Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme
Call for Papers: Women in the Social and Environmental Justice
Winter/Spring 2015
This special issue of Canadian Woman Studies’ (CWS/cf) will focus on the social and environmental crises which threaten the preservation of life on our planet. It requires feminist attention to understand the dynamics of patriarchy and capitalism and to unmask ‘answers’ and ‘false solutions’ that obscure the current situation.
In 1987, the Brundtland Report entangled the international debt crisis and the ecological crisis, and suggested sustainable development as a means to eliminate poverty and to contain environmental disaster. Sustainable development was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p.8). In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) put on governments, states, and the World Bank the responsibility for organizing sustainable development. Agenda 21, the outcome of the Earth Summit, describes sustainable development as a combination of economic growth and environmental management. It opened the way for the direct management of nature and humans under the rubric of resource development and gave responsibility for sustainable development to Environmental Non-governmental Organizations (ENGOs). In 2002, the Johannesburg Earth Summit (Rio + 10) officially deemed mining to be sustainable development under the voluntary jurisdiction of corporations and their shareholders. In 2012, The Rio+20 saw full implementation of corporate capture of the Summit. “Green capitalism” proposed to save capitalism and the planet by pricing on the stock exchange the “services” that nature offers such as the capacity of the forest to absorb CO2.
In this issue, we invite papers that (1) explore the social forces confronting these crises associated with expanding commodification; and (2) analyse ecofeminist ideas and other paradigms (e.g., commoning), along with women’s involvement in solidarity and justice movements that address these crises.
Possible Topics are:
Feminist understandings of the social and ecological crises; the commons (civil and natural); the Earth Summits; United Nations climate talks; sustainable development; financialization of nature; climate change, including carbon credits; the Kyoto Protocol; REDD +; ecotourism; fracking; mining; oil production, tar sand; the meaning of mitigation; the meaning of adaptation; climate justice movements; degrowth; subsistence perspectives. Your ideas for additional topics are welcome.
Invited are articles, research reports, oral histories, alternative forms of narration, poetry, drawings, and other art works that illuminate these issues.
DEADLINE: May 15, 2015
Articles should be typed, double-spaced, and a maximum of 16 pages long (4000 words). A short (50-word) abstract of the article and a brief biographical note must accompany each submission. Please send a hard copy of your manuscript as well as emailing a copy. We give preference to previously unpublished material. If possible, please submit graphics or photographs to accompany your article. Please note CWS/cf reserves the right to edit manuscripts with respect to length and clarity, and in conformity with our house-style. To encourage use of the material published, CWS/cf has granted electronic rights to Gale Group, Micromedia Proquest and the H. W. Wilson. Any royalties received will be used by CWS/cf to assist the publication in disseminating its message.
Write or call as soon as possible indicating your intention to submit your work.
Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme
210 Founders, York University, 4700 Keele St. Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Telephone: (416) 736-5356 Fax: (416) 736-5765 E-mail: cwscf@yorku.ca;
