Call for papers: Gender, nature and ecology. (Re)thinking the trajectories of ecofeminism from a transnational European perspective

 Call for papers: Gender, nature and ecology. (Re)thinking the trajectories of ecofeminism from a transnational European perspective, for European Journal of Women's Studies

Ecofeminism, which emerged in the mid-1970s and 1980s as a field of transnational thought and activism, seems to have been redeveloped over the last decade in response to the ecological crisis. France has witnessed a kind of ‘ecofeminism boom’ to which the publication of Émilie Hache’s anthology Reclaim, recueil de textes écoféministes (2016) made a prominent contribution. Ecofeminist approaches have also (re)gained attention in Germany (Gottschlich/Hackfort/Schmitt/von Winterfeld 2022; Holland-Cunz 2014), in Belgium (Zitouni, 2019; Grandjean, 2024), in Spain (Mediavilla and Echavarren, 2021; Puelo, 2017), as well as in Southeastern Europe (Đurđević and Marjanić, 2024). This non-exhaustive overview reveals that despite this spread of literature, which has undoubtedly enabled Anglophone traditions to be historicised and discussed, the transnational and micro-regional circuits of the production and reception of European ecofeminism are still relatively undocumented.

This issue is an invitation to rethink ecofeminism from European perspectives and perspectives from ‘Europe Otherwise’ or ‘Europe as a creolized space’ (Boatcă, 2020). We invite submissions that examine the ways in which ecofeminist theory is currently discussed in Europe, and how, in this pluralistic context, the respective traditions of ecofeminist thought, and politics are constituted, re-articulated, criticised and transformed.

We welcome abstracts that address any of the following, or other related questions:

1.

Articulations of the concepts of nature and gender

● What are the theoretical challenges and reformulations of the concept of nature? How do they avoid the naturalisation of social structures while accounting for an adequate understanding of the materiality of the non-human world?

● Does ecofeminism renew existing theoretical debates on the concepts of nature, gender and ecology? Conversely, what are the debates and tensions brought to light by the theoretical categories employed in ecofeminist writings?

● How are colonial dimensions of the ecological disaster reflected in various ecofeminist traditions and what are the remaining open questions and blind spots?

2.

Inter-/transnational trajectories

● Can we observe and investigate interests in ecofeminism in differentiated ways across European contexts?

● In what ways and via which trajectories have local forms of ecofeminism been construed?

● How does the production, circulation and reception of ecofeminism in different contexts shape or transform ecofeminist theorisations? And, on the other hand, how can we understand the absence of ecofeminist circulation in some other contexts?

● How is ecofeminism theorised, conceptualised and discussed in academic fields such as gender studies, philosophy or political science and in various national and linguistic traditions?

3.

Practices and strategies of translation

● Does ecofeminism engage in specific translation practices and strategies? And if so, what do translations do to ecofeminism? Are there selections, absences, misunderstandings (Bourdieu, 2002) or even ‘betrayals’?

● Beyond textual translations, are there any circulations or transfers of debates, theories, concepts between academics, civil society activists and practitioners, and policy makers?

Abstracts should be submitted no later than Monday, 14 April 2025 to: gender.nature.ecology@gmail.com

Authors of the selected abstracts will be notified by Monday, 5 May 2025.

Full articles should be submitted online to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ejw no later than Friday, 31 October 2025.

All articles will be subject to the Journal’s customary peer review process. Articles should be prepared according to the guidelines for submission on the inside back cover of the print journal or at https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/EJW.