptions about ecofeminism & other rights movements. The questions of essentialism & universalism, types of science & reason, & the historical materialist potential of ecofeminist perspectives are examined to illustrate the myth-making qualities of Jackson's own perspectives on scientific rationality, self-determination, autonomy, & transcendence. Adapted from the source document.

The worker cooperative movement in Britain has never been as strong as the consumer cooperative movement and the reasons for the relative success of the one and the relative failure of the other are directly connected. If we look at the development of strong worker cooperative sectors such as in Mondragon, Italy or France, we find that they have had access to untapped cumulative savings, direct allocation of public resources, or some other 'windfall': the labour and savings of the Basque people, preferential treatment by Government or resources already present in failing businesses. In Britain the consumer cooperative movement harnessed the needs and savings of the growing working class. Eventually, of course, it was strongly challenged by the private sector, but for nearly one hundred years it experienced tremendous growth and embraced 12 million people. Even now the consumer movement is holding more than 5% of the food market. There were attempts to form worker cooperatives throughout the nineteenth century but very few experienced long term success. Although nearly a hundred producer cooperatives were formed, less than twenty survived into the second half of the twentieth century and no more emerged to join them. The reasons were complex. Legislation militated against worker cooperatives as the Industrial and Provident Society Act (1852) demanded open membership for share-holding members but did not allow those shares to profit as they would in a traditional company. As Sidney and Beatrice Web b pointed out, this meant that producer cooperatives tended to degenerate into private businesses as outside and inside share-holders sought to gain access to the accumulated surplus of the company. A second major factor was the decision of the consumer movement to set up its own productive units rather than self-managing independent cooperatives. There was considerable debate over this issue, but the view prevailed that any profits the productive units made should accrue to the consumer societies and not the productive units themselves. It also seems that there was no broad grass roots impetus to form worker cooperatives in the nineteenth century and many of the producer cooperatives formed were 'top down' - set up by weII meaning people such as Christian SociaIists. ; peer-reviewed

A review essay on books by: Rosi Braidotti, Ewa Charkiewicz, Sabine Hausler, & Saskia Wieringa, Women, the Environment and Sustainable Development (London: Zed Press, 1994); Maria Mies & Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism (London: Zed Books, 1993); Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (London: Routledge, 1993); Joni Seager, Earth Follies: Feminism, Politics and the Environment (London: Earthscan, 1993); & Vandana Shiva (Ed), Close to Home: Women Reconnect Ecology, Health and Development Worldwide (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1994 [see listings in IRPS No. 79]). Reflections on ecofeminism are offered in the course of reviewing these books, which share as a starting point the critique of Western culture. Seager examines the institutions of Western domination -- business, government, the military -- while critically exploring the role of the ecological establishment in the West's environmental problems. Seager's book offers excellent analyses of green consumerism & the intrusion of Western capitalist patriarchy into the green movements & green issues. Plumwood offers a critique of Western traditions of thought, arguing that platonic & Cartesian forms of dualism have been the key mechanism of Western patriarchal domination. Mies & Shiva offer a critique of maldevelopment & colonization, examine the politics of consumption, & address criticisms of Western science & technology; other issues covered include the importance of women's grass-roots struggles & women as guardians of biodiversity. Shiva examines the interconnections among women, health, & the environment over a range of topics, including the ecological & political consequences of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka & ecological economics. Braidotti et al offer a useful & well-theorized overview of the gender & development debate. W. Howard