Women and the Environment: Questioned and Unquestioned Assumptions

Abstract

(from the introduction) Stresses the person aspect of the person-in-environment unit of analysis. This chapter addresses the transactions of a particular user groups with the physical world of neighborhoods, communities, and settlements as well as fundamental questions about the nature of these environments, professions, and how they are planned and researched. Motivation for the emergence of the field, its philosophical underpinnings, and methodological arguments are based on criticisms of the value-laden, male-oriented assumptions of "traditional" theory, research, and practice. The chapter identifies the various assumptions (both those identified with traditional approaches and with the alternative approaches proposed) about the topic of women and the environment within the context of the questioned and unquestioned assumptions about science, research and practice from a feminist perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)