Women in Movement & Feminisms: Critical Materialisms & Environmentalisms

Abstract

As an example of a global model of devastating accumulation, the Americas present extreme situations that challenge a variety of feminisms flourishing there to rethink the very feasibility of nature, matter and life itself. Governments throughout the region on the left and right have opted for an extractive development model based on the over-exploitation of communities and the environment (Arsel, 2013; Marston, 2020; Schilling-Vacaflor, 2017). Processes of migration (or expulsion) linked to poverty and violence have been exacerbated by the effects of climate change and environmental destruction. Furthermore, the limited efforts towards democratization and consolidation of redistributive policies is aggravated by the growing expansion of religious fundamentalisms with an anti-gender agenda, representing an extreme form of cultural expression in line with a hegemonic neoliberal development model (Biroli, 2020). In light of this onslaught on life itself, whose effects reverberate unequally and harm the most vulnerable populations, both established and emerging anti-capitalist feminist struggles are striking out in new directions to rethink core elements of emancipatory politics in the region under the current configurations of global entangled inequalities (Jelin et al., 2017).