Gender as contradiction: From dichotomies to diversity in natural resource extraction

The main goal of this special issue is to offer a room for interdisciplinary and engaged research in global environmental change (GEC), where gender plays a key role in building resilience and adaptation pathways. In this editorial paper, we explain the background setting, key questions and core approaches of gender and feminist research in vulnerability, resilience and adaptation to GEC. Highlighting the interlinkages between gender and GEC, we introduce the main contributions of the collection of 11 papers in this special issue. Nine empirical papers from around the globe allow to understand how gendered diversity in knowledge, institutions and everyday practices matters in producing barriers and options for achieving resilience and adaptive capacity in societies. Additionally, two papers contribute to the theoretical debate through a systematic review and an insight on the relevance of intersectional framings within GEC research and development programming.

Section: Major Themes and Paper Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender perspectives in resilience, vulnerability and adaptation to global environmental change

Ravera

Iniesta-Arandia

Martín‐López

et al. 2016

“…Further, some papers in the special issue do not only look for material aspects of gender but also extend it to its discursive dimensions (Wilmer and Fernández-Giménez 2016), taking into account that gender is not just an empirical category or identity but it also is a discursive, social construction that organizes the world (MacGregor 2010). By using the framework suggested by O’Shaughnessy and Krogman’s (2011), Wilmer and Fernández-Giménez (2016) open room for material and discursive analysis of gendered practices by exposing the contradictions between discourse in ranching culture and women’s material practices.…”

Section: Empirical Insightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A synthesis of convergent reflections, tensions and silences in linking gender and global environmental change research

Iniesta-Arandia

Ravera

Buechler

et al. 2016

This synthesis article joins the authors of the special issue “Gender perspectives in resilience, vulnerability and adaptation to global environmental change” in a common reflective dialogue about the main contributions of their papers. In sum, here we reflect on links between gender and feminist approaches to research in adaptation and resilience in global environmental change (GEC). The main theoretical contributions of this special issue are threefold: emphasizing the relevance of power relations in feminist political ecology, bringing the livelihood and intersectionality approaches into GEC, and linking resilience theories and critical feminist research. Empirical insights on key debates in GEC studies are also highlighted from the nine cases analysed, from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Further, the special issue also contributes to broaden the gender approach in adaptation to GEC by incorporating research sites in the Global North alongside sites from the Global South. This paper examines and compares the main approaches adopted (e.g. qualitative or mixed methods) and the methodological challenges that derive from intersectional perspectives. Finally, key messages for policy agendas and further research are drawn from the common reflection.

“…A dynamic, complex, and social performance that intersects with other experiences, gender distinguishes men and women into social categories but does not dictate group membership (Young 1994; McCall 2005; O’Shaughnessy and Krogman 2011). Gender is an under-examined, complex, and deeply personal experience with implications for broader social power asymmetries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To explore resilience as an embodied practice, we adopt the concept of cultural resilience developed by Crane (2010). To identify examples of gendered cultural resilience, we use O’Shaughnessy and Krogman’s (2011) analytical framework, which identifies contradictions in women’s lived experiences of change in natural resource-based communities. We also use a narrative analysis methodology rooted in feminist theory (Squire 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Under this view, gender includes practices related to social structures, conditions, and relationships that shape daily life and the physical environment (material practices), and practices that shape the production and reproduction of ideologies, stereotypes, and cultural norms (discursive practices) (O’Shaughnessy and Krogman 2011). This emphasis on contradictions stems from a shift in gender research toward analyzing gendered practices that reveal the everyday meaning of women’s lives and avoid universalizing women’s experiences (McCall 2005; O’Shaughnessy and Krogman 2011). The authors note that material-discursive contradictions help scholars examine the relationship between practices and conditions as they relate to beliefs at the community level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Some years you live like a coyote: Gendered practices of cultural resilience in working rangeland landscapes

Wilmer

Fernández‐Giménez

2016

Rangeland researchers are increasingly interested in understanding working rangelands as integrated social–ecological systems and in investigating the contexts of human decision-making processes that support system resilience. U.S. public lands ranchers are key partners in rangeland conservation, but the role of women in building system resilience has not yet been explored. We conducted life-history interviews with 19 ranching women in the Southwestern United States. We analyzed the resulting transcripts by identifying contradictions between women’s material practices and traditional discourses in the ranching livelihood that illustrated women’s efforts to maintain both a way of life and a living during social and ecological change. These gendered practices of cultural resilience included self-sacrifice during difficult financial times, engagement with non-rancher networks, and efforts to transfer cultural and technical knowledge. We argue that the key part ranchers play in rangeland conservation cannot be fully understood without a consideration of gendered practices of cultural resilience.